Tableau: Creating Interactive Data Visualizations

Creating stacked bar graphs

In stacked bar graphs, various categories of the same field are plotted on top of each other. One of the biggest problems with the stacked bar graphs is that the length of the bars is hard to measure, except for the bottom bar in the stack. Some people argue that it is good at showing the proportion or comparison of two or more categories; however, if comparison is the objective, there are much better alternatives, such as facets and small multiples, which have higher efficacy in comparing data. If you must use a stacked bar graph, limit the number of stacks to two to three categories and avoid very disproportionate stacks, such as 99 percent and 1 percent stacks.

Getting ready

Let's use the sample file, Sample – Superstore ...