Overview
A Sankey Chart visualizes the flow of values across multiple stages. Nodes represent categories at each stage; links between nodes carry the value of the flow, with link width proportional to the flow magnitude. Sankey Charts are useful for analyzing distributions, conversions, budget breakdowns, energy or material flow, and process paths — anywhere the analytical narrative is how value moves through stages from one state to another.
Sankey Charts are authored from Lens → Design → Chart Designer → Visualization → Sankey Chart. The Properties panel exposes four Sankey-specific property groups: Color Properties, Stage Properties, Label Position Properties, and Node Properties. The Columns tab exposes per-column settings including a Sankey-specific Drilldown that supports per-node configuration and a Label Position selector. Other Properties and Columns inherit from the Bar Chart and Table Chart.
When to use it
- Flow analysis — budget breakdowns (revenue → expenses → net profit), energy flow, material flow, traffic flow.
- Conversion funnels with multiple stages where each stage may branch to multiple targets — visitors → signups → trial → paid → renewed.
- Process flow where steps and branches both matter — customer journey paths with branching, supply chain decomposition.
- Multi-stage distribution analysis where value at each stage is partitioned across multiple successor categories.
- Cases where Bar Chart or Pie Chart would force a single-level summary that loses the flow narrative.
Properties tab — Sankey-specific
Color Properties
| Gradient | Enables gradient coloring for links. The gradient start color corresponds to the source node, and the end color corresponds to the target node. |
Stage Properties
| Number of Stages | Total number of stages displayed in the chart. |
| Stage Width | Width allocation for each stage. Equal Width (default) distributes stages evenly; Custom Width allows manual configuration of individual stage widths. |
Label Position Properties
| Distinct Axis Label Formats | When enabled, allows separate CSS styling for the text and value portions of the X axis and Y axis label. |
Node Properties
| Highlight Full Path | When hovering over a node or link, highlights the complete path from the first stage through to the hovered element. |
| Highlight On Click | When enabled, clicking a node or link adds a border to the complete path through the chart. |
| Default Link Style | Default styling section for the node path. |
| Node Width | Controls the width of all nodes in the chart. |
| Node Spacing | Defines the vertical spacing between nodes within each stage. |
Properties tab — inherited
Other Properties beyond the four Sankey-specific groups inherit from Bar Chart and Table Chart.
| Bar Chart & Table Properties | Title, Legend, Colors, Tooltip options, Label Position, Adhoc Report, Highlight on click. | Bar Chart PD → Properties tab |
Columns tab
| Measure | Data Format |
| Dimension | Groups, Drilldown |
Key behaviors
Dimensions define the stages. Each Dimension added to the Dimension slot defines one stage of the chart. A two-Dimension setup produces two stages (a simple source → target flow); additional Dimensions add intermediate stages, producing multi-step flows.
Gradient encoding shows flow direction. When Gradient is enabled, each link’s color transitions from the source node’s color (at the link’s left edge) to the target node’s color (at the right edge). This gives the link a clear directional reading — viewers can trace where value originates and where it ends up. With Gradient off, links use a single color, which loses the directional encoding but produces a cleaner visual.
Highlight Full Path on hover or click. Highlight Full Path (on hover) and Highlight On Click are two independent interaction settings that highlight the complete path through the Sankey when a viewer interacts with a node or link. They are not mutually exclusive — both can be on simultaneously, producing both hover and click highlighting.