How to Create Tableau Bullet Graph

Tableau Bullet Graph is similar to a bar chart. Bullet Chart in Tableau is useful to compare One Measure over others and visualize the result. For instance, comparing the Sales this year with last year, etc.

In this article, we will show you how to Create a Tableau Bullet Graph with example. For this Tableau Bullet Graph demo, we are going to write the Custom SQL Query against the SQL Server Data Source.

Please visit Connecting Tableau to SQL Server article to understand the Tableau configurations. The custom SQL query we are going to use for this Tableau bullet chart report is:

SELECT ProdSubCat.EnglishProductSubcategoryName, 
       Tery.[SalesTerritoryCountry], 
       Prod.EnglishProductName, 
       Prod.Color, 
       Fact.OrderQuantity, 
       Fact.TotalProductCost, 
       Fact.SalesAmount, 
       Fact.TaxAmt, 
       Fact.OrderDate
FROM DimProductSubcategory AS ProdSubCat
   INNER JOIN
     DimProduct AS Prod 
        ON ProdSubCat.ProductSubcategoryKey = Prod.ProductSubcategoryKey 
   INNER JOIN
     FactInternetSales AS Fact 
        ON Prod.ProductKey = Fact.ProductKey 
   INNER JOIN
     [DimSalesTerritory] AS Tery 
        ON Tery.[SalesTerritoryKey] = Fact.[SalesTerritoryKey]

Tableau Desktop allows us to create a Bullet Graph in multiple ways:

First Approach to Create Tableau Bullet Chart

This method of creating a bullet chart in Tableau is very easy and straightforward. Please press and hold the control key and then select the Dimension (s), Measure(s) from the respective region, and select the Bullet Graph from the Show Me window.

For this Tableau Bullet Graph example, We are selecting Product name Dimension, Sales Amount, Total Product Cost Measures, and select the Bullet graph as shown below.

Once you complete, the tableau desktop will create a bullet Graph for you, as shown below. Let us do some formatting to filter the underperforming products.

We applied a filter on Product Name Dimension with the following condition. It means, Tableau Bullet Graph will display the products whose Sales Amount is Greater Than or Equal to 500,000

Click OK to close the Filters window and see our newly created Tableau Bullet Graph

The second approach to Create Tableau Bullet Chart

This approach of creating a Tableau bullet chart is not the direct way. However, you can control the reference lines and distributions. It is beneficial to analyze data in real-time.

First, Drag and Drop the English Product Name from Dimension Region to Rows Shelf and Sales Amount from Measures region to Columns Shelf. By default, Tableau generates the Bar Chart

NOTE: We also applied the filter mentioned above on the Product name

Next, Drag and Drop the Total Product Cost from Measures region to Level of Details filed present in Marks Shelf

To convert this Bar chart into a Bullet Graph in Tableau, we have to add Reference Lines and Distributions. To do this, Please Right-click on the Sales Amount Axis and select the Add Reference Line option from the context menu

Once you choose the Add Reference Line option, a new window called Add Reference Line, band or Box will open

By default, Scope will be Per Pane so please change it to per cell and change the value from Sales amount to Total Product Cost

Following are the changes we made to this reference Line options for Tableau bullet chart:

Scope: Please change the default Per Pane option to per cell. If you want to add straight or static reference line, you can use the default Per Pane option
Value: By default, Measure value inside the Row or Column shelf will select, but you can change as per your requirement. Here we replace the Sum of Sales Amount with Sum of Total Product Cost. Aggregate Value: Please sleet the aggregate function from the drop-down list
Label: If you want to display the label then select the label value otherwise, select None
Line: Please Specify the Line Width, Style and color

From the below screenshot, you can see we are closer to the Bullet Graph. Let us add one more reference line to show the Distributions. To add, Please Right click on the Sales Amount Axis and select the Add Reference Line option from the context menu

Go to the Distributions tab and see the default configuration settings from the below screenshot

By default, Scope will be Per Pane. So, please change it to per cell and shift the Computation value from Sales amount to Total Product Cost

If you want to change the aggregated value, Please select the aggregate function from the drop-down list

The following are the changes we made to this reference Distributions options for this Tableau bullet graph:

Scope: Please change the default Per Pane option to per cell.
Value: By default, Measure value inside the Row or Column shelf will select. However, you can change as per your requirement. Here we replace the Sum of Sales Amount with Sum of Total Product Cost. Aggregate Value: Please sleet the aggregate function from the drop-down list
Label: If you want to display the label, select the label value; otherwise, select None
Line: Please Specify the Line Width, Style, and color. Here we are choosing the None option
Fill: Specify the pattern and color for the distributions
Please specify whether you want to fill the distributions above and below the Bar Chart by selecting the fields

Click OK to finish configuring the Distributions. If you observe the below screenshot, we got our Tableau Bullet Graph

To see the Distributions clearly, Let us reduce the Bar Chart Size using the Size filed present in the Marks Shelf

We successfully created a Tableau Bullet Graph