Scatter/Bubble Charts WITH data labels?

[dnomasur]

Has anyone figured out a way to create scatter (or preferably, bubble) charts that ALSO include a data label for each bubble?  I have successfully created a bubble chart (with the standard X and Y dimensions, plus a 'Z' dimension by specifying a 3rd field in the point size settings).

So far so good, but I don't see any place where I can now insert data labels to each of the plotted data points.  Basically I want the ability to hover over any bubble on the plot and see which of my 60+ records the plotted numbers numbers relate to.  I was not able to find any existing Alteryx community discussions on this exact topic.

Thanks in advance!

[ddiesel · Accepted solution]

Hi @dnomasur!

Are you ready for this? I have a hack for you!

If anyone knows a better way, PLEASE let us know.

What you are going to do is create a transparent bar chart with labels and then create a second layer on top for the scatterplot. Here are the steps:

Create a new layer (layer 0) as a bar chart.

In Layer / Text, change "Text" to your field label and choose a text position.

In Layer / Color, change opacity to 0% to hide to bar charts.

Add a new layer (layer 1) to create the scatterplot.

Play with the formatting in layer settings until the chart has the appearance you want. You can also turn "Show in Legend" off for both layers.

If you want the label to include values, use a formula tool before the Interactive Chart tool :

[Field Label]+" ("+tostring([Data1])+","+tostring([Data2])+")"

Let us know if this does the trick!

Thanks,
Deb

[dnomasur]

Hi ddiesel, and thank you!

Fascinating solution you have here, and I look forward to studying further for implications elsewhere.  But suffice to say this works great for me -- with one very small addition.  My ultimate goal was to do this with a bubble chart, and following some previous community advice I was able to successfully add a Z dimension field to your sample workflow.  It's as simple as changing the point size setting on your second layer from 'constant' to 'variable' and then selecting a third column of data from the source (after adding that data first, of course!).  That tweak also worked like a charm, so I was very pleased to mark your response as 'solved'.  So thank you again!

[ddiesel]

Sometimes these tools are kind of fiddly, but there's almost always a way to make it work! Thanks for responding with the tip for the variable size. I will give that a try next time.

Thanks!

Deb

[DFranklin]

Any suggestion on how to get the labels to be inside and confined to the bubbles? I have a horizontal chart where I want the labels to call within the bubbles of my scatter plot and they either fall out on the left or the right with the settings built into the Interactive Charting tool.

Additionally, I want the labels to sit on top of the scatterplot bubbles. I tried different order of the layers, but that didn't do it. I don't like the way the opacity works as I lose my corporate branding colors.

[DFranklin]

Update: I was able to move the label by increasing the values of the invisible bar chart by a set value, pushing the label to the right.

 

I am still looking for best method to get the label to the front of the layering so the opacity is not required.

[Andrew1]

I am trying this ingenious method (thank you) and I can see how it works well for non-repetitive values but I have data where a lot of the x-values and y-values are the same. Only one label appears in the bar chart -- e.g, the top/highest y-value for a given x value. All the y values below this one (for a given x value) remain unlabelled. I can't believe that Alteryx does not provide this functionality, especially for hover. It's pretty basic for anyone trying to understand their data.