Dataskera

Lollipop Chart

A lollipop is a bar chart that keeps its nerve when there are many categories, and it can do one thing a bar cannot: measure from somewhere other than zero. A bar has to start at zero or it lies about its own length. A lollipop head is a point and the stem only says where it is measured from, which makes it the honest chart for a rate, a score, an index or a profit read against its own average.

Data Requirements

Your Tableau worksheet should include:

  • 1 Dimension for the Category encoding. One lollipop per value.
  • 1 Measure for the Value encoding. Where the head sits.
  • 1 Dimension, optional for the Color encoding. Groups the lollipops and drives the legend.

Add Lollipop Chart to your worksheet

First, download the manifest file. It tells Tableau where to load the extension from.

Download lollipop.trex

Direct link: https://dataskera.com/downloads/lollipop.trex

Then, in Tableau:

  1. On the Marks card, open the Mark type dropdown, and under Viz Extensions choose Add Extension.
  2. In the Add an Extension dialog, choose Access Local Viz Extensions, then open the lollipop.trex file you just downloaded.
  3. When Tableau asks, allow the extension to access the data in the workbook.
  4. The welcome screen appears. Sign in with your Dataskera account, or on Tableau Desktop choose Use on Desktop without an account. See Signing in & access below.
  5. Build the chart: drag a dimension onto Category and a measure onto Value.
Tableau Server or Cloud:
A site admin must allow the extension by adding its URL to the site's safe list, and the view needs the Download Summary Data permission. Extension URL: https://vizextension.dataskera.com/lollipop/lollipop.html

Signing in & access

Lollipop Chart is free. Whether you need to sign in depends only on what you are doing. Viewing a dashboard never asks for an account, and authoring is free too.

Viewing a dashboard
No account

People who only view a dashboard are never asked to sign in and are never blocked.

Editing on Tableau Desktop
Optional

Sign in, or continue without an account in a single click.

Editing on Server or Cloud
Free account

Sign in with your Dataskera account to author on the web.

No account yet? Create one free in under a minute. No credit card required.

Format panel

Open the Format panel from the extension menu to customize the chart. It is for the dashboard author and is not shown to viewers. It has four tabs:

  • Baseline: measure the stems from zero, the mean, the median, the lowest value or a value you choose; draw and label that baseline; colour the marks above and below it.
  • Marks: dot size, stem width and stem opacity.
  • Axis and Labels: the axis and gridlines, value labels and which side of the head they sit on, how the category labels are angled, number format and font.
  • Color: a palette, a precise colour per category, and the overall opacity.
  • Legend: show or hide it, its position around the chart, an optional show/hide toggle for viewers, the colour swatch, and the content of each entry.
  • Tooltip: show or hide it, its colours, decimals, and a template you write yourself from the placeholders the chart provides.
A baseline that is not zero is declared:
When the stems run from the mean or the median, the chart draws that line, prints its value on it, and says in the data notes that the stem lengths are differences and not magnitudes. A stem measured from an unstated place is exactly the quiet lie this chart exists to avoid.
The legend follows the colouring:
With the marks coloured by which side of the baseline they fall on, the legend reports that split with its counts and totals rather than contradicting the chart with a list of category colours.
Labels never cross their own stem:
Which side of the head a value label sits on follows the side of the baseline, not the sign of the value: a positive number can still hang below an average one. A head near an edge flips its label to the other side of itself rather than printing it over the category names.
Duplicates are summed and said:
A category appearing on more than one row is summed, and the chart says how many were, rather than leaving you to wonder why a total looks high.