---
title: "How to: Make a Slope Chart in Tableau"
description: Learn about what a slope chart is, why and where is it appropriate to use them. And also how to create one in Tableau Desktop.
---

[DDBM Blog ](https://www.ddbm.com/en/blog)

# [How to: Make a Slope Chart in Tableau](https://www.ddbm.com/en/blog/how-to-make-a-slope-chart-in-tableau)

 Written by [Emre Oktay](https://www.ddbm.com/en/blog/author/emre-oktay) | 27 Feb, 2022

## What is a Slope Chart?

Slope charts (or graphs) are essentially a streamlined version of a line chart. Meaning that a slope chart shows the developments between two points. The slope connecting the two points in the graph is linear, with 1 out of 3 directions: upwards, downwards or same level. These charts are a good solution to communicate a story taking place in two different timelines. They look something like this:

 Slope Chart Final

## Why Slope Charts?

There are several reasons why you might want to use a slope chart in your views, because:

- It is one of the best ways to visualize the trend between **multiple instances **over two periods of time.
- It is** less cluttered** than line charts.
- The story the data is trying to convey is **easily understood**.
- It is good for showing **crucial aspects of business** (changes in sales, costs prices,…).
- Details are **not **necessary to show.

## How to make a Slope Chart in Tableau

To make a slope chart, make sure you have two different instances that you can compare your data with, such as a time interval, countries, or essentially two different categories. In this example, I will use two different **years** to compare the most popular names in the United States.

In my dataset, I have:

- *Name*: The baby name
- *Count*: the count for how many times that name has been used
- *Birth Year*: the year ranging from 2011 to 2014

### Creating the Chart

First, I will drag the “*Birth Year*” field into columns and have the “*SUM(Count)*” on the rows. Make sure you have the year field on **discrete**.

 Slope Chart Step 1

Remember that slope charts work for visualizing the trends between two categories. Therefore I should have a filter on year, only showing two, such as 2011 and 2013, as shown below:

 Slope Chart Step 2

The next step is to label the individual names on the view. For this, I will drag the “*Name*” field into the **Label **marks card:

 Slope Chart Step 3

After this step, it is crucial to add a **rank **table calculation to the “*SUM(Count)*” and compute using “*Name*“.

1. Right-click “*SUM(Count)*” pill on columns > Quick Table Calculation > Rank
2. Right-click “*SUM(Count)*” pill on columns > Compute Using > “*Name*“

This will result in me being able to visualize the the difference in the number of times a name has occurred in 2011 and 2013. Here is how it looks:

 Slope Chart Step 4

However, this chart looks really cluttered. It would be best practice to filter the names. For the next step, I will add a filter to “*SUM(Count)*” that ranges from 1 to 10. That way I can see the top 10 names used in the years 2011 and 2013:

1. (CTRL + drag) the “*SUM(Count)*” pill to the Filters shelf > Select “**Range of Values**” > add “1” on the left text box and *“*10*“*on the right text box.
2. Press OK.
3. Right-click the “*Rank of Count*” axis > Select **Edit Axis** > Check “*Reversed*” box under Scale.

Without reversing the axis, we would see a descending order. And in normal ranking situations, number 1 is generally displayed at the top.

 Slope Chart Step 5

### Cleaning the Chart

This is pretty much all the steps you need to take to make a slope chart in Tableau. However, the steps after this include cleaning of the view which I think is quite important as well.

Steps for cleaning the view:

1. **Edit Labels**: Right-click and drag the “*SUM(Count)*” pill to the Label Marks card > Click the Label card and press “…” next to “*Text*” > Format the text to be: “``“
2. **Align View**: Click Label card and select “Line Ends” under Marks to Label heading > While on Label, select “Middle” under Alignment.
3. **Hide Axis and Grid Lines**: Right-Click “*Rank of Count*” Axis and un-check “Show Header” > Right-click the view > Select “Format” > Navigate to “Lines” tab > Select “Rows” > Choose “None” for the Grid Lines.

Once you complete these steps, the view looks like this:

 Slope Chart Step 6

From this view, I can observe the changes that occurred in ranking of the most popular baby names between 2011 to 2013 with a glance. “Jayden” seems to be the most popular name across the two timelines meanwhile the name “Matthew” has dropped significantly in popularity from 4th place to 10th.

In this blog post, I have described what a slope chart is and why and in what contexts it can be used. I also showed you an example on how to create one yourself.

[View full post](https://www.ddbm.com/en/blog/how-to-make-a-slope-chart-in-tableau)

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