There are always more than one ways to skin a cat. In Tableau, there is always one more way to design the same chart. Mastering them will give us more options to satisfy the various requirements we may be asked for.

Line chart is one of the most basic ones. Yet we can draw them in more ways than we care of. But there are many intricacies that are interesting to master.

In graphical design, every tiny bit of space counts because the canvas may be limited or because of alignment with other parts of the dashboard. In this post, we are going to show how to design line charts with minimum axis offset.

Axis Offset with Date in Columns Shelf

This is the default way of creating a line chart. One can notice that there exists always a horizontal offset at the first data mark from the vertical axis. With continuous date, the offset is big. With discrete date, there is half a tick offset. We have no way to edit the offset. 

Note that we dual axis'ed the line chart with an area chart to emphasize both the trend and the volume.

Note that with discrete date, we need to turn on "Show missing values" to create the correct line chart.

Axis Offset with INDEX() in Columns Shelf

To have more control over the axis offset, we can place continuous  INDEX() in the Columns shelf and the date dimension in the Detail shelf. Set INDEX() to compute along the date dimension.

An important caveat is we need to first set up the date dimension on Rows/Columns and turn on "Show missing values". Then drag it to the Detail shelf. This guarantees correct indexing even though we don't have contiguous data.

Edit the axis to be fixed start at 1, and end with automatic.

Now we have the line start at the vertical axis. The offset is 0 which is the least.
We can still have INDEX() in discrete. The offset is the same as the chart with discrete date in Columns.

Line Chart Multiples with INDEX()

We may need to create line chart multiples when splitting a line chart per category (State in the following example). We still like to create them with continuous INDEX() in the Columns shelf so that we have zero axis offset. Then we need to set up the date dimension with "Show missing values" in the Columns shelf before moving it to the Detail shelf.

A very important addition here is to place an INDEX() in the Detail shelf. Then set up its table calculations along the date dimension first and State second (Respect the order pls). 

The 2-dimensional INDEX() is part of the data densification technique. We may not have all the data points at all dates and all states. This INDEX() in the Detail shelf will create a 2-d grid by Date and State. This will guarantee that each line chart per state will be indexed correctly by INDEX() in the Columns shelf. 

After the splitting by state, it is more likely that each line will miss some data at some dates.

Without the two dimensional INDEX(), the line chart multiples will look like this. All lines will start at INDEX()=1. This is not correct.

Summary

In case a viz design requires that the line chart start with zero axis offset, we showed above that we can do it with Continuous Index in the Columns shelf. And in case we need to create line chart multiples with zero axis offset, we can add a two-dimensional INDEX() to achieve it.

The demo workbook can be downloaded from here.


