Tableau - Bar Chart

A bar chart represents data in rectangular bars with the length of the bar proportional to the value of the variable. Tableau automatically produces a bar chart when you drag a dimension to the Row shelf and measure to the Column shelf. We can also use the bar chart option present in the Show Me button. If the data is not appropriate for bar chart, then this option will be automatically greyed out.

In Tableau, various types of bar charts can be created by using a dimension and a measure.

Simple Bar Chart

From the Sample-Superstore, choose the dimension, take profit to the columns shelf and Sub-Category to the rows shelf. It automatically produces a horizontal bar chart as shown in the following screenshot. In case, it does not, you can choose the chart type from the Show Me tool to get the following result.

Bar Chart with Color Range

You can apply colors to the bars based on their ranges. The longer bars get darker shades and the smaller bars get the lighter shades. To do this, drag the profit field to the color palette under the Marks Pane. Also note that, it produces a different color for negative bars.

Stacked Bar Chart

You can add another dimension to the above bar chart to produce a stacked bar chart, which shows different colors in each bar. Drag the dimension field named segment to the Marks pane and drop it in colors. The following chart appears which shows the distribution of each segment in each bar.