How to Make a Sequential Path Map in Tableau

Prepare your data

Create your dataset so that each stop has a latitude, longitude, and path order. By looking up the latitude and longitude sets, you will have more flexibility when you create maps than you would if you use the automatically generated coordinates that Tableau applies to geographic fields. The path order is what tells Tableau how to connect the dots. Here’s how my underlying data looks for one of our trips (“Stop” = Path Order):

When you open this data for the first time in Tableau, your Stop field will be classified as a measure because it is quantitative. Make sure you change this field to a dimension by either dragging and dropping it from the Measures Shelf to the Dimensions Shelf, or by right-clicking on the measure and choosing “Convert to Dimension”.

Start your map

Using the dataset from step 1, begin your map in Tableau by placing your Longitude field on the Columns Shelf and your Latitude field on the Rows Shelf. It is important in this step to use the coordinates that you added to your dataset instead of the generated latitude and longitude in Tableau. You can always tell the difference because generated fields in Tableau are italicized.

Change the mark type for the Tableau path map

At this point, you should see a map with a single point. That single point represents the average for all of the coordinates in your data. Change the mark type from Automatic, which is set to circles by default, to Line. This change will reveal a new marks card called “Path”. The final step is to add the “Stop” (or path order) dimension to the Path Marks Card. This should connect the dots in the proper order, creating a sequential path.

Using the sample dataset from before, your final product should look like this:

Remember, many Tableau Public authors allow you to download their workbooks by clicking in the lower-right corner of an embedded Tableau Public viz. This is a great way to reverse engineer techniques that you want to incorporate into your own work.

Thanks for reading,
– Ryan

This content is excerpted from my book Practical Tableau: 100 Tips, Tutorials, and Strategies from a Tableau Zen Master published by O’Reilly Media Inc., 2018, ISBN: 978-1491977316. Get the book at Amazon.