The following blog by Brian Moore was originally published on Do Mo(o)re With Data January 19, 2022 and is cross-posted here with permission. Brian is a Tableau Ambassador and a Senior Data Analytics and Viz Consultant for Cleartelligence.
This is the third and final part of our series on creating curved elements in Tableau. Although this post covers new and different techniques, I would recommend checking out Part 1 of the series here as some of the concepts overlap. This post will focus on sigmoid curves and a few different techniques to build them, depending on what you’re trying to do and what your data looks like. To follow along, you can download the sample data here, and the sample workbook here.
Sigmoid Curves
This is a sigmoid curve. Whether you realize it or not, these curves are everywhere on Tableau Public. Sankeys? Sigmoid Curves. Curvy lines on a map? Sigmoid Curves. Curvy bump charts, or curvy slope charts, or curvy dendrograms, or curvy area charts? All Sigmoid Curves. The main difference between this type of curve and the Bezier curves we discussed in Part 2 of this series, is that only 2 points are needed to draw a Sigmoid Curve. If you have the start point, the end point, and the right formulas, the math will take over and create that nice symmetric s-shaped curve for you. So what formulas should you use? The answer is, as with most things in Tableau, it depends. We’re going to cover two different models for drawing Sigmoid curves, we’ll call them the ‘Standard’ model, and the ‘Dynamic’ model.
Think about most of the chart types that use sigmoid Curves. Sankeys, Curvy slope or bump charts, dendrograms…they all have something in common. The start of the lines and the end of the lines are uniform. If they are running from left to right, the start of all of the lines share an X value, and the end of all of the lines share an X value (columns). If they are running from top to bottom, the start of all of the lines share a Y value, and the end of all of the lines share a Y value (rows). When these conditions are true, which they will be in 99% of the applications in Tableau, you can use the ‘Standard’ model. If either of those conditions are not true, you can use the ‘Dynamic’ model.
Since the majority of the time you will be using the ‘Standard’ model, let’s start with that one.
Building Your Data Source
To build our data source we are going to follow the same process that we did in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. We are going to create additional points by joining our sample data to a densification table using join calculations (value of 1 on each side of the join). For this first example, we are going to use the sheet titled ‘Slope Chart’ for our sample data, and the sheet titled ‘SigmoidModel’ for our densification table. You can download the sample files here.
Here is our sample file that we will use to draw 12 curved lines, from left to right.
You may notice that the densification table looks a little different. In previous parts of this series, the densification table was a single column with numbers 1 thru however many points you wanted to create. For this model, we have 2 columns, ‘t’ and ‘Path’. The Path value will be used to tell Tableau how to connect the points (think connect the dots). The ‘t’ value is going to be used to draw the curve and will be a value evenly spaced between -6 and 6. For our example, we are using 24 points, so we will have a value at every .5 increment (-6, -5.5, -5, …). If you want your curve to be a little smoother, you could use 48 points and have a value at every .25 increment (-6, -5.75, -5.5, …). Really, you can use any number of points, you’ll just need to do the math to get t values that are evenly spaced between -6 and 6. Why -6 and 6? I have absolutely no idea and I’m not going to pretend to. I’m just here to show you how to make cool curvy things, and to do this cool curvy thing, you need values evenly spaced between -6 and 6.
Here is our densification table:
Building Your Calculations
Once we join those files together, there are only two calculations needed to turn the points from our sample data into curved lines.
Sigmoid
1/(1+EXP(1)^-[T])
Curve
[Start Position] + (([End Position] – [Start Position]) * [Sigmoid])
Essentially what these calculations are doing are determining the total vertical distance that needs to be travelled (End Position – Start Position) and then the Sigmoid function spaces these points appropriately on the Y axis to create the S-shaped curve. Let’s build our view and then come back to this.
