the flow diagram (sankey)

Ribbon width is the amount. Whatever flows in has to flow back out.

What it leaves outIt shows how much moved and never why. Ribbons crossing are a drawing decision, not something in the data.

2 · intermediate · rung 3 · what’s related

shipped on the platform · Sankey

Two worked examples

Where does a complaint actually go?

Before you lookWrite down which request type you think produces the widest ribbon.

civictable_la_311_sample.csv · 40 rows · 6 columns

raw service requests, each with a type and the district it came from

What to look atRibbon width is the count. Whatever flows out of a request type has to arrive in some district — if it does not, a row went missing.

This example draws itself with a small script. With scripting off you can still read every word on this page, and the file itself is at data/table_la_311_sample.csv.

earth and spacepicture_exoplanets_by_discovery_method.csv · 11 rows · 2 columns

every confirmed planet outside our solar system, and the method that found it

What to look atRibbon width is how many planets that method found. They all flow into one node, because every one of them did arrive by some method — so what leaves the left has to arrive on the right, and you can check it.

This example draws itself with a small script. With scripting off you can still read every word on this page, and the file itself is at data/picture_exoplanets_by_discovery_method.csv.

the pool

Now build one yourself.

The pool opens with this file and this shape already drawn, so your first move is to change something rather than to start from nothing. Bring your own CSV if you have one. Nothing is uploaded anywhere — the chart is drawn in your browser, your work saves there, and it downloads as a picture or as a project file you can open again.

Open the pool → the flow diagram (sankey) · table_la_311_sample.csv