How to build skyscrapers in tableau

So, you are thinking of making a visual to show the distribution of the various line items to the total within the category as well as overall categories

In our (beloved) superstore example, let’s say you want to see how one Sub-category is doing compared to others. In addition, you would like show often an order (or a customer) is providing profit for that sub category, consider a skyscraper graph

Here’s how to build one in 6 steps

Take “Sales” (or relevant metric) to Row

 

Take “Sub-category” (or the relevant dimension) to Columns

 

Take “Customer Name” (or the secondary dimension) to Detail

 

Add the metric (sales in this case) also to Size

 

Create a combined field for Primary and Secondary dimension and add it to detail

 

Add this field to the detail and sort it by your metric, change the Mark to be “Bars” instead of Automatic

 

Do a bit of formatting and you are done 🙂

Now, for bonus points, you can also add a beacon to your skyscraper using the WINDOW_SUM(SUM([Sales])) as another metric and making it a dual axis

And, you can make it look like this