Build Your Curves
Follow the steps below to build your curves:
Right click on the [T] field, drag it to columns, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘T’ without aggregation
Right click on the [Curve] field, drag it to rows, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘Curve’ without aggregation
Change [LineID] to a Dimension, and drag it to color
Change the Mark Type to ‘Line’
For this example, you may not need to address the ‘Path’, but I find it’s good practice when dealing with lines and polygons.
Right click on the [Path] field, drag it to Path, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘Path’ without aggregation
When you finish, your worksheet should look like this:
With just two calculations, we were able to draw those nice curved lines. Let’s quickly re-visit those calcs. Our Sigmoid calculation is a mathematical function with values ranging between 0 and 1 depending on the ‘T’ value. The table below shows the Sigmoid Value for each T value and the second row shows the difference from the previous value. Notice that at the beginning and the end, the values don’t change much from one step to the next, but towards the middle the values change much more rapidly. And where T=0, the value is .5.
Now let’s look at that in context with our lines and with our Curve calculation. Notice that the vertical position for each of the points on the line doesn’t change much at the beginning or the end, but does change rapidly as it approaches the center. And the center of each line is exactly half way between the starting position and the ending position.
For example, Line 4 starts at position 4 and ends at position 10. At T=0, the vertical position is at 7, halfway between 4 and 10. Let’s plug this line into our calculation. Remember, from the table above, the value of Sigmoid at T=0 is .5
Curve = [Start Position] + (([End Position] – [Start Position]) * [Sigmoid])
or
Curve = 4 + ((10 – 4) * .5) = 7
And let’s do this with one other point, just for good measure. If we look at the table above, we see that the Sigmoid value at T=-3 is .047
Curve = 4 + ((10 – 4) * .047) = 4.28
If you look at the image above, you’ll notice that at T=-3, the vertical position is just above the 4, or 4.28 to be exact. That’s enough math for now, let’s look at some other fun examples.
More Examples – Dendrogram
Now let’s follow the same exact process for the curvy slope chart above, but change up our data a little bit. For this example we are going to use the sheet titled ‘Dendrogram’ for our data, and we’ll use the same ‘SigmoidModel’ sheet for our densification. Here is our sample data.
In this example, our starting position is the same for all of our lines and is halfway between the minimum end position (1) and the maximum end position (12). If you follow the same process your sheet should look something like this.
Now just for fun, let’s make that starting point dynamic. Create a numeric parameter called [Dynamic_Start] and then create a new field called [Dynamic_Curve]. This will be exactly the same as our [Curve] calculation but we’ll replace the [Start_Position] field with [Dynamic_Start].
Dynamic Curve
[Dynamic Start] + (([End Position] – [Dynamic Start]) * [Sigmoid])
Now in your view, just replace the [Curve] field on Rows with the [Dynamic Curve] field and you should have something like this.
More Examples – Sankey
This is not going to be an in-depth tutorial on how to create Sankey diagrams. People much smarter than me (check out flerlagetwins.com) have written many posts and shared many templates for anyone interested in building one. This section will be dedicated more to the mechanics of a Sankey diagram and how we can take what we’ve already learned in the previous examples and apply them towards building a Sankey diagram. The one main difference between what we’ve done so far and what we’re going to do now lies in the Mark Type. It’s time for some polygon fun.
Essentially what we need to do is draw 2 lines for every 1 ‘Sankey Line’ and then connect them together. Typically, you would use table calculations in Tableau to figure out the positions of these lines, but we are going to keep it simple and use some data from our sample file. What we’re actually building is probably more of a Slope Chart, since each segment will be of equal width, but the fundamentals are the same as with a true Sankey Diagram. For this example we are going to use the sheet titled ‘Sankey’ and for our densification we’re going to use the sheet titled ‘SankeyModel’. Here is our sample data
You may notice that this densification table has some additional data. It has twice as many records and a new column called ‘Side’ with values ‘Min’ and ‘Max’. This is because for each segment, or ‘Sankey Line’ we will actually be drawing two lines, a Min Line and a Max Line.
