Sunburst Chart - Tableau
Sunburst Chart In Tableau
A sunburst chart is a chart that Visualises the data in hierarchical order. The chart closely resembles a tree map and a pie chart, hence its other names such as a radial tree map or a nested pie chart. It shows how a particular category is broken down into its sequential segments. The data that we are working with needs to have a hierarchical nature in its fields in question for the visualisation to work. This can be the relationship between category and sub-category. Keep in mind that just like the pie chart, you should not use too many categories or the view will be very cluttered. Below is an example image of a sunburst chart created in Tableau. Each field in the hierarchy represents a ring in the sunburst chart.
Creating the Sunburst Chart in Tableau
Let’s take a step-by-step approach to build a Sunburst chart in Tableau, in order to do this we will take Superstore Dataset.
This chart is not as straightforward as Bar charts, tree charts ect. They need a slightly twisted approach.
Since the chart needs to have a hierarchical nature, I think the relationship between category and sub-category is appropriate for this one. I would also like to see the division of sales represented by colour intensity and size.
Step – 1:
Creating a Pie Chart:
We start with selecting the mark chart as Pie. “Category” field onto the Colour Marks Card and “SUM(Sales)” onto the Angle card. Creating a simple pie chart.
Step – 2
Duplicating the Pie Chart
Step 3: Stack the Charts, Add the Child Category to one, Adjust the Sizing
As mentioned before, we will be stacking these charts on top of each other. But first, we need to establish that one of the charts has to display the “Sub-Category” field. For that pie chart, we need to have “Category” as well as “Sub-Category” in the colors shelf and that is done with a little trick. Doing this allows the sub-category coolers to be aligned with the respective category colors of the other pie chart. Make the chart Dual Axis and align that the chart with only “Category” comes above. Adjust the sizing of the chart so that the one with sub-categories is larger.
Step 4: Do sorting, Adjust Colors, Add Labels
Now that we have our basic sunburst chart, all we have left to do is to sort the outer region by sum of sales in ascending order. That will make the chart look less cluttered and make it easier to distinguish between the sub-categories. Next, we will need to adjust the colors of the sub-category chart a little bit where they correspond with the colors of the categories. After that is done, we can move onto further formatting by adding labels.
And there we have it, we have created a basic sunburst chart in Tableau.
