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How to Create a Skyscraper Chart

Table of Contents

What is a Skyscraper Chart

Tableau’s Skyscraper Charts are Stacked Bar Charts that become narrower on top. As bar charts, they may display either horizontal bars or vertical columns. Full Skyscraper Charts are Skyscraper Charts normalized to a 100% size.

One single Skyscraper selection shows a single-series chart with all values piled as columns or bars on top of each other.

Steps to Create a Skyscraper Chart

Start Visual Xtractor or Data Xtractor. Connect to a database. Create or design a SQL query. Run the query and check the results.

  1. Display and enable the Chart query builder.
  2. Select one or more numeric columns as Stacked Charts – Skyscraper Bar.
  3. Set an optional text column as Label.
  4. Swap rows with columns to show horizontal bars instead of vertical columns.
  5. Get a Full Skyscraper Chart with one mouse button click.

Single-Series Skyscraper Bar Demo Query

Look for the ready-to-use Skyscraper Bar generated query under the Queries > Demo Queries > Charts > Bar Charts folder. Click on the “add demo queries” command link, if not there.

When you keep just one single Skyscraper Bar selection, you get a single-series chart with all values rendered as either columns or bars on top of each other, in one simple stack:

Skyscraper Bar

Multi-Series Skyscraper Chart Demo Query

Look now for the ready-to-use Skyscraper Column Chart generated query under the Queries > Demo Queries > Charts > Bar Charts folder.

Generated demo queries must work for any database, with no restriction. They use constant values generated on-the-fly and your database SQL engine, but do not depend on data from your tables, and never alter your database in any way.

Customize your Skyscraper Chart

  1. Swap rows with columns to render horizontal bars instead.
  2. Change the axis label orientation.
  3. Switch to Full Skyscraper Bars.
  4. Show percent data labels.
  5. Change the bar drawing style (to Emboss).
  6. Switch from multi to single-color.
  7. Switch into the 3D view.
  8. Hide series with click on the legend items.

Conclusion

  • Creating Skyscraper Charts in Data Xtractor or Visual Xtractor is easy and straightforward: set one or more numeric columns as Skyscraper Bar, one optional column as Label, and you get a Stacked Bar Chart with a slightly different drawing style.
  • Switch rows with columns to show horizontal bars instead.
  • Show 100% Full Skyscraper Charts with one mouse button click.
  • All builtin powerful features of these chart type are common to most other charts: filtering series through the legend items, interactivity, monochrome or grayscale colors, rich axis and data label selections etc.
  • Switch to another builtin chart theme, or customize your own, for any possible color or other styles.