Here’s out densification data:
Building Your Calculations
We are still going to use the same 2 fields, Sigmoid and Curve, but in this case, the calculation for Curve will be a little different.
Sigmoid
1/(1+EXP(1)^-[T])
We have the two points needed for one of our lines (Start_Position and End_Position), we’ll call this the Min Line. But we need the two points for our Max Line as well. As I mentioned earlier, in this example all of our segments are going to be equal width, so we’ll just add 1 to our position fields.
Start_Position_Max
[Start_Position]+1
End_Position_Max
[End_Position]+1
And now we have the points needed to draw all of our curves.
Curve
IF [Side]=’Min’ then [Start_Position] + (([End_Position] – [Start_Position]) * [Sigmoid]) ELSE [Start_Position_Max] + (([End_Position_Max] – [Start_Position_Max]) * [Sigmoid]) END
This calculation may look complicated, but it’s almost identical to the Curve calculation we were using earlier. When we joined to the SankeyModel, it essentially created two sets of points for us. We have all of the same T values as we did earlier (24 points ranging from -6 thru 6), but now we have 2 of each, one where [Side] = ‘Min’ and one where [Side] = ‘Max’. So we can use this to draw two lines. The first part of the IF statement is for the ‘Min’ line. It is exactly the same as our previous Curve calculation. The second part of the IF statement (ELSE) is for the ‘Max’ line and it is the same calculation but using the [Start_Position_Max] and [End_Position_Max] fields.
Build Your Curves
To start, let’s follow the same process we did earlier, but with a couple of minor changes:
Right click on the [T] field, drag it to columns, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘T’ without aggregation
Right click on the [Curve] field, drag it to rows, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘Curve’ without aggregation
Change [LineID] to a Dimension, and drag it to color
Change the Mark Type to ‘Line’
Drag [Side] to Detail
Your sheet should look something like this:
This is starting to look like a Sankey diagram. For each LineID we have two lines that are moving together, we just need to ‘color them in’, and we’ll do that by converting them to polygons. So change the Mark Type to polygon.
Uh-oh. What happened?
So because we have [Side] on detail, it’s treating our Min and Max lines as separate polygons. We want them treated as 1 polygon, so surely removing the [Side] field will fix it.
$@!%!!!!
Alright, we can figure this out. Remember how earlier I said it was always good practice to address the Path on the Marks Card when using lines and polygons? Let’s try right clicking on our [Path] field, dragging that to Path and adding it without any aggregation.
Ahhh, that’s better.
Now let’s figure out what happened. We know why we had to remove the [Side] field, but how did the [Path] field fix our worksheet. If you look at the densification table, you’ll see that the T values go from -6 up to 6 and then repeat in the reverse order. The Path field on the other hand is sequential from 0 thru 49. Let’s take a look at the [Path] values in relation to the [T] values:
So our [T] and [Curve] fields are telling Tableau where to plot all of the points, and then our [Path] field is telling Tableau the order in which to connect those points to form our polygon. And that is basically all you need to know about using Polygons in Tableau. Just Points and Path.
Let’s take a look at one more example of something you can do with the ‘Standard’ Model.
More Examples – Proportion Plot
The process for building a Proportion Plot is going to be very similar to what we did in the previous example. For this, we are going to use the sheet titled ‘Proportion’ for our sample data, and we’ll use the ‘SankeyModel’ sheet again for our densification. Here is our sample data.
You’ll notice that this table has a couple of extra columns. The ‘Run’ columns are just running totals of the Start_Value and End_Value columns. Again, this would typically be done with table calculations in Tableau, but to keep things simple we are doing those calculations in the data source. Now let’s build our calculations.
Building Your Calculations
Once again we are going to use those same two calculations, but with some minor modifications. First, our Sigmoid calculation, which is always the same.
