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Tableau | Data visualisation

How to build a Bullet chart in Tableau | Tableau Charts

In two minutes I'll turn a plain bar chart into a working bullet chart in Tableau.

Tim Ngwena •6 February 2023 •1 min read •4 min watch •21K

Part ofTableau Charts

Watch on YouTube

Start with a simple bar chart using regions on rows and current cells on columns
Add target and previous year cells to detail so they're available as reference lines
Use a reference line set per cell with sum aggregation to show the target
Create a dual axis to layer the previous year bar behind the current cells bar, then synchronise the axes
Hide and show headers carefully when reordering pills so both axes remain visible

0:00Hey it's Tim here, in the next two minutes

0:01I'll show you how to make a bullet chart in

0:03Tableau.

0:04We essentially start off by making a bar

0:06chart, we'll go ahead and grab the regions

0:08and put it on

0:09rows and then we'll get the current cells

0:10and put it on columns. The reason it says

0:12current cells,

0:13previous year cells and target cells is

0:15because I'm not calculating these. You

0:17might need to do

0:18this with your data set so just bear that

0:19in mind. Now I need a little bit more space

0:22to work here

0:22and you can see the axis isn't showing for

0:24some reason so let's go ahead and tick this

0:26option

0:26here to show the header so that it comes

0:28back and when I hover my mouse just over

0:30here on the

0:31bottom you can see I get this up and down

0:32arrow I can use that just to give myself a

0:34bit more space.

0:35Now we're going to get target cells and put

0:37it on detail and we're going to get

0:39previous year's

0:40cells and put that on detail too. The

0:42reason I'm doing that is because I want

0:43these values to be in

0:44the context of the visualization so I'll go

0:47ahead and right click on the axis, add a

0:49reference line

0:50and you'll see those two values are now

0:52available for me. So if you want a line to

0:54be the target,

0:55a reference line, we can go ahead and set

0:57that and make sure it's working on each row

1:00essentially per

1:01cell and for this we want to make sure the

1:03aggregation is a sum because it's adding up

1:05all

1:05the aggregate values that sit underneath

1:07this. We'll go ahead disable the label so

1:09that it's not

1:10showing up. We'll make this a little bit

1:12thicker and yeah we'll keep it at that

1:14actually we'll keep

1:15it gray and we'll leave it like that. So

1:16now we've got a nice reference line showing

1:18us what the

1:19target cells should be. The next thing to

1:21do is this previous year cells. What we

1:23need to do with

1:24this is essentially put it as another bar

1:26on top of this bar chart. So the only way

1:29to do that in

1:29Tableau is to do a dual axis. Let's go

1:31ahead and do that over here. You can see it

1:33's there on the

1:34right hand side when we put it next to the

1:36current cells. When you click on the second

1:38value we can

1:39actually go down here and select dual axis

1:41because we've left the marks pane on

1:43automatic it will

1:44think we want circles. We don't want that

1:46we want a bar. If we go back now you'll see

1:48that's working

1:49correctly. The next step to do is to

1:51synchronize the axis so that these two are

1:54actually matching

1:55and then once we've done that we can

1:57actually go ahead and hide this top header

1:59because we don't

2:00need it anymore. We're sort of done with it

2:02. The next thing we can do is kind of give

2:04this a little

2:05bit more formatting. So what I'll do is I

2:07'll take the previous year cells and I'll go

2:09ahead and bump

2:10the size of this up a little bit so it's a

2:12little bit wider. It's actually not done

2:13that enough so

2:14let's go let's go ahead and do that a lot

2:16more. Then the next thing we want to do is

2:18put this

2:19behind the blue bar and so it's quite

2:21simple to do that. Just grab this and

2:23switch these around.

2:24Tablil maintains a dual axis and keeps it

2:25and notice it brought the current cells

2:28back.

2:28So what we're going to need to do is hide

2:30this again. You'll notice this time it's

2:32unfortunately

2:33gone and hidden both of them. So if we

2:35actually go back one step here what we can

2:37do is we can

2:38actually show the header on this bottom

2:40axis that makes this one come back. Hide

2:43the header on this

2:44top one that keeps the bottom one and then

2:47we can go ahead and change the axis over

2:49here and go

2:50ahead and just make this say sales. Let's

2:53go ahead and type a capital S and that's it

2:55. That's it.

2:56Everything is done and we've more or less

2:58made a bullet chart and it's okay. It's not

3:00perfect. We

3:00need to do a bit more formatting but in a

3:02very short amount of time we've achieved

3:04the result.

3:05Now one of the things you need to be aware

3:07of is if you're going to do this you're

3:09probably going

3:09to need to calculate the current cells, the

3:11previous year cells and the target cells.

3:14There

3:14are plenty of resources over on YouTube and

3:16also on the Tableau community talking to

3:18you about how

3:19to do this. So go ahead and check those

3:21tutorials out. I just wanted to show you

3:23very quickly how to

3:24make this bar chart. If you haven't seen

3:26any of my other videos which explain charts

3:28in two minutes

3:28go ahead and check them out and of course

3:30subscribe to the channel so you don't miss

3:32out on any great

3:32content that we make in the future. Thanks

3:34for watching and I'll catch you in the next

3:36video.

3:36you

3:36you

3:44[ Silence ]

Rollup

This shows how to build a bullet chart in Tableau by layering a target reference line and a previous-year comparison bar onto a simple bar chart using a dual axis.

The demo uses regions with current cells, previous year cells and target cells as separate fields, already calculated in the data. If your own data doesn't have these as separate fields, you'll need to calculate them yourself first.

The Breakdown

Start with a basic bar chart 0:00

Put your category (e.g. region) on rows and your current period measure on columns to get a standard bar chart as the foundation.
Add target and comparison fields to detail 0:22

Drag your target field and your comparison-period field (e.g. previous year) onto detail so their values are available in the context of the view, even though they're not plotted yet.
Turn the target field into a reference line 0:40

Right-click the axis, add a reference line using the target field, set it to per cell with sum aggregation, disable the label and thicken the line so it reads clearly as a target marker on every bar.
Layer the comparison bar using a dual axis 1:22

You must place the comparison field as a second measure next to the current measure, then set it to dual axis — this is the only way in Tableau to stack a second bar on top of the first. Change its automatic mark type from circle to bar afterwards.
Synchronise the axes 1:42

Once the dual axis is set up, synchronise both axes so the two bars share the same scale and align correctly.
Widen and reorder the comparison bar behind the main bar 2:00

Increase the size of the comparison bar so it's visibly wider than the main bar, then swap the order of the two pills so the wider comparison bar sits behind the narrower current-period bar, creating the bullet-chart look.
Manage headers carefully when swapping pills 2:21

Reordering pills in a dual axis can hide both headers at once. If that happens, show the header on the bottom axis first, then hide the header on the top axis — doing it in that order keeps one axis visible instead of losing both.
Tidy the remaining axis label 2:41

Rename the visible axis (e.g. to the measure name) to finish off a working, if not fully polished, bullet chart.

Worth Knowing

You'll likely need to calculate the current, previous-year and target values yourself if they aren't already separate fields in your data — this video doesn't cover that calculation.
Hiding/showing headers behaves unexpectedly on dual axes: swapping pill order can hide both headers simultaneously, so the fix order (show bottom, then hide top) matters.
The result here is functional but not fully formatted — further styling is needed for a polished chart.

Use It When

Reach for this when you need to show actual performance against a target while also comparing it to a prior period, all in one compact bar-based view.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

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