Tableau Dual Axis

Tableau Dual Axis is very useful to compare Sales Amount data with total product cost or to compare Sales against profits etc. In this article we will show you, How to Create Dual Axis reports in Tableau with example. For this we are going to use the Data Source we created in our previous article so, Please visit Data Labels in Tableau Reports article to understand the Data Source.

Tableau Dual Axis Chart Example

In order to create Tableau Dual Axis chart First, Drag and Drop the Color Group (Created in Tableau Grouping article) from Dimension Region to Column Shelf. Next, Drag and Drop the Sales Amount from Measures Region to Rows Shelf. Since it is a Measure value, Sales Amount will be aggregated to default Sum. Once you drag them, following Chart report will be generated.

In this example we want to compare Sales Amount against Total Product Cost so, Drag and Drop one more measure value i.e., Total Product Cost from Measures Region to Rows Shelf. Since it is a Measure value, Total Product Cost will be aggregated to default Sum.

Please assign Data Labels to the Chart by clicking the Abc label button present in Tableau toolbar

To create tableau Dual Axis Report, Please select the Total Product Cost Axis and right-click on it will open the context menu. From that, Please select the Dual Axis option as shown below

Once you select the Dual Axis option following screenshot will be displayed. From the below screenshot you can observe that, We have Color Group in Horizontal Axis and Sales Amount, Total Product Cost in Vertical Axis (which are acting as Dual Axis)

Let us change the Mark type from Automatic to more meaningful. We can do this in two ways:

First select the Sales Amount axis and right-click on it will open the context menu. From that, Please select the Mark Type option and select the Bar Chart for now

Once you select the Bar Chart, Bar chart will be displayed for Sales Amount Data

Second method, Select the Total Product Cost axis and then select the Line type from the Marks Shelf

We successfully created Dual Axes tableau report but From the below screenshot you can observe that, For Red Color Total Product Cost value 4,696,177 is showing bigger than Sales Amount value 7,724,331. This is because, The Maximum Axis values of Sales Amount is 9 million where as Total Product Cost is 5 million.

If you have no problem, Leave as it is otherwise, Please select the Total Product Cost and select the Edit Axis.. option from the context menu

Once you select the Edit Axis.. option, a new window will be opened as shown below

Since our aggregated values of  Sales Amount and Total Product Cost are same, we can simply check mark Synchronize dual axes option as shown below

Now, we got our final result

Synchronizing Tableau Dual Axis

In this example, We just replaced the Sum of Total Product Cost with Count of Order Quantity.

Since our aggregated values of  Sales Amount and Order Quantity are different, Synchronize dual axes option is grayed out as shown below. In these situations, we have to do it manually

In order to Synchronize tableau dual axis, First select the Axis with maximum value (Here, it is Sales Amount with 9 million). Edit the Axis option and select the Fixed option as shown below. Next, Please copy the End value from the End text box

Next, Change the Axis option to fixed for Order Quantity and replace the End value with the Sales Amount End value (earlier copied End value).

From the below screenshot you can observe that, Axis values of Sales Amount and Count of Order Quantity are same as shown below. Here the values of Order Quantity are very small to display but you can see the blue line in the bottom

Hope you understood the creation of Tableau Dual Axis and synchronizing Axes values 🙂

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