Arrow Plots visualize the change between two points, using arrow bars to represent both direction and magnitude. They are effective at depicting changes across groups, such as states, regions, or product categories. Each arrow bar can be assigned colors in various ways, including to show direction of change, scale of change, or different categories.
In the Setup section, under the Chart tab, you can assign the following properties:
Because the margin sets the space between the chart axes and the edge of the container, ensure you add enough margin for any axis ticks or labels. If needed, use options in the Axes section such as Limit Tick Width, Limit Tick Characters, and Rotate Ticks to constrain the size of tick and label text.
In the Dataset section, you can select the dataset for your chart element. If you need to add a dataset, this can be done by selecting New Dataset in the Project tab.
If you are on the Pro plan, you can upload your own files (in csv format) to use as datasets, by clicking New Dataset and then Upload Dataset.
After you have selected a dataset, you can optionally enable the Prefilter Dataset switch, which lets you filter the data that is supplied to the chart. The filter is a "prefilter" because it is applied before the visualization is generated; end users are unable to adjust the filter dynamically.
Next, the Data Format is displayed, which is set to Long Data. Arrow plots only display a single data series, so there is no option to select Wide Data format (wide data format supports multiple series of data being added to a chart as additional columns).
Finally, choose the Fields that should be used to construct the chart:
You can establish connections to filter elements under the Chart tab, in the Connections section, by making a selection under Filter.
A Filter element can be styled as a series of checkboxes, a dropdown menu, or a slider. Values from the specified Filter Field appear as individual checkboxes, dropdown menu items, or (for numeric filtering) slider values. A given chart can be connected to one or more filters, and the same filter can be connected to multiple charts or other elements.
When a filter element is connected to a chart, it dynamically controls the dataset records displayed in the chart based on the user's selections. Filters can also adjust the chart's axis range dynamically, provided one of the chart's axis fields is the same as the filter's Filter Field and the Minimum and Maximum Range values of that axis are set to auto.
Additionally, filter elements can inherit color formatting from a chart, provided that the chart's Color Field is the same as the filter's Filter Field. For more information, see the Color Formatting section of the documentation for filter elements.
Typically, the Filter element you connect to will use the same Dataset as the chart element. However, this is not strictly necessary. If the filter and chart elements use different datasets, the filter will only affect the chart if the chart's dataset contains a field (column) with the same name as the Filter Field in the filter element. In this case, the values in these fields must at least partially align for the filter to take effect. Any non-matching values between the fields will be ignored during filtering.
You can choose how to sort the chart arrows under the Chart tab in the Sort section. Choose either to sort by the independent or dependent variable. In both cases, you can also choose to reverse the natural sort order.
In this section, you can customize the chart's Horizontal Axis and Vertical Axis. Whichever of these two axes is used for the independent variable is listed first in the user interface.
If you choose to specify exact tick values, ensure that they don't overlap with one another on tablet and mobile viewports.
The following chart formatting option applies to both axes:
Color formatting is defined in the Colors section under the Chart tab:
You can specify a Color Field, which can be a text field or numeric (number, currency, percent, or measurement) field from the selected dataset. If you select a text field, each unique value in that field will be treated as a category and can be assigned a color. For numeric fields, you can configure a Color Gradient, Domain Minimum and Maximum, and Color Scale. These features are explored in greater detail in our Colors page.
To color bars according to the direction the arrow faces, create a dataset text field (column) that contains either the value "increase" or "decrease" in each cell. Then select this field as the Color Field and assign it meaningful colors (often red for "decrease").
The Settings section under the Chart tab contains the following options:
Start Symbol: An arrow symbol is automatically displayed at the end of each arrow bar; enabling this option displays a symbol at the start of the arrow bar too. The symbol color always matches the remainder of the arrow bar. The following symbols are available:
Arrow Width: In arrow plots, change the width of the arrow bar from the default value, 1.5px.
In the Annotations section under the Chart tab, you can select Display Bar Annotations. This lets you append text adjacent to each arrow bar (to the left of arrows pointing leftward and to the right of arrows pointing rightward). You can choose any column to display here.
Tooltips can be enabled by selecting the Chart tab, navigating to the Tooltip section, and selecting Display Tooltip. These are automatically configured to display the fields selected in the chart.