Bar Visuals

After learning how to construct a basic bar chart, explore some additional uses for bar charts, including:

• Filtering by Year
• Filtering by Region
• Horizontal Bars
• Stacked Bars

The following steps demonstrate how to create a new bar visual representation on dataset World Life Expectancy [data source samples.world_life_expectancy].

1. Start a new visual based on dataset World Life Expectancy [data source samples.world_life_expectancy]; see Creating Visuals.

2. In the visuals menu, find and click bars (row 1, column 3).

   

3. Note that the shelves of the visual changed. They are now X, Y, Colors, Tooltips, and Filters.

   The mandatory shelves for bar visuals are X and Y, representing the X-axis and Y-axis.

4. Populate the shelves from the available fields (Dimensions, Measures, and so on) listed in the left navigation menu.

   • Under Dimensions, select country and drag it over X shelf on the main part of the screen. Drop to add it to the shelf.
   • Under Measures, select life_expectancy and drag it over Y shelf on the main part of the screen. Drop to add it to the shelf.

   

5. On the shelf of the visual, on sum(life_expectancy) field, click the icon (down arrow), select Aggregates, and then select Average.

   

6. Note that the shelf now contains the modified field avg(life_expectancy).

   

7. Click Refresh Visual.

   The bar visual graph appears.

   

8. Alias the country field:

   • On the shelf, on country field, click the icon (down arrow), select Alias, and then select Set.

   • In the Enter a column alias modal window, enter Country.

   • Click Save.

     

9. Alias the life_expectancy field:

   • On the shelf, on life_expectancy field, click the icon (down arrow), select Alias, and then select Set.

   • In the Enter a column alias modal window, enter Life Expectancy.

   • Click Save.

     

10. To see the bars as different colors, you must place country field on the Colors shelf.

    • On the Country field, click the icon (down arrow), then select Duplicate.

      

    • Click one of the Country fields on X shelf, drag it to the Colors shelf, and drop it.

11. [Optional] On the Tooltips shelf, add several fields from Dimensions and Measures.

    This enables you to see specific descriptive information in your visuals, such as input values, segment affiliation, and calculations.

    For example,

    • From Measures, drag gdp_per_capita onto the Tooltip shelf.
    • From Dimensions, drag country, un_subregion, and un_region onto the Tooltip shelf.
    • For all items on the Tooltip shelf, click the icon (down arrow), select Aggregates, and then select Remove Aggregate.

    • For all numeric items on the Y shelf and the Tooltip shelf, click the icon (down arrow), select Display Format, and enter ,.2f.

      Note that these fields are typically from the Measures menu, and in this example include gdp_per_capita and life_expectancy.

12. [Optional] On the Filters shelf, add several fields from Dimensions and Measures.

    This enables you to dynamically control the data input, and discover the data at a more granular level.

    For example, from Dimensions, drag country, un_subregion, un_region, and year onto the Filters shelf.

13. Click Edit next to the title of the visualization.

    

14. Change the title to World Population - Bars.

15. Above the left navigation bar, click Save.