Splitting a chart into panels
The Small multiples section appears in the Fields tab for bar, line, area, and scatter charts. Pick a dimension in Split by and the chart is replaced by one panel per value of that dimension. Clearing the picker returns the chart to a single plot. Only dimensions are offered. Splitting by a measure is not supported — a measure has no discrete values to make panels from.Options
These options appear once a Split by dimension is chosen.Shared vs. independent axis scales
Every panel is labeled with its own X and Y axes either way. What the setting changes is the scale those axes are drawn against. Shared is the default, and it is usually what makes small multiples worth using: every panel is drawn against the same scale, so the panels are directly comparable and a taller bar really does mean a bigger number. Switch to Independent when the question is about the shape of each series rather than its magnitude — “what does each warehouse’s weekly pattern look like”, where one high-volume warehouse would otherwise flatten every other panel to a straight line.How many panels are drawn
The grid bounds the render: a chart split into 3 × 2 draws at most six panels, so a high-cardinality dimension can never produce hundreds of unreadable ones. The largest grid is 5 × 4, or twenty panels. When a dimension has more values than the grid has tiles, the chart draws the first ones in the current sort order. The underlying query is unaffected, so no data is lost — a bigger grid simply shows more of it. Sorting interacts with this: with Sort panels by set to a measure and a descending order, the grid keeps the top panels by that measure, which is usually more useful than the first ones alphabetically.Interaction with other settings
Chart settings apply to all panels at once — axis titles and formats, colors and palettes, data labels, reference lines, and tooltips are configured once and take effect in every panel. A reference line is drawn once inside each panel, against that panel’s own scale when the scales are independent. Data labels and reference lines have to be switched on after the split, not before — see the limitations below. A legend is shared across the grid rather than repeated per panel. Clicking a legend entry hides that series in every panel.Limitations
- One split dimension. One dimension fills the grid, panel by panel. Splitting by two dimensions at once — one down the rows and another across the columns — is not supported.
- Cartesian charts only. Bar, line, area, and scatter. Pie, table, KPI, heatmap, boxplot, map, and HTML charts cannot be split.
- Panel labels are not configurable. Each panel is labeled with its dimension value; the font, size, and color are fixed.
- The split is enabled on a single-view chart. A chart that already carries data labels, a reference line, or a second Y axis series cannot be split — turn the split on first. The order is the only constraint: once a chart is split, data labels and reference lines can be added freely and are drawn in every panel.