Advance with Assist: Adding Field Names Above Bars on a Bar Chart

Data

Advance with Assist: Adding Field Names Above Bars on a Bar Chart

by Carol Prins
//

Advance with Assist shares quick solutions to common challenges encountered by the InterWorks Assist on-demand team.

Question: I would like my users to see the product names above the bars in my bar chart instead of having them on the left of the bar to make it more presentable. How do I achieve this?

By having the field name sitting above each bar, the presentation of your bar chart can be enhanced for your users.

For this example, I’ll use the Sample-CoffeeChain data to show a bar chart for Sales per Product by having the Product Name above each bar:

Step 1: Build a Simple Bar Chart for Sales per Product

Drag Sales to Columns and Product Name to Rows to create a simple bar chart. Sort the bars in descending order of sum of Sales and, lastly, add a color gradient (Orange-Blue Diverging) to the bars by dragging Sales to Color on the Marks card:

Step 2: Build a Dual-Axis Chart

Click on the empty space on the right side of SUM(Sales) in Columns and type in AVG(0):

When you click ENTER, you will see another bar chart appear on the side:

Right-click on AVG(0) header in the view and select Dual Axis:

Once you do this, Tableau might change your view drastically but not to worry! We can fix that later. Let’s go ahead and synchronize these two charts. Right-click on the AVG(0) header again, and select Synchronize Axis:

Step 3: Final Build

On your SUM(Sales) Marks card, change the chart type to Bar. Similarly, on your AGG(AVG(0)) Marks card, change the chart type to Gantt Bar.

Bring Measure Names from the Data pane onto Rows, and bring Product Name onto Labels in your AGG(AVG(0)) Marks card:

In some cases, Tableau will decide to put the labels underneath the bars, in which case you just need to sort Measure Names. Right-click on Measure Names and go to Sort > Sort by Manual. Drag AVG(0) above Sales:

Step 4: Formatting

Uncheck Show Header for Product Name, Measure Names and AVG(0) axis:

On the AGG(AVG(0)) Marks card, reduce size to 0 (zero). Also, reduce color opacity to 0%. Remove row divider and grid lines:

Tip: Use Label on the AGG(AVG(0)) Marks card to change characteristics on the Label Text like font, size, alignment, etc.

I hope you found this Assist post helpful! You can download the workbook to explore things a bit more, and feel free to reach out to our team for more troubleshooting help or general support for your data.

Want More Advance with Assist

  1. Advance with Assist: Filtering Select Dates with DATETRUNC
  2. Advance with Assist: Enhancing Dashboards with Custom Icons
  3. Advance with Assist: Tableau Power User Leaving the Company
  4. Advance with Assist: Context Filters and LOD Calculations
  5. Advance with Assist: Custom Subscriptions with Tableau Server Custom Views
  6. Advance with Assist: Blending with Dimension Not Utilized
  7. Advance with Assist: Creating a Sankey Diagram from Survey Data
  8. Advance with Assist: Multiple Dashboard Actions with a Single Click
  9. Advance with Assist: Refreshing Tableau Online Data with Tableau Bridge
  10. Advance with Assist: Parameter Performance Optimization
  11. Advance with Assist: Using Custom Backgrounds with Polygon Shapefiles
  12. Advance with Assist: Changing Default Properties on Data
  13. Advance with Assist: Options for Calculating Percentages
  14. Advance with Assist: Removing Options from Filter List
  15. Advance with Assist: Extracting Year from De-identified Text String
  16. Advance with Assist: Marking the Latest Date on Trend Line
  17. Advance with Assist: What You Need to Know About Aliases
  18. Advance with Assist: Function Compatibility
  19. Advance with Assist: Mass Parameter Replacement
  20. Advance with Assist: Sorting with MONTH in Reverse
  21. Advance with Assist: Ungroup Column Headers That Have Concatenated
  22. Advance with Assist: Connectionless Failure Error in Tableau Server
  23. Advance with Assist: How to Exceed Tableau’s Column or Row Limit
  24. Advance with Assist: Adding Email Links to Your Dashboard
  25. Advance with Assist: Saving User-Selected Filters on Tableau Server
  26. Advance with Assist: Tableau and Named Ranges in Excel
  27. Advance with Assist: Editing Custom Fields in Tableau-Published Data Sources
  28. Advance with Assist: NOW and TODAY Functions in Tableau
  29. Advance with Assist: Sheet Swapping with Dummy Headers
  30. Advance with Assist: REST Error in Tableau and Snowflake Connection
  31. Advance with Assist: Mapping with One Data Row in Tableau 2019.2
  32. Advance with Assist: Multi-Number Formats for Single Calculations
  33. Advance with Assist: Removing Background Landmass on a Tableau Map
  34. Advance with Assist: Filtering Data Sources on Tableau Server
  35. Advance with Assist: Swapping Sheets in Tableau 2019.2
  36. Advance with Assist: Filling in Null Records Without Filtering
  37. Advance with Assist: Nested IF Calculations in Tableau
  38. Advance with Assist: Getting Show/Hide Buttons to Appear in Tableau Desktop
  39. Advance with Assist: Alteryx Output Error
  40. Advance with Assist: Missing Joins in Tableau 2020.2
  41. Advance with Assist: Tableau Server – Interactive MicroService Container Degraded
  42. Advance with Assist: A Shortcut for Duplicating Calculations
  43. Advance with Assist: Tableau Server License Renewal Refresh 
  44. Advance with Assist: Encrypt Tabcmd Credentials
  45. Advance with Assist: Pointing Tableau to a Named Range
  46. Advance with Assist: Tableau Server Migrations
  47. Advance with Assist: Adding ALL Selection to Parameters
  48. Advance with Assist: Uncaught Type Error in Tableau Server
  49. Advance with Assist: Site Roles Changing on Tableau Server
  50. Advance with Assist: Highlighting Points of Interest
  51. Advance with Assist: Finding Max Date and More
  52. Advance with Assist: Adding Field Names Above Bars on a Bar Chart
  53. Advance with Assist: Using Map Layers with Unconnected Data Sources

More About the Author

Carol Prins

Analytics Consultant
AI and ML for All: A Look at InterWorks’ Go! Dataiku Webinars Have you wondered how you can venture into the land of data science without being a data scientist? Most of us get intimidated with ...
AI and ML for All: A Look at InterWorks’ Go! Dataiku Webinars Have you wondered how you can venture into the land of data science without being a data scientist? Most of us get intimidated with ...

See more from this author →

InterWorks uses cookies to allow us to better understand how the site is used. By continuing to use this site, you consent to this policy. Review Policy OK

×

Interworks GmbH
Ratinger Straße 9
40213 Düsseldorf
Germany
Geschäftsführer: Mel Stephenson

Kontaktaufnahme: markus@interworks.eu
Telefon: +49 (0)211 5408 5301

Amtsgericht Düsseldorf HRB 79752
UstldNr: DE 313 353 072

×

Love our blog? You should see our emails. Sign up for our newsletter!