0

Add a comment

Creating In-Place Help Page for Tableau Dashboards
Accommodating Variable Height in a Text Table in Tableau
A 30-Day Learning Plan for Mastering Tableau
A 30-Day Learning Plan for Mastering Tableau
Embedding Mundane Charts with Pareto Insights
Creating Pareto Chart Multiples in Tableau
A Preview of Sankey Chart Type in Tableau 2024
AI's Perception of People Looks in USA
1
AI's Perception of Top US Banks as a Dog
Multi-Level Sankey with the New Sankey Chart Type in Tableau
A First Look into the New Sankey Chart Type in Tableau
Visualizing Cross-Tab Tables with Column Sort
1
A Couple of Mismatches in Tableau's Map
Converting Date to Fiscal Calendar Date in Excel
Converting Date to Fiscal Calendar Date in Tableau
Resolving Simpson's Paradox: The Whole vs The Parts
#TweakThursday: Horizontal vs Vertical Bars
Recreating Datasaurus Dozen in Tableau
Rendering Anscombe's Quartet in Tableau
How to install database drivers for Tableau in Mac
Drawing Line Charts without Axis Offset in Tableau
Charting "Top N and Others" via Table Calculations in Tableau
Calculating YoY of Quarterly and Yearly Sums in Tableau
Imagining Tableau Social
Imagining Tableau Social
Imagining an Enhanced Formula Editor for Tableau
Imagining an Enhanced Formula Editor for Tableau
Filtering Partial Date Period in Tableau
How to Send Email from Tableau with a Template
How to Make Phone Calls from Tableau via Cisco Jabber
Labeling Trellis Chart via Stacked/Shared Axis
Sizing a Trellis Chart in Tableau
Placing Multiple Labels in Trellis Chart
Creating Compact View of a Sparse Table in Tableau
Labeling Trellis Chart Anywhere in Tableau
3
Labeling Trellis Chart in Tableau
1
Computing Spearman's Rank Correlation in Tableau
Computing Cumulative Grand Total in Tableau
Filling Down in Tableau
Pre-Filters, Post-Filters and the Order of Operations in SQL
2
Charting Project Flow via Multiple Data Densifications
Calculating Period-To-Date/PoP with Indicators for Better Performance
Counting Consecutive Occurrences in Tableau
1
Creating Bridge Chart with ARR vs AOP
Calculating the Difference Between Any Two Points in Tableau
Drilling Down with Containers
Creating Sunburst Chart via Map Layers in Tableau
Simple Calculations for YTD/YoY, QTD/QoQ, MTD/MoM and WTD/WoW in Tableau
9
One Button Sheet Swap in Tableau
One Button Sheet Swap in Tableau
2
Coloring the Area between Two Lines in Tableau
Sorting 100% Stacked Bars by Percentage
Creating Kanban Board in Tableau
4
Multiple Bars and Lines in Layers
Referencing Another Data Source without Relationship in Tableau
2
Dynamic Date Granularity and Show Missing Grains
4
Creating Global Variables in Tableau
Creating Sankey Funnel Chart via Template
59
Creating a Simple Toggle Button in Tableau
Monitoring Data Source Delay in Business Dashboard
Analysis of Tableau's Multi-Variable Clustering Algorithm
Iris Classification via Clustering in Tableau
Always Showing Empty Columns in Tableau
Creating Date Range Filter with Dynamic End Date = Max Date
5
Visualizing Crosstab and Grand Totals
Getting the Last Date/Value/Variance in Tableau
A Template for 3-Stage Sankey Chart in Tableau
26
Deselecting Button on a Different Sheet
Deselecting/De-dimming Buttons in Action-Driven Sheet Swap
3
Game of Life in Tableau
Enhancing Text Tables with Visual Background
1
20 Calculation Use Cases: LOD vs Non-LOD
Nested Sorting and Hierarchical Nested Sorting in Tableau
1
Creating 3D Bar Chart via Custom Shapes
Creating Sankey Chart with Sorting/Grouping
5
Creating Sankey Chart with Grouping
4
Enhancing Chart Contrast #TweakThursday 43
Creating a Multi-Stage Sankey Chart via Template Cascading
13
Creating Radial Stacked Bar Chart in Tableau
11
Creating Waffle Chart Multiples in Tableau
Creating Waffle Chart from a Single Percentage in Tableau
Creating Hierarchical Bar Chart in Tableau
Hiding Subtotals at Single Subcategory in Tableau
3
Making Label Text Wrap in Tableau
9
Accessing Excel Files on SharePoint from Tableau
Accessing Excel Files on SharePoint from Tableau
Creating Bar Chart Multiples In One Sheet 2/2: Different Measures
Creating Bar Chart Multiples In One Sheet 1/2: Same Measure
Using Color to Reveal More Insights #TweakThursday 42
Customizing Subtotals and Grand Totals in Tableau
4
Annotating Dual Axis with Alternative Color Legend #TweakThursday 41
A Divide-n-Conquer Approach to Counting Word Occurrence
Sorting Stacked Bars in Tableau
8
256 Cellular Automata in One Sheet
Creating Polygon Hex Maps in Tableau
Creating Joy Plot in Tableau With Fewer Steps
How Amazon failed to deliver: Analytical lessons
Polygon-based US Hex Map Revisited
Visualization, Data and Tableau Eco System
Creating Sankey Chart as Easy as 1-2-3 in Tableau
62
Tableau Licensing Cost Visual Calculator
Tableau Licensing Cost Visual Calculator
Creating 3-Way Venn Diagram with Dynamic Labels
1
Placing and Aligning Labels on Small Multiples
1
#WorkoutWednesday 35 - Superstore Small Multiples Tiled Map with Quad Chart
Creating Polygon Circumscribing Graph #MathVizMonday
Blog Archive
Loading
Dynamic Views theme. Powered by Blogger. Report Abuse.