Database Reference
In-Depth Information
As we discussed in
Chapter 3
, tables are helpful for gleaning a small number of precise val-
ues, but they're not so helpful when it comes to recognizing patterns or comparing many val-
ues at the same time. That's where visualization comes in handy. The scatterplot shown in
Figure 8-1
makes use of two axes to locate the circles on the plane according to the players'
career goals (the x-axis) and their career assists (the y-axis).
Let's explore how to create this scatterplot. First, we'll connect to the spreadsheet that con-
tains the top 100 players, which you can find online
here
. Once we've connected to the
spreadsheet, it's a simple matter of Ctrl-selecting
Player
,
G
(for goals), and
A
(for assists),
and then clicking on
scatterplots
in the Show Me panel, as shown in
Figure 8-2
.
Figure 8-2. Creating a scatterplot using Show Me
Notice that Tableau has placed
SUM(G)
on the Columns shelf,
SUM(A)
on the Rows shelf, and
Player
in the Marks card (in the level of Detail). We could also have dragged these fields
out to their corresponding places instead of using Show Me to create the scatterplot.
