Grouping Lower Ranked Slices in Pie Chart

I have written a blog on the same topic a while ago, based on creating sets. The sets approach is good when no filter is in action. The approach described here can be more general.

This is a companion post to Grouping Lower Ranked Bars in Bar Chart. We will use most of the same calculated fields.

Step 1. Create an integer parameter [Top N].

Step 2. Drag [Country / Region] to Details shelf and sort it by Sum(Sales) in descending order.

Step 3. Create a [Top N+1 Rows] filter:

Index()<=[Top N] +1

Drag it to Filters and set it to Compute using> [Country / Region]. Select True at pop up.

Step 4. Select mark type to be Pie chart.

Step 5. Create [Top Countries & Others]. This will alias the country at the (N+1)th position to be "Others". Drag it to Color shelf and Label/Text shelf and set it to Compute using> [Country / Region].

If Index()=[Top N] +1
Then "Others"
Else Attr([Country / Region])
End

Step 6. Create [Top Sales & Others]. At the (N+1)th position, the value is altered to be an aggregated result. Drag it to Angle and set it to Compute using> [Country / Region].

If Index()=[Top N] +1
Then Window_Sum(Sum(Sales),0,Last())
Else Sum(Sales)
End

Note that in the above formula, the If statement sets the index=0 for the window function which has its own index. The settings here instructs the window function to compute from (N+1)th row to the last row.

That's it! The workbook can be found here.

Top N & Grouping Others Series

Grouping Lower Ranked Bars in Bar Chart

Grouping Lower Ranked Slices in Pie Chart

Grouping Lower % Bars in Bar Chart

Grouping Lower % Slices in Pie Chart

Dynamic Pie Chart: Top N, Sorting Slices and Grouping Others

(Refresh the page if you want to view the gif image multiple times. Or go to Tableau Public and click the button at the top-right corner.)

Jake and I collaborated on a dashboard. He told me that he learnt a way to create an in-place help page in Tableau. He first saw it at a conference somewhere and couldn't recall who the speaker was. So I am blogging here about it but the credit goes to somebody else. If anyone knows who the original creator is, leave a comment below.

The key idea is to float a semi transparent worksheet on top of the dashboard, where a help text box is strategically placed on top of each chart. This way, we can explain how to view each chart and what data points are important, etc. This worksheet is collapsible by a show/hide button.

Below I would like to show how this worksheet can be constructed.

1. Sheet with a single data mark.

Double click the empty space in Marks panel and add two single quotes. Make the null pill a text label. This creates a single null mark.
Set the view as "Entire View"

2. Create an show/hide button

Go to the target dashboard
Drag a floating vertical container to the dashboard, making it cover all the area of interest.
Drag the Single Null Mark sheet and drop it into the above container. Hide the sheet title.
Create an open/close button for the container and place the button at the top-right corner.

3. Add annotations

Format the sheet background opacity as 70% in the layout manager
Select area annotations and place them anywhere of interest.
Write help text and format it to highlight important messages.
The text can serve as functional guide and/or insight guide.

Here is an example. Feel free to download the workbook and explore. Click the "i" button at the top-right corner to view the in-place help.

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Vizible Difference

In search of data visualization excellence

1. Sheet with a single data mark.

2. Create an show/hide button

3. Add annotations

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