Creating Sparkline Charts

    In this tutorial, you will learn how to create Sparkline charts visualizations using a sample spreadsheet.

    Simple Sparkline Chart example Sparkline Area Chart example Sparkline with Day Aggregation example Sparkline with less columns and area chart example

    Access the links below for the Sparkline chart view walkthroughs:

    Key Concepts

    Sparkline charts are meant to display trends and their progression in a given date range. They are particular useful, like OHLC and Candlestick charts, for financial scenarios and stock movement analysis. Sparklines display line charts within a grid cell and require:

    • One field to be dropped in the Date placeholder of the data editor.

    • One field to be dropped in Value.

    • One field to be dropped into Category.

    When working with Sparkline charts, you can add, modify, or remove information on top of the data you want to display. This comes in the form of:

    • The chart type for your sparkline, which can either be a Line or Area chart.

    • The aggregation for the dates in your chart.

    • The number of values displayed within that same chart.

    • The explicit information you want to include in your sparkline's grid, including whether or not you want to include the last two months in your data and the difference between them.

    Sample Data Source

    For this tutorial, you will use the Sparkline Charts sheet in the Slingshot Visualization Tutorials.

    Note

    Excel files as local files are not supported in this release. In order to follow these tutorials, make sure you upload the file to one of the supported cloud services or add it as a Web Resource.

    Creating a Sparkline Chart

    1. Select the + Dashboard button in the top right-hand corner of My Analytics.

      New Dashboard button in My Analytics

    2. Select your data source (Slingshot Tutorials Spreadsheet) from the list of data sources. If the data source is new, you will need to first add it from the + Data Source button in the top-right corner.

      Select Slingshot Tutorials Spreadsheet as a data source

    3. Select the Sparkline Charts sheet.

      Select Sparkline Charts Spreadsheet.png

    4. Open the Visualization Picker and select the Sparkline Chart. By default, the visualization type will be set to Column.
      Select Sparkline Chart from Chart Types list

    5. Drag and drop the Date field into Date, Offer into Value and Stocks into Category.

      Organize SparklineChart Data

    Changing the Chart Type for the Sparkline

    You may want to change the type of chart you want to use for your sparkline chart. In order to do this:
    1. Access the Settings Menu Settings Menu Go to the Settings section of the Visualization Editor.
    2. Change the Chart Type Different chart types for Sparkline By default, the chart type will be set to line. Set it to Area.

    Changing the Date Aggregation

    By default, the aggregation for your information will be 12 months. You can change this by modifying the Show Last settings. In order to do so:
    1. Access the Settings Menu Settings Menu Go to the Settings section of the Visualization Editor.
    2. Change the Aggregation Option to Change the Date Aggregation for Sparkline chart By default, the Show Last setting will be set to Months. Select the dropdown next to Months and change the selection to either Years or Days.

    You can also choose to display more or less data by changing the number next to the date's aggregation.

    Modifying the amount of columns in the Sparkline

    In Slingshot, the amount of columns in the visualization is defined by whether or not you want to display the last two months and the difference between them. By default, these will be enabled. In order to remove them:
    1. Access the Settings Menu Settings Menu Go to the Settings section of the Visualization Editor.
    2. Change the Displayed Columns Different options for the columns in a Sparkline Chart Uncheck the "Show columns for last two values" or "Show column with difference" boxes if you do not want to display either of them in the Sparkline.