Tableau Desktop Cookbook

Chapter 3. Bar Charts

A bar chart is one of the most commonly used chart types. It allows the human eye to compare differences between length or height, which is one of the preattentive attributes. A bar chart is split by categorical data and shows a continuous measure. There are two types of basic bar charts: horizontal and vertical. Bar charts have other variations, including stacked bar charts, diverging bar charts, and histograms.

3.1 Horizontal Bar Chart

Problem

You need to create a horizontal bar chart that shows, from highest to lowest, the continuous measure of Sum of Sales broken down by the categorical dimension of Sub-Category.

Solution

You have three options for this solution. Here is option 1:

1. Create a new sheet.

2. 

   Using the Superstore sales data, double-click Sub-Category:

3. Drag the Sales measure to the Columns shelf:

   

4. Hover over the axis to display a sorting bar icon. Click the sorting icon to create a descending bar chart:

   

Here is option 2:

1. Create a new sheet.

2. Double-click Sales (1).

3. Double-click Sub-Category (2). This creates a vertical bar chart:

4. To convert this to a horizontal bar chart, click the “Swap Rows and Columns” button (1) in the toolbar. ...