Tableau · Quick Reference

Lesson 5 — Basic Charts & Visualizations Cheat Sheet

Tableau

In one line: The bar chart is the workhorse of data visualization. It's the best chart for comparing discrete categories on a single quantitative measure. Tableau makes building bar chart va...

Key Ideas

1Bar Charts. The bar chart is the workhorse of data visualization. It's the best chart for comparing discrete categories on a single quantitative measure. Tableau makes building ba...

2Line Charts. Line charts are the gold standard for showing trends over time. They connect data points sequentially, making it easy to see direction, acceleration, seasonality, and ...

3Pie Charts & Donut Charts. Pie charts show part-to-whole proportions. They're the most misused chart type in data visualization. Use them sparingly and only under specific conditions.

4Maps. Maps are powerful when your data has a geographic dimension. Tableau has built-in geographic recognition for countries, states, provinces, cities, and ZIP codes. There...

5Scatter Plots & Text Tables. Scatter plots reveal relationships and correlations between two quantitative variables. Text tables (crosstabs) present precise numeric data in a grid format. Both ser...