How do I plot two values against each other in tableau

Question

I have two values I wish to plot against each other in tableau. They are two totals aggregated around the same date. I can get them to the point where they are plotted on a dual access against the date like so:

but any attempt to plot them against each other for correlation has come to nothing. I've tried simple conversion to scatterplot, using calculated fields, using a cross tab with subtitles and attempting to only plot the subtotals against each other all of which have failed. I could do it in Excel but have to do it in tableau.

I have consulted the official Tableau 9.0 guide, google and existing questions on Stack Overflow all to no avail. If I was doing this in BOXI, I could just select the columns and chart them. How do I do the equivalent visualisation in Tableau?

Answer 1

You aren't clear about what type of chart you want to make.

Do you want a scatter plot? If so, put one measure on the row shelf, the other measure on the column shelf, and one or more dimensions (such as your date) on the detail shelf to define how finely to aggregate the data. Check the aggregation functions you use (SUM, AVG) and the aggregation level for your date fields (YEAR, MONTH ...) as desired. You probably want to use the second block of date aggregations on the menu unless you want to group all January data together regardless of year.

If you want a connected scatter plot, set the mark type from automatic to line and move the date field from the detail to the path shelf. You might also then want to put the date on size, color or legend to visually show the direction of time on the line. You might need to change that field to attribute in some cases to avoid creating multiple lines.

Tableau is fantastic once you learn how it works, and get a strong understanding of how choices about treating fields as dimensions or measures, or discrete or continuous impacts the behavior. If you skim over those details, you can still make beautiful charts by following recipes, mimicking examples (and asking StackOverflow), but Tableau's behavior will seem mysterious and arbitrary.

If you take some time to learn the fundamentals about how Tableau works, it will repay your time investment. I recommend Joshua Milligan's book Learning Tableau for a good way to start, along with the training videos on the Tableau website.