Sigmoid
1/(1+EXP(1)^-[T])
Now, similar to the Sankey example, we need to draw two sets of line for each section. So we’ll need the start and end positions for our Min Line and the start and end positions for our Max Line. Because this is a Proportion Plot (part of a whole), we want all of our values represented as percentages. So we’ll calculate what our position should be and then divide that number by the total of the column (or the maximum value in the running total column) to translate that start position into a percentage of the whole.
Start Position Min
([Start_Value_Run]-[Start_Value])/{MAX([Start_Value_Run])}
End Position Min
([End_Value_Run]-[End_Value])/{MAX([End_Value_Run])}
Let’s take a closer look at this before we move on. We’ll use Section #2 from the table above. For the Starting Position (Start Position Min) we are going to subtract the value of that section from the running total to get the starting position.
So section #2 would start at 35 (90-55=35). Then we’ll divide that by 115, which is the total of the column, and the maximum value of the running total column, which gives us 30.4%. So this section of our Proportion Plot is going to start 30.4% of the way up our Y Axis. Now we’ll repeat for the Max Lines. These calculations will be the same except we do not need to subtract the value of the section. We just want the running total divided by the grand total.
Start Position Max
[Start_Value_Run]/{MAX([Start_Value_Run])}
End Position Max
[End_Value_Run]/{MAX([End_Value_Run])}
Using section #2 as an example again, we would divide 90 (the running total value) by 115 (the total of the column or the max value of the running total column) and get 78.3%. So we want this section of our Proportion Plot to start 30.4% of the way up the Y axis and end 78.3% of the way up the Y axis. And now for the Curve calculation, we’ll use the same calculation that we did in the Sankey Example
Curve
IF [Side]=’Min’ then [Start_Position_Min] + (([End_Position_Min] – [Start_Position_Min]) * [Sigmoid]) ELSE [Start_Position_Max] + (([End_Position_Max] – [Start_Position_Max]) * [Sigmoid]) END
Build Your Curves
Now we’ll follow the same process to build our view
Right click on the [T] field, drag it to columns, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘T’ without aggregation
Right click on the [Curve] field, drag it to rows, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘Curve’ without aggregation
Change [Section] to a Dimension, and drag it to color
Change the Mark Type to ‘Polygon’
Right click on the [Path] field, drag it to Path, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘Path’ without aggregation
When you’re finished, your sheet should look something like this:
If you look at section #2, the orange section, you’ll see that on the left side (the starting positions), it ranges from 30.4% to 78.3%, which is what we had calculated in our example. So it accounts for about 48% of the total (55 / 115=.48) and it starts at about 30% (35 / 115)
That’s it for the ‘Standard Model’. Now we are going to jump into one quick example with the ‘Dynamic Model’.
Dynamic Model
As I mentioned earlier, 99% of the time you are going to want to use the ‘Standard’ model, but there are instances where that may not work. One example use case, which has been popular in recent years, is drawing curved lines on a map that connect to another chart. So let’s use that.
Building Your Data Source
For this example we are going to draw curved lines from 9 U.S. states and have them end in a uniform column on the right side of our sheet, so we can connect them to another chart. For this we’ll use the sheet titled ‘Dynamic’ for our sample data and we’ll use the ‘SigmoidModel’ sheet for our densification. Here is our sample data.
So for each of our states we have the starting points (the lat and lon for the state), but we need to figure out our end points. This can be done in a lot of different ways. You can do it manually and plug those values into your data source. Personally, I like to calculate them in Tableau. But those calcs will be dramatically different depending on your use case. For this example, we are going to draw our lines from left to right and they will all end in a uniform column to the right of the U.S. and will be spaced evenly between the lowest state and highest state in our sample data. If your use case is different, you can most likely modify these calculations to get what you need, and as always, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. So let’s calculate our end points. Keep in mind that this step is completely optional. If you prefer to have static points in your data source for the end points, just name them End_Lat and End_Lon and skip ahead to the next calculation.
Build Your Calculations
This first calculation will be used to find the latitude for our end points. The calculation looks complicated but we will break it down.
End_Lat
{MAX([Lat])} – (({MAX([Lat])}-{MIN([Lat])})/{COUNTD([State])-1}) * ([Rank]-1)
The first portion of this calculation, {MAX([Lat])}, is used to find our ‘reference point’, which will be the maximum latitude in our sample data. The next portion of the calculation, ({MAX([Lat])}-{MIN([Lat])}) gets our ‘range’, or the maximum latitude minus the minimum latitude. Then we divide that range by the number of states -1 to get the spacing between points, or {COUNTD([State])-1}. And then we multiply that spacing by the Rank -1 (so that the first point starts at our max Lat).
So an easier version of this formula is Ref Point – ((Range/Number of States -1) *( Rank -1)
Now we need to calculate the longitude for our end points. This is much easier. We want all of our lines to end in the same column, so they will all have the same longitude. I like to use parameters rather than hardcoding values, so you can easily adjust the position of things. So let’s create a parameter called [Line End Offset] and set that value to 10. Then our calculation is just the maximum longitude value in our data + our offset parameter
End_Lon
{MAX([Lon])} + [Line End Offset]
So now we have the two sets of points that we’ll need to draw our lines. If we were to stop here and just map those two sets of points, we would have a point on the center of each of our states (blue) and then a column of points to the right of the U.S. (orange).
Now for the rest of our calculations. Once again we’ll need the Sigmoid calculation.
Sigmoid
1/(1+EXP(1)^-[T])
The Curve calculation is exactly the same as all of the previous examples just with different field names.
Curve
[Lat] + (([End Lat] – [Lat]) * [Sigmoid])
The main difference between the ‘Dynamic’ model and the ‘Standard’ model lies in the spacing of the points. In the Dynamic model, points are spaced evenly between -6 and 6 and we can just use the [T] field on columns. That obviously won’t work on a map. We have different longitudes for all of our starting points, so we’ll need to adjust the approach a little bit. Instead of evenly spacing points between -6 and 6, we need to evenly space them between our starting and ending longitudes. So we’ll take the total horizontal distance (ending longitude – starting longitude) and divide it by the number of points in our densification table -1.
Point Spacing
([End Lon]-[Lon])/({COUNTD([Path])-1})
Now we’ll use that calculation, along with the [Path] field and our starting longitude to create points that are equally distant between our starting and ending longitude.
Lon_Adjusted
[Lon] + [Path]*[Point Spacing]
Build Your Curves
Now that we have all of our calculations, let’s build our curve:
Right Click on [Lon_Adjusted], go to ‘Geographic Role’ and select ‘Longitude’
Right Click on [Curve], go to ‘Geographic Role’ and select ‘Latitude’
Right click on the [Lon_Adjusted] field, drag it to columns, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘Lon_Adjusted’ without aggregation
Right click on the [Curve] field, drag it to rows, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘Curve’ without aggregation
Drag [State] to Color
Change the Mark Type to ‘Line’
Right click on the [Path] field, drag it to Path, and when prompted, choose the top option ‘Path’ without aggregation
When you’re done, your sheet should look something like this:
Now with just a few modifications to the ‘Standard’ model, we were able to build our Sigmoid curves with different starting points. This example was for building lines that run left to right, but you can just as easily build them from top to bottom. The calculations and example for that can be found in the sample workbook here. Just use the fields with the ‘Ttb’ suffix.
If you’re still reading this, I apologize for the incredibly long post. There are just so many things you can do with Sigmoid Curves and I wanted to demonstrate how, with basically the same technique, you can build a huge variety of cool curvy things in Tableau. If you’re interested in learning more about Sigmoid Curves, definitely check out flerlagetwins.com. Ken and Kevin are incredible and everything I know about Sigmoid Curves (and a lot of other things that will eventually be covered in this blog), I learned from them.
Here are a few examples of where I’ve used Sigmoid Curves in my Tableau Public Work (click thumbnail to view on Tableau Public).
Standard Model
Dynamic Model
