I have run into this more times then I like, and I think it will continuously haunt me. I am creating reports/dashboards that report monthly or yearly or weekly data. The dates come in with just the last day of the period. For example, now I am working 2019 monthly report that is a bar chart with a trend line. Took me about 15 minutes to make in excel. However, we are trying to move everything into Tableau for dashboards. Trend line is always grayed out when using discrete dates and sometimes when using continuous dates. The dates are in the format DD/MM/YYYY so I can convert them as continuous but that skews the spacing on the X-Axis. I have messed around to get it to work but it takes time. I am shocked that this very basic thing does not work when Excel has been able to do it for a very long time. Does anyone know of a good work around? I have tried calculated the trend line myself, but do not see how I can add in the y=mx+B line that is generated. I am debating creating a data set just for this, but that seems long and hard way for something that I would have expected out of the box. Below is some basic data, in Excel it takes about 1 minutes to create a line chart, click (+) add trend line and your done.
I was not able to deal with the skew of the X-Axis very well but playing with the date it started and setting the major tick marks to monthly got me close. Looking at the picture below you will see the tick marks are not in the center of the bars but close. As for the trend line, I added a Dual axis on the same data that was the sum of all shown fields with no division by the parts (this is a stack mark bar chart). Since this is a basic line chart with continuous dates, a trend line is a simple click. I then removed the Tick Markets and set the opacity to 0% making the line invisible. I did not change the trend line so now that is all you can see. Seems like a long and hard way to do it, but it works. (UPDATE) Better fix, NEVER USE EOM always use First of Month.
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I am working with a dataset with which I am creating a dashboard. My dataset is very simple, a first column of [yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm], and a second column with many values.
I read in many threads and forum about the difficulty to plot dates on x-axis (including hours and minuts).
As reference I am using this dashboard built in PowerBi https://www.terna.it/it/sistema-elettrico/transparency-report/total-load .(Public data of Italian electric energy generation)
This is exactly the outcome I would like to obtain, but by now I cannot display the hours and minuts. I used their data to reproduce the dashboard.
I tried to switch from a "dates" x-axis to a "text" x-axis, but the result is not the same, and furthermore the plot does not occupy the whole page but I have to move to the right.
enter image description here
I really cannot understand how the linked dashboard was built.
Any idea?
I guess your problem is that you have been using Date Hierarchy on the x-Axis you instead of Date only.
I have a combo chart that I want to track Actual spending versus Budget over a 3 year period. The Budget line items are bar charts, the Actuals are displayed by a symbol. There is only one data point for Actuals, 2020, Budget data is for 2020-2022. My problem is that Actuals are aligning with 2021, not 2020. Viewing the data as a straight table, I know my data calculations are correct. I am not suppressing zeros and the order of expressions (promote, demote) has no effect. Any ideas why this is happening and how to fix it?
Image explaining the issue
I've created a bar chart where I have values on axis Y and weeks on axis X. I want to sign every week on this chart. The problem is that I have weeks with no data and I still want to show this blank weeks. But I can't make it to start from first week,it automatically start from first not blank week.I tried to play with continuous and categorical type of data on axis X but it didn't help. I've already chosen option "show elements without data". But it still doesn't look like a want.
For best understanding I'll show you what I have and desired result.
Now it looks
this way and this way
But I want that it look
this way
Thank you for any useful tips.
Trying to make a cute little dual axis line and bar chart, time is continuous on x axis, value on y axis. For some visual flair (formatting still being worked on) I wanted to make banded columns to show months, which are not calendar months (454 system) and are therefore variable lengths of time.
I got it functionally looking how I wanted to on the worksheet. When dragged to a dashboard, even after a ridiculous amount of resizing, I get these weird lines. When I change the size of it, the lines change places.
Anyone have tips on getting these two graphs to look the same?
Worksheet
Dashboard
I'm trying to create something like a GANTT Chart where I would have start dates and end dates designated by a shape like a diamond and then the period of time in between connecting the start and end date shown as a line connecting the shapes. Does anyone have any tips on how to do that in tableau?
For data I have an identifier column, an event column, a date column, a start date column, and an end date column.
To make a basic Ghantt chart in Tableau, put the start date on the column shelf, convert it to continuous exact date. Put the identifier on the row shelf and change the mark type to Ghantt. This should get a short bar at the start date of each task, with a row per task (assuming the ids are unique per task).
Now you need to specify how long the bars should be by putting a field showing the number of days for each task on the size shelf. You can create a calculated field to compute those durations as datediff('day', contract_start, contract_end). Place that on the size shelf and you should be off to a decent start.
You can add more info to the tool tips and use color to show contract type or something else. add some reference lines by right clicking on the axis. You will need some tweaks in the calculated field to deal with things like null (unknown) end dates, maybe recurring tasks ...
If you want a few milestone markers, you can use reference lines or point annotations to add them by hand easily.
Or if you want to include milestones as shapes with your data, you can use a dual axis chart.
Here is an example showing how to combine shapes and bars into one char. The details vary slightly depending on how your data is organized, but if you examine how the data for this workbook is organized, how the data connection joins the tabs, and how the workbook displays the data, you should be able to adapt the approach to your own data. Just realize sometimes it is easier to revise the way your data is shaped to make the analysis simpler.
Also, you might want to consider if you need both planned and actual dates.
See also
Gantt over time with summed bar