Tableau Sparkline Chart – How to

Create Sparklines Chart

1. Tableau Sparkline Chart – Objective
In last tutorial we had seen Tableau Population Pyramid, in this Tableau
tutorial, we are going to study about Tableau Sparkline chart, what is
Sparkline chart, how to create Sparkline Chart in Tableau, a stepwise
procedure to do so with Tableau Sparkline Chart example.
So, let us start with Tableau Sparkline Chart.

Tableau Sparkline Chart -How to Create Sparkline Chart

2. What is Tableau Sparkline Chart?

Sparklines are great for representing a lot of information in a very small space.
Creating a sparkline chart in Tableau requires creating a small multiple and
formatting the small multiple so it’s smaller and without many of the axis
labels.
In this recipe, we started by creating a small multiple of line charts by cuisine
description.
We adjusted the formatting so that the rows and columns are smaller than the
default style.
Overall, these steps are fairly similar to creating a small multiple chart recipe
in this chapter.

The enhancement to Tableau Sparkline chart is the addition of indicators at

the end of the line. Since the indicators are a different mark, this means we
need to use a dual axis chart to accomplish this visual.

Read about How to build Bar Chart in Tableau

3. How to Create Sparkline Chart in

Tableau?
Steps to make tableau Sparkline chart:

i. From Dimensions, drag Inspection Date to the Filters shelf.

ii. When prompted on what to filter, choose Years.

 Step 2. Tableau Sparkline Chart

iii. In the next window, under the General tab, select all years except 1900.

Step 3. Tableau Sparkline Chart

iv. From Dimensions, drag Cuisine Description to the Filters shelf and under
the Top tab, select Top and 15 by Sum of Number of Records.
Let’s learn How to Create Heat Map in a tableau
 Step 4. Tableau Sparkline Chart

v. From Dimensions, drag Cuisine Description to the Rows shelf.

vi. From Dimensions, right-click drag Inspection Date to the Columns shelf,
and choose continuous month. This is the fourth field from the bottom of the
list.
 Step 6. Tableau Sparkline Chart

vii. From Measures, drag Score to the Rows shelf to the right of Cuisine
Description.

Tableau Pie Chart – How to build Pie chart in tableau

viii. Right-click on Score on the Rows shelf and change aggregation to
Average.
 Step 8. How to Create Sparkline Chart

ix. Under Dimensions, right-click on Inspection Date and choose Create, and
then Custom Date….

Step 9. Tableau Sparkline Chart

x. Choose Months under Detail and provide the name Inspection Date (Cont
Months).
Let’s revise Tableau Bubble Chart – Building Bubble Chart

Step. 10 How to Create Tableau Sparkline Graph

xi. Create a calculated field called Last Inspection Month (Cont), which will
hold the last inspection done for that particular cuisine family.

Step. 11 How to Create Tableau Sparkline Graph

xii. Create another calculated field called Last Inspection Avg Score, which will
hold the average score for the last inspection month for that cuisine family.
Note that if the inspection date does not fall on the last inspection month, the
score is not included in the average calculation.

Step. 12 How to Create Tableau Sparkline Graph

xiii. From Measures, drag the new calculated field Last Inspection Avg Score
to the Rows shelf, to the right of AVG(Score).

xiv. Right-click on Last Inspection Avg Score pill in the Rows shelf and select
Dual Axis.

Tableau Waterfall Chart – Steps to Create Waterfall Chart

xv. From Measures, drag Score to Detail of any of the Marks cards. We will use
this to create a quick table calculation on Score that we will save back to the
side bar.

xvi. Right-click on Score on the Detail property in the Marks card. Go to Quick
Table Calculation and select Percent Difference.

xvii. Drag the Score pill with the table calculation back to the side bar, and
rename this field to % Diff. Note that when the quick table calculation was set,
this pill automatically got the following formula:

Step 17. How to Create Tableau Sparkline Graph

xviii. You can delete the Score in the Detail on the Marks card now. We simply
needed this to auto-generate the formula for us.

xix. Create another calculated field called Last Change, which checks the last
change and assign an overall status of Improved if the final % Diff is positive,
Worsened if the last % Diff is negative, and No change if there was no change.
 Step. 19 How to Create Tableau Sparkline Graph

xx. Select the AGG(Last Inspection Avg Score) in the Rows shelf to activate its
Marks card.

xxi. From Measures, drag Last Change to Color in the Marks card.

Let’s discuss Tableau Date Functions with Examples

xxii. Change the mark type to Shapes.

xxiii. From Measures, drag Last Change to Color in the Shape property in the
Marks card, and choose the Filled Shape Palette.

xxiv. Choose a filled upwards arrow for Improved, and a filled downwards
arrow for Worsened.
 Step. 24 How to Create Tableau Sparkline Graph

xxv. Change the titles of the shape and color legends to display Latest Score.
You can do this by right-clicking on the top-right corner of each legend box,
and selecting  Edit Title….

Step. 25 How to Create Tableau Sparkline Graph

xxvi. Adjust the width and height of the rows and columns. You can do this by
moving your mouse pointer to the column or row edge of a film until you see a
double-headed arrow. The left-right double-headed arrow allows you to adjust
the width, and the up-down double-headed arrow allows you to adjust the
height.

xxvii. Remove the grid lines. You can do this by selecting Format menu item,
and select Lines….
Let’s read about Tableau Custom Data View – Drill Down, Swapping Dimension
Operations
xxviii. Under the Rows tab, select Grid Lines and set it to None.

xxix. Go to Format menu again, and this time select Borders….

xxx. Under the Sheet tab, set Pane line to None for both the Row Divider and
Column Divider section.

xxxi. The format sidebar will replace the original data sidebar. In this format
borders sidebar, under the Sheet tab Default section, add borders to the Cell,
Pane, and Header.

xxxii. Right-click on all the green pills in the Columns and Rows shelves and
uncheck Show Header.

So, this was all about Tableau Sparkline Chart. Hope you like our explanation.