Creating a parallel coordinate plot

The parallel coordinate plot is used to compare data values of different types or magnitudes. All values are presented as points on a line, or profile, with one point per data column. Items that are similar to each other often show a similar profile.

Before you begin

See Parallel coordinate plot for a description of the concept.

Procedure

On the authoring bar, click Visualization types to open the flyout.
Drag the Parallel coordinate plot visualization type to the desired position on the analysis page.
A suggestion of a parallel coordinate plot is presented.
Select the data columns you wish to include in the visualization:
1. Open the visualization properties and locate the Columns section. This looks slightly different depending on which client and which properties interface you use. The example below shows the visualization properties panel.
  
  Tip: Alternatively, you can click on the axis (not on a column name) and click the Select columns button to edit the columns:
2. Specify the columns of interest by adding or removing columns in the list, and in which order they should be shown (by using drag-and-drop in the visualization properties panel or by using the Move Up/Move Down buttons in the dialog).
When applicable, select which aggregation to apply for each of the columns to show:

Note: The aggregation settings are not available if (Row number) is selected on the Line by axis. See step 5.

Tip: If there is no proper need to actually aggregate data (for example, when looking at text columns), you can use the aggregation First, which picks the first valid value.
1. Click to select the column in the Show the following columns list (or in the Selected columns list in the visualization properties dialog).
  
  Tip: You can press Ctrl on the keyboard and click on multiple columns in the list to enable editing of the aggregation for all of them simultaneously.
2. In the Aggregation drop-down list, select the desired aggregation type.
On the Line by or Color by axis, select the columns whose values you want to represent as lines.
If the lines are being colored by a column or hierarchy with more categories than the one selected on Line by, there will be no visible effect when changing the line by setting, because the coloring has already split the lines more granular (and vice versa).

Tip: You can also apply coloring by opening the Data in analysis flyout and drag the desired column to the center of the visualization and drop it on the color target.

Example

In the data table below, details about hotels at a tourist resort are listed. The values in the columns are of completely different types and incomparable to each other.
Data table showing details about hotels.

Data table showing details about hotels.

By creating the parallel coordinate plot below with one line per hotel, it is possible to compare the hotels and find a hotel that suits you. Here, the Color axis is used to split the data per hotel.
Parallel Coordinate Plot with one line per hotel.

Parallel Coordinate Plot with one line per hotel.

Perhaps Waterfront is a good choice, because you get a large room for a fair rate, and it is located not too far away from neither the beach nor the city. In addition, breakfast is included in the price, and the ranking is OK.

Tip: The actual values in a column can be shown along the right-hand side of the visualization. Click the X-axis label for the column you are interested in.