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How to create Doughnut chart in Tableau

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Imagine a pie chart, but with a twist—a hole in the middle, which makes it look like a donut. Each piece of this donut represents the contribution of one category to the overall picture. Donut charts are especially useful when you need to visualize parts of a whole. They’re great for situations where the size of each segment helps you understand how each category stacks up against the total. In this blog we will learn about how to create doughnut chart in Tableau.

Donut charts are popular because they’re not only informative; they’re also easy on the eyes. They’re perfect for comparing proportional data, while adding a touch of style to your presentation. Plus, the hole in the middle isn’t just for show you can use it to display a key metric or total, making your chart even more useful.

Benefits of Using Doughnut Chart

  • Attractive look: Doughnut charts have a modern, clean look that’s more appealing than regular pie charts. The central hole adds a unique style that’s perfect for dashboards and presentations.
  • Highlight key numbers: The hole in the middle of a doughnut chart is a great place to display important numbers, like the totals of all segments. This helps viewers quickly understand the overall context when analysing individual segments.
  • Emphasis on important data: The design of a doughnut chart makes it easy to highlight specific data points. For example, you could show total sales in the middle, with segments representing sales by different product categories.
  • Easy comparisons: Doughnut charts are great for comparing different categories within your data. They’re ideal for analysing market share, budget splits, customer segments, and more.
  • Space for notes: The center of a doughnut chart isn’t just for numbers—you can also use it to add notes, additional labels, or small icons to make your chart more informative and engaging.
  • Fits well into dashboards: Doughnut charts fit well into dashboards due to their compact design and ability to display key metrics in the center. They are a useful tool for summarizing data effectively.

Use Case of Doughnut chart in Tableau

You can use it in a variety of situations where you need to show how different parts form a whole. Here are some everyday examples:

  • Market share analysis: Companies often use doughnut charts to show how different products or brands contribute to the overall market share. Each segment represents a different brand or product category, making it easier to make comparisons.
  • Customer segmentation: If you’re analysing customer data, doughnut charts can help see how different customer groups (such as by age, income, or region) contribute to the overall customer base.
  • Sales distribution: Sales teams often use doughnut charts to break down sales by product category, region, or vendor. This helps identify which regions contribute the most to overall sales.
  • Product performance: Doughnut charts are useful for comparing the performance of different products in a portfolio, highlighting the top performers.

Steps to create Doughnut Chart in Tableau

Step 1: Open Tableau

Step 2: Click on Text file to connect with Tableau

There are lots of data sources that you can use in Tableau such as SQL, excel, pdf and many more

Step 3: Browse csv file (or other file format as your need) and click on Open

Step 4: Click on Sheet 1 (Worksheet) to make visual

Step 5: Go to Analysis tab and select Create Calculated Field…

Step 6: Named the field and initialize it with 0; click Apply and OK.

Step 7: Drag created filed to Rows

Step 8: Place same filed right after by holding ctrl + drag right

Step 9: Click on the arrow of second field in Rows and select Dual Axis

Step 10: Click on All in Marks Card; from the dropdown, select Pie

Step 11: Click on Dropdown with Standard and select Entire View

Step 12: Click on Size under All marks and increase or decrease size by sliding blue stick

Step 13: Click on second field (SUM(Doughnut)(2)); now click on Color and select any color (white recommended) for hole/middle part of Doughnut

Step 14: Click on Size and decrease size by sliding blue stick left (as middle part size, you want)

Step 15: Drag Sales Measure to Label

Step 16: Click on Label and Select Browse icon (…)

Step 17: Make Changes according to (marked with red rectangle) following and click on OK:

Step 18: Click on second field (SUM(Doughnut)); now drag Region Measure to Color and Label then drag Sales Measure to Angle and Label

Step 19: Right click on Header and click on Show Header

Right Click

Output:

Conclusion

Doughnut charts in Tableau are a stylish and effective way to visualize part-to-whole relationships. They make it easy to compare groups within a dataset and give you a place to put important metrics or extra data. If you follow the steps above, you can make your own doughnut charts that will make your dashboards and data shows better. Just keep in mind what they can’t do and use them where they’ll be most useful. If you use doughnut charts correctly, they can help you show complicated data in a way that is easy to understand and looks good. This is true whether you’re looking at market shares, budget allocations, or user segments.

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