Comparing values across different dimensions

Often, you will want to compare the differences of measured values across different dimensions. You might find yourself asking questions like these:

• How much profit did I generate in each department?

• How many views did each of my websites get?

• How many cases did each doctor in the hospital treat last year?

In each case, you are looking to make a comparison (among departments, websites, or doctors) in terms of some quantitative measurement (profit, number of views, and the count of cases).

Bar charts

Here is a simple bar chart, created using the Superstore Sales data source, similar to the one we built in Chapter 1, Creating Your First Visualizations and Dashboard:

The sum of sales is easily compared for each category of item sold in the chain of stores. Category is used as a discrete dimension in the view, which defines row headers (because it is discrete) and slices the sum of sales for each category (because it is a dimension). Sales defines an axis...