Creating scatter plots
by Matt Floyd, Ashley Ohmann, Ashutosh Nandeshwar, Jen Stirrup
Tableau: Creating Interactive Data Visualizations
- Tableau: Creating Interactive Data Visualizations
- Table of Contents
- Tableau: Creating Interactive Data Visualizations
- Tableau: Creating Interactive Data Visualizations
- Credits
- Preface
- 1. Module 1
- 1. A Short Dash to Dashboarding!
- 2. Summarizing Your Data for Dashboards
- 3. Interacting with Data for Dashboards
- 4. Using Dashboards to Get Results
- 5. Putting the Dash into Dashboards
- 6. Making Dashboards Relevant
- 7. Visual Best Practices
- 2. Module 2
- 1. Connecting to Data Sources
- Introduction
- Connecting to text files
- Connecting to Excel files
- Connecting to Access databases
- Connecting to a SQL Server
- Pasting from a clipboard
- Connecting to other databases
- Connecting to Windows Azure Marketplace
- Understanding dimensions and measures
- Changing data types
- Applying filters
- Merging multiple data sources
- 2. Creating Univariate Charts
- 3. Creating Bivariate Charts
- 4. Creating Multivariate Charts
- 5. Creating Maps
- 6. Calculating User-defined Fields
- 7. Customizing and Saving
- 8. Exporting and Sharing
- 9. Exploring Advanced Features
- 1. Connecting to Data Sources
- 3. Module 3
- 1. Getting Started with Tableau Public
- 2. Tableau Public Interface Features
- 3. Connecting to Data
- 4. Visualization – Tips and Types
- 5. Calculations
- 6. Level of Detail and Table Calculations
- 7. Dashboard Design and Styling
- 8. Filters and Actions
- 9. Publishing Your Work
- A. Bibliography
- Index
Scatter plots are often used to identify any correlation or observe relationships between two variables. By looking at these plots, the reader can quickly observe any trends, if present. A scatter plot is a very useful tool in any analyst's toolbox.
For this recipe, let's use the sample file Sample – Superstore Sales (Excel). Open a new worksheet and select Sample – Superstore Sales (Excel) as the data source.
Once the data is loaded, perform the following steps to create a scatter plot of two measures:
- From the top toolbar, under Analysis, uncheck Aggregate Measures.
- Drag-and-drop Profit into the Columns shelf.
- Drag-and-drop Sales into the Rows shelf. The generated scatter plot should look like the one in the following screenshot:
By default, Tableau will aggregate measures to show only the aggregated values. In traditional statistics, however, to observe any trends or correlation between two variables, individual data points are plotted across both axes. Therefore, we removed the aggregation for this recipe, but please note that some applications of scatter plots may warrant aggregation.
Scatter plots are one of the most common techniques to observe the relationship between two variables. It is important to note, however, that a plot may suggest a correlation between two variables but cannot conclusively prove a causal relationship. You can read more about scatter plots on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) exploratory data analysis handbook at http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/section3/scatterp.htm.
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