Using Sankey Diagrams

Use Sankey diagrams to show flows from one category to another, or paths from one stage to the next.
To create Sankey diagrams, you use a measure and two dimensions. One of the dimensions contains source categories, and the other contains destination categories. The measure determines the width of the links between the source and the destination categories.

In this sample Sankey diagram, the source node A on the left links to the destination nodes W, Y, and X on the right. The width of each link between the nodes depends on the measure added to the Weight field well. The nodes are automatically ordered.Sankey diagram

In this multilevel Sankey diagram, the A node on the left links to the W, Y, and X nodes in the middle, which then link to the Z node on the right.Multilevel Sankey diagram

When your data contains cycles, the nodes in each cycle are repeated in the diagram. For example, this cyclical Sankey diagram displays the flow A-E-A-B-A-E-A.Cyclical Sankey diagram

To create a Sankey diagram:
  1. Click Dashboards tab, the Dashboards tab.
  2. Click Dashboard Designer, in the bottom-left corner.
  3. On the Analyses dialog, click New analysis or click Options button, the Options button, next to an existing analysis and select Edit.
  4. On the analysis page, click , the Add visual button, on the toolbar.
    Analysis page - Create a visual
  5. Click the Sankey diagram icon.
    Sankey diagram icon
  6. Add data to the visual by dragging fields from the Data panel to the appropriate field wells in the Visuals panel:
    1. Drag a dimension to the Source field well.
    2. Drag a dimension to the Destination field well.
    3. Drag a measure to the Weight field well.
  7. Customize the appearance of the visual in the Properties panel on the right.
    1. Under Display Settings, format the title and subtitle.
      For more information, see Formatting Titles and Subtitles in Visuals.
    2. Under Source, enter the maximum number of source nodes in the Number of nodes displayed field.
    3. Under Destination, enter the maximum number of destination nodes per source node in the Number of nodes displayed field.
      The nodes in the diagram update based on your settings. The top nodes are automatically shown and all the other nodes are placed in the Other category. To remove the Other category from the diagram, select it in the visual and choose Hide "other" categories from the menu.
    4. Under Data labels, format the labels.
      For more information, see Formatting Data Labels in Visuals.
Parent topic: Creating Visuals