Brilliant Qlikview Parallel Co-Ordinates Chart
It’s time for a Big Dog chart…from a Big Dog; this piece of awesomeness came via Alistair Eaves Director of Qlikview Labs and therefore Qlikview Geek Number One; it’s the Parallel Co-Ordinates Chart:
About as good as it gets.
What complicated Extension Object is used to create this wonderous graphic? – none; it’s a bog standard Line Chart; in my mind that makes it all the more brilliant. This was posted to the Qlikview Community by Alistair but for some reason was removed during the recent re-vamp so many of you may well have missed it, and this certainly isn’t a chart to miss out on, it does things other charts just can’t do. I imagine you may well be looking at the above example and be thinking; ‘that’s just crazy, it’s not showing anything’ – how wrong you are; this is one of the clearest charts going; you just have to know what’s going on.
The chart is ideal for showing spreads between various positions, in my example we’re seeing Insurance Quotes and the volume at various positions; the Title of the applicant, the current Status of the Quote, what Products the Quote includes and which Month the Quote was created in, I can instantly see from the chart that the majority of my Quotes are coming from Men, they’re Inforce, spread across all products and were mostly created in May – awesome; the entire position of a business in one glance at one chart. This could of course just as easily be showing the position of Orders, Sales, Claims etc etc and can work based on a sum (eg of Sales) just as easily as counts of volume.
That’s not all; the chart is dynamic; the user can choose which fields to show on the chart, which field will drive the colour split AND despite it’s complexity it’s easily transferable due to it’s usage of generic expressions.
I’m not going to even try to explain how to build this from scratch as it’s far too complicated…but fortunately; I managed to grab a copy of it before it was removed from the Community site, it can be downloaded here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0nQ9tZcY4wzMjBhNGQ4ZDctYTQ0Yi00ZjA0LWI3YTktNGUwYTE5MmI1ZjAx
As a note towards actually using this chart; not all fields are suitable to be selected as they have too many values; you’re never going to be able to show ‘CustomerID’ on here for example (not without significant pre-selections) so as I have you’ll need to make a few adjustments before setting it loose on users…and as always; tell them what it’s showing or they’ll revert to looking at a Straight Table.
This chart is the essence of what I’m trying to achieve with QVDesign; it’s a great chart that uses nothing that isn’t straight out of the Qlikview box but has to my knowledge never been readily promoted by Qliktech; and why not? – it’s beautiful, shows information in a sublime way, the only new chart from Qliktech I’ve seen in my QV Lifetime has been the Mekko Chart…ever used one?; no, me neither.
So; be brave and get it integrated into a dashboard and blow someones mind with what’s possible (I wish I’d had this when I was in Technical Pre-Sales!).
All the best,
Matt
Hi Matt,
I’m glad you made this tutorial. I have used the parallel coordinates in couple of applications in the past…where there was relationships. It works like a charm and lot of people liked this one. I have taken this from Insurance QV Example file. I was just thinking to make a video demonstration on how to set up this chart. Glad you have done this
Cheers – DV
Amazing post! Keep them coming, I’m hooked!
How do I read the 100% professional liability? Does that mean every policy had that on it?
Yes, in this instance a Quote can have multiple ‘Sections’; it’s not an ‘either / or’ scenario, just like a Sales Order may well be for more than one Product or Product Group.
All the best,
Matt
Matt
What a great find! I managed to get this when it was first on the community site but never had the time to properly look over it. Second time around and its now in one of my dashboards and looks ace! Although the only thing i have noticed is that if i select 5 fields it stops displaying the categories and percentages – oh well, untill i can sort that out then i’ll stick to 4 fields!
Its always nice to see new chart types (although this is a very clever use of a line chart)…
Ta Lewis
Hi Matt
I wonder if you can post it again, is really special, and I need it, but is not anymore available.
please help me
Maria Cecilia Lopez
Maria,
The link still works for me – I have had issues in the past when using Internet Explorer so I’d suggest using FireFox as an alternative.
All the best,
Matt
Hi Matt,
This chart looks amazing ! Plus I think the business benefit can be huge as it can really help you understand relationships between things.
I downloaded the example and adapted it on another data set. However, it seems that dimension values are sometimes mixed up (they do not appear in the correct column). I can’t figure out why… Then I noticed that it is the same in the example file you posted. Am I missing something ?
For example the Product “Traveller” is repeated accross all columns, same for “Broker” value (which should only appear under the Channel column.
Any help would be greatly appriciated!
Regards,
Bob
Hi,
I have tried to use this chart in my application. But there were some improper results. Dual function is not working properly in QV11SR2. It is taking the same text representation for the same number.
Means, if values(Expat Saver,Annually) under two different fields(Product,Subscription) has the same number representation, then the values are not getting displayed properly. Its showing the same value(Annually) for both the fields.
Is there any work around to solve this.