Building a dashboard in Python using Streamlit https://blog.streamlit.io/crafting-a-dashboard-app-in-p...

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Building a dashboard in
Python using Streamlit
Using pandas for data wrangling, Altair/
Plotly for data visualization, and
Streamlit as your frontend

By Chanin Nantasenamat
Posted in Tutorials, January 22 2024

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Building a dashboard in Python using Streamlit https://blog.streamlit.io/crafting-a-dashboard-app-in-p...

You may be familiar with the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand

words” and, in the context of data science, a visualized plot provides
just as much value. It does this by providing a different look at tabular
data, perhaps in the form of simple line charts, histogram distribution
and more elaborate pivot charts.

As useful as these can be, a typical chart that we may see in print or
on the web are most likely static. Imagine how much more engaging it
would be to manipulate these static variables in an interactive
dashboard?

� Ready to jump right in? Here’s the dashboard app and GitHub
repo.

In thisthere
Hello blog, �
you’ll learn how to build a Population Dashboard app that
displays data and visualizations of the US population for the years
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2010�2019 as obtained from the US Census Bureau.
our website.

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I'll guide you through the process of building this interactive
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dashboard app from scratch using Streamlit for the frontend. Our
backend muscle comes from PyData
Reject heavyweights
all like NumPy,
Pandas, Scikit-Learn, and Altair, ensuring robust data processing and
analytics. Accept all

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You’ll learn how to:

Define key metrics

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 Define key metrics

 Perform EDA analysis
 Build the dashboard app with Streamlit

What’s inside the dashboard?

Here’s a visual breakdown of the components that make up this
population dashboard:

Let’s get started!

1. Define key metrics

Before we dive into actually building the dashboard, we need to first
Hello there �
come up with well-defined metrics to measure what matters.
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our website.

1.1 Overview
By clicking of consent
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to our use of cookies. For more information, please
see our privacy policy.
The goal of any dashboard is to surface insights that provide the basis
for data-driven decision making.Reject
Whatallis the primary purpose of the
dashboard? This will guide the subsequent questions you want the
Accept all
dashboard to answer in the form of key metrics.
Cookie settings
For example:

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• In sales, the primary goal may be to understand: “How are sales

teams performing?” Metrics may include total revenue by sales rep,
units sold by territory, or new leads generated over time.
• In marketing, the primary goal may be to understand “How is my
campaign performing?” this may include measuring leading
indicators such as response rates or click-through rate, and
lagging indicators such as revenue conversion rate or customer
acquisition costs.
• In finance, the dashboard may need to answer “How profitable is
our business?” this might include gross profit, operating margin,
and return on assets.

1.2 Key metrics selected for this app

The primary question this population dashboard aims to answer is:
how do US state populations change over time?

What questions do we need to ask that will help us answer this

dashboard goal?

 How do total populations compare among different states?

 How do state populations evolve over time and how do they
compare to each other?
 In a given year, which states experienced more than 50,000 people
moving in, or out? We'll label these inbound and outbound
migration metrics.

2. Perform EDA analysis

Hello we
Once there � our key metrics, we will then need to collect and gain a
have
solid
Thanksunderstanding about
for stopping by! We the data
use cookies available
to help before
us understand weyou
how can present
interact with it
in
ourawebsite.
visually aesthetic way in our dashboard.
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Exploratory data analysis �EDA� can be defined as an iterative
see our privacy policy.
process for data understanding that entails asking and answering
questions through investigative Reject
work all
of analyzing the data. In
essence, your dashboard starts out as a blank canvas and EDA
Accept all
provides a pragmatic approach for coming up with compelling data
visuals that tells a story. Cookie settings

John Tukey's seminal work on EDA in 1977 meticulously sets the stage

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John Tukey's seminal work on EDA in 1977 meticulously sets the stage
for effective data communication. Here are some notable key
takeaways:

• “The greatest value of a graph is when it forces us to see what we

never expected.” In fact Tukey, introduced the Box and whisker
plot (aka box plots).
• Having a flexible and open mindset when approaching data, hence
the “exploratory” nature of EDA.

2.1 What data is available to you?

Here’s a sample of the dataset from the US Census Bureau we’re using
for our population dashboard. There are 3 potential variables
( states , year and population ) that will serve as the basis for
our metrics.

states, states_code, id, year, population

Alabama, AL, 1, 2010, 4785437
Alaska, AK, 2, 2010, 713910
Arizona, AZ, 4, 2010, 6407172
Arkansas, AR, 5, 2010, 2921964
California, CA, 6, 2010, 37319502

2.2 Prepare the data

Consolidate the year columns into a single unified column.

The advantage of subsetting the data by year, will provide the

Hello thereformat
necessary � for generating possible visualizations (e.g. a
heatmap, choropleth
Thanks for stopping by! Wemap, etc.) and
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to help dataframe.
us understand how you interact with

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2.3
see ourSelect charts to best visualize our key
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metrics
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Now that we have a better understanding of the data at our fingertips,

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and the key metrics to measure, it’s time to decide how to visualize
the results on our dashboard.Cookie
Theresettings
are countless ways to visualize
your datasets, here’s what was selected for our population dashboard

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app.

 What is the comparison of total populations among different

states?
• A choropleth map adds a geospatial dimension to highlight the
most and least populated states.
 How do populations of different states evolve over time and how
do they compare to each other?
• A heatmap offers a comprehensive overview of states with the
highest and lowest population values by presenting this
information across different years
• Sorting the dataframe provides a quick and direct comparison
of the most and least populated states, thereby eliminating the
need to wander through different sections of the charts.
 In a given year, what percent of all states experience inbound/
outbound migration �50,000 people?
• A donut chart is a pie chart with an empty inner arc and we’re
using this to visualize the percentage of inbound and outbound
state migration.

There are countless ways to visualize your datasets!

You can discover even more visualization options from the growing
collection of custom components that the community. Here’s a few
that you can try out:

• streamlit-extras affords a wide range of widgets that extends

the native functionality of Streamlit.
• streamlit-shadcn-ui provides several UI frontend components
(modal, hovercard, badges, etc.) that can be incorporated into the
dashboard app.
Hello there �
• streamlit-elements allows the creation of draggable and
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resizable dashboard components.
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3. Build your dashboard with Streamlit

see our privacy policy.

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� Here’s the dashboard app and the GitHub repo.

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3.1 Import libraries

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First, we’ll start by importing the prerequisite libraries:

• Streamlit - a low-code web framework

• Pandas - a data analysis and wrangling tool
• Altair - a data visualization library
• Plotly Express - a terse and high-level API for creating figures

import streamlit as st
import pandas as pd
import altair as alt
import plotly.express as px

3.2 Page configuration

Next, we’ll define settings for the app by giving it a page title and icon
that are displayed on the browser. This also defines the page content
to be displayed in a wide layout that fits the page’s width as well as
showing the sidebar in the expanded state.

Here, we also set the color theme for the Altair plot to be dark in order
to accompany dark color theme of the app.

st.set_page_config(
page_title="US Population Dashboard",
�",
page_icon="�
layout="wide",
initial_sidebar_state="expanded")

Hello there �
alt.themes.enable("dark")
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3.3 Load data
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Next, we’ll load data into the appReject

usingall Pandas’ read_csv()
function as follows:
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df_reshaped = pd.read_csv('data/us-population-2010-2019-reshaped.csv'

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3.4 Add a sidebar

We’re now going to create the app title via st.title() and create
drop-down widgets for allowing users to select the specific year and
color theme via st.selectbox() .

The selected_year (from the available years from 2010�2019� will

then be used to subset the data for that year, which is then displayed
in-app.

The selected_color_theme will allow the choropleth map and

heatmap to be colored according to the selected color specified by
the aforementioned widget.

with st.sidebar:
� US Population Dashboard')
st.title('�

year_list = list(df_reshaped.year.unique())[::-1]

selected_year = st.selectbox('Select a year', year_list

df_selected_year = df_reshaped[df_reshaped.year == selected_year
df_selected_year_sorted = df_selected_year.sort_values(

color_theme_list = ['blues', 'cividis', 'greens', 'inferno'

selected_color_theme = st.selectbox('Select a color theme'

3.5 Plot and chart types

Hello there
Next, �
we’re going to define custom functions to create the various
Thanksdisplayed
plots for stoppinginby!
theWedashboard.
use cookies to help us understand how you interact with

our website.
Heatmap
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see our privacy policy.
A heatmap will allow us to see the population growth over the years
from 2010�2019 for the 52 states.
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Heatmap of the US population for 2010�2019.

def make_heatmap(input_df, input_y, input_x, input_color, input_color_theme

heatmap = alt.Chart(input_df).mark_rect().encode(
y=alt.Y(f'{input_y}:O', axis=alt.Axis(title="Year"
x=alt.X(f'{input_x}:O', axis=alt.Axis(title="",
color=alt.Color(f'max({input_color}):Q',
legend=None,
scale=alt.Scale(scheme=input_color_theme
stroke=alt.value('black'),
strokeWidth=alt.value(0.25),
).properties(width=900
).configure_axis(
labelFontSize=12,
titleFontSize=12
)
# height=300
return heatmap

Choropleth map

Next, a colored map of the 52 US states for the selected year is

depicted by the choropleth map.

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Choropleth map of the US population for a selected year of interest �2019 in
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this case).

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def make_choropleth(input_df, input_id, input_column, input_color_theme

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choropleth = px.choropleth(input_df, locations=input_id

color_continuous_scale=input_color_theme
range_color=(0, max(df_selected_year
scope="usa",
labels={'population':'Population'
)
choropleth.update_layout(
template='plotly_dark',
plot_bgcolor='rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)',
paper_bgcolor='rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)',
margin=dict(l=0, r=0, t=0, b=0),
height=350
)
return choropleth

Donut chart

Next, we’re going to create a donut chart for the states migration in
percentage.

Hello there �
Donut chart of the percentage of states with annual inbound and outbound
Thanks for stopping by! We use