How to Make a Combo Chart in Tableau

Building a combo chart in Tableau allows you to layer two different data visualizations into a single, cohesive chart. This is perfect for comparing two measures with different scales or highlighting the relationship between them. This tutorial will walk you through creating a dual-axis combo chart step-by-step, helping you turn complex data into a clear story.

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What is a Combo Chart, and Why is It So Useful?

A combination chart, or combo chart, is a single visualization that uses different chart types to display data. The most common combination is a bar chart layered with a line chart. By using two different Y-axes (a "dual axis"), you can effectively plot measures with completely different scales on the same graph.

Why would you need this? Imagine you're a marketing manager. You have data on your monthly advertising spend (in thousands of dollars) and your website conversion rate (a percentage). Trying to plot both on a single axis would be impossible, the high dollar values of your ad spend would completely flatten the tiny percentage values of your conversion rate, making the line look like a flat line at zero.

This is where combo charts shine. They let you answer questions like:

• How did our total sales (bars) correlate with our profit margin (line) each quarter?
• Which marketing campaigns had the highest ad spend (bars) versus the best click-through rate (line)?
• As we increased the number of items sold per store (bars), how did it affect our average customer rating (line)?

By blending two chart types, you create a richer context that a simple bar or line chart can't provide on its own. It's a fundamental skill for anyone looking to build more insightful dashboards in Tableau.

Data You'll Need for a Combo Chart

To follow along, you just need a straightforward dataset. The core requirement is to have at least two measures (the numbers you want to analyze) and one dimension (the category you want to group them by).

A classic example, which we'll use here, is time-series data related to business performance. Let's assume we have a simple data source with the following fields:

• Order Date: A date dimension. We'll look at this by month.
• Sales: A measure showing total revenue in dollars.
• Profit Ratio: A measure showing profitability as a percentage.

This is a perfect scenario for a combo chart. Sales will be a high dollar value, and Profit Ratio will be a low percentage value. Let’s start building.

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How to Make a Combo Chart in Tableau Step-By-Step

Once you connect to your data source in Tableau, creating a combo chart comes down to a few key steps involving the Rows shelf and the Marks card. We’ll combine a bar chart for total Sales and a line chart for Profit Ratio.

Step 1: Set Up the Initial Bar Chart

First, let’s visualize our monthly sales. This will form the foundation of our combo chart.

1. Drag your date dimension, Order Date, onto the Columns shelf. Tableau will likely default to YEAR(Order Date). Right-click the blue pill and select "Month" (the second one, which shows both month and year like "May 2023," for a continuous view).
2. Next, drag your first measure, Sales, onto the Rows shelf.

Tableau will automatically generate a line chart. To turn this into our base bar chart, go to the Marks card, click the dropdown menu that says "Automatic," and select Bar. You should now see a simple bar chart showing sales for each month.

Step 2: Add the Second Measure to the View

Now, it's time to bring in our second measure, Profit Ratio. This is where the magic starts.

• Drag Profit Ratio from your Measures list and drop it on the Rows shelf, right next to the existing SUM(Sales) pill.

At this point, Tableau will create two separate charts in the same view - a bar chart for Sales on top and another bar chart (or line chart, depending on your defaults) for Profit Ratio below it. They are separate and using independent axes. Our next step is to combine them.

Step 3: Create the Dual-Axis Chart

The "Dual Axis" feature is the key to creating a combo chart in Tableau. It instructs Tableau to overlay the two separate charts on top of each other and create a second Y-axis on the right-hand side for the second measure.

1. Find the second measure pill on your Rows shelf (it should be AGG(Profit Ratio) or a similar name).
2. Right-click this pill.
3. In the context menu that appears, select Dual Axis.

Instantly, your view will change. The two charts will be combined into one, and you’ll now see an axis on the left (for Sales) and a new axis on the right (for Profit Ratio). Tableau has overlaid the two visualizations, though they might be the same chart type for now.

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Step 4: Change the Mark Type for Each Measure

The next step is to assign a unique chart type to each measure. When you created the dual-axis chart, Tableau also updated your Marks shelf. You now have three tabs on the Marks shelf: "All", "SUM(Sales)", and "AGG(Profit Ratio)". This allows you to control the properties of each layer independently.

1. Click on the Marks card tab for SUM(Sales). Make sure its mark type is set to Bar. You can also adjust its color here if you like.
2. Next, click on the Marks card tab for AGG(Profit Ratio). Click its dropdown menu and change the mark type to Line.

There it is! You now have a combo chart showcasing monthly sales as bars and the profit ratio as a smooth line running across them. Each measure is plotted against its own axis, making both perfectly readable.

Step 5: Synchronize an Axis (When Necessary)

This optional but often critical step ensures your chart is not misleading. In our current example of Sales (dollars) and Profit Ratio (percentage), we want the axes to be independent. They represent totally different units.

However, if you were comparing two measures that share the same unit, like Sales vs. Profit (both in dollars), you should synchronize the axes. If you don't, Tableau might set different scales for each axis automatically, making a smaller number look misleadingly large.

To synchronize an axis:

• Right-click on the secondary axis (the one on the right).
• Select Synchronize Axis from the menu.

This simple action locks both axes to the same scale, ensuring an honest, apples-to-apples comparison. For our Sales vs. Profit Ratio chart, we'll keep them unsynchronized.

Customizing Your Combo Chart for Maximum Clarity

A functional chart is good, but a clear and communicative chart is better. A few simple tweaks can elevate your combo chart from a technical exercise to a powerful storytelling tool.

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Manage Your Colors and Sizing

Colors should guide the user's eye, not confuse it. Click on the Marks shelves for each of your measures to assign distinct colors. A common practice is to use a muted color like grey or light blue for the bars and a bold, contrasting color for the line to make it pop. You can also adjust the size of the bars or the thickness of the line to put more emphasis on one measure over another.

Clean Up Your Tooltips

A tooltip appears when a user hovers over a data point. By default, it can be a bit messy. Take a moment to customize it for clarity.

• Click on the Tooltip button on the Marks card (for "All"). You can edit the text and fields in the pop-up window to create a clean, logical label that provides all necessary information in one go, like:

Month: &lt,MONTH(Order Date)&gt, Total Sales: $&lt,SUM(Sales)&gt, Profit Ratio: &lt,AGG(Profit Ratio)&gt,%

Give Your Axes Clear Titles

Never leave your audience guessing what your axes represent. To edit an axis title, simply right-click the axis and select "Edit Axis...". In the dialog box, you can change the Title. For instance, title the left axis "Total Sales (USD)" and the right axis "Profit Ratio (%)". This little detail adds a lot of professional polish.

Final Thoughts

You've now successfully built a dual-axis combo chart in Tableau. This technique is fantastic for showing the relationship between two different metrics, providing deeper context than a single chart ever could. Mastering this skill unlocks a whole new level of dashboarding capabilities, allowing you to build views that are both data-rich and easy to interpret.

While powerful tools like Tableau offer endless customization, we know the learning curve can be steep and the process time-consuming. We built Graphed because we wanted to turn hours of meticulous chart building into a simple conversation. Instead of working through multiple steps to create a dual-axis chart, you can simply connect your data and ask things like, "compare my sales as a bar chart and my profit ratio as a line chart by month." Graphed instantly handles the data connections, chart creation, and setup, giving you back time to focus on what the data actually means, not how to format it.