Learning Tableau 10 - Second Edition

Visualizing distributions

Often, simply understanding totals, sums, and even the breakdown of part to whole only gives a piece of the overall picture. Many times, you'll want to understand where individual items fall within a distribution of all similar items.

You might find yourself asking questions such as:

• How long do most of our patients stay in the hospital? Which patients fall outside the normal range?
• What's the average life expectancy for components in a machine and which components fall above or below that average? Are there any components with extremely long or extremely short lives?
• How far above or below the average score were most students' test scores?

These questions all have similarities. In each case, you seek an understanding of where ...