Vizible Difference

Histogram can be created in many ways. The de facto histogram is built with bars. With Index() we can create one a bit more colorful. Click image below to see an interactive version or download the workbook. Will describe how to create this next.

This one is created in Gantt chart, overlaid with boxplot and colored by [Profit]. It is regarding the customer distribution sliced by the number of orders, based on the superstore data set.

The important steps to create the chart are:

1.Create a calc field [CountD of Order] and move it to Columns. Turn it to continuous.

2.Drag [Customer ID] to Detail shelf.

3.Create Index=index() and move it to Rows. Set it to compute use [Customer ID].

4.Select Gantt chart in Marks.

5.Drag [Profit] to Color shelf.

Both Histogram and Box-n-Whisker Plot are popular tools to describe the distribution of data in different ways. They provide different insights into the distribution. It's quite interesting to overlay one with another.

Today, we will show how to put them together in one chart.

The above is an example using the superstore data set. The histogram is about the distribution of the number of products per the number of units sold. Then sliced by subcategories.

I have written a few blogs recently on the subject of data scaffolding. Let me make a summary of them.

Data scaffolding is a technique to artificially create a data structure for the purpose of visualization. It will either reshape the original data or blend multiple data sources in such a way for better visualization.

The technique is pioneered by Tableau Zen Master Joe Mako.

The general methodology is as follows

1.Create a table of pure dimensions to act as the primary data source.

So far, we have talked about data blending via scaffolding: 1,2,3. Blending involves 2 or more data sources.

Data reshaping is about a single data source. By scaffolding, we can alter or transform the data structure in order to create visualizations that was not straightforward using the original data set.

Again, Zen Master Joe Mako has lectured about scaffolding in an hour long video focusing on data reshaping or dealing with a single data source. He has included 4 examples.