Conclusion on Common Chart Types

In this session, you learned about many basic visualizations in Tableau. You understood what they are, why they are required, and how they can be created. You also learned how to apply your knowledge of some of the important concepts while creating your visualizations. Let’s revisit the topics that were covered in this session one by one.

Bar charts: Generally, these are used to compare data values or trace changes in data over a period of time. You also learned how to perform the following operations:

• Sorting data values in the ascending and descending order in a graph
• Swapping the X and Y axes in the graph
• Changing the color of the graph
• Adding labels to the values in the graph

Line charts and filters: Line charts are used to analyze data values over a period of time. You also learned the following about line charts and filters:

• Filters are used to view only the required categories from an attribute. For example, you can create and use a filter to analyze data on people in a certain age group.
• Tooltips can be customized in a way such that you can view them easily in your visualizations.

Maps: This is an online functionality provided in Tableau. To build a simple map, your data source must contain the location data (location names or latitude and longitude coordinates). The map that contains points in each state, for example, is called a point map. The map that contains states filled with varying colors, for example, is called a filled map or a polygon map.

Treemaps: You learned about the following about treemaps:

• Treemaps plot the quantitative variables for each category of the dimension.
• The values of the quantitative variables are represented by the size and the color intensity of the plot.
• They can only accommodate two measures: one to control the size and the other to control the color. However, it can accommodate any number of dimensions, as it would only increase the number of rectangles on the treemap.

You can find the transcariptions for the videos in this session here. 

In the next session, let's learn about advanced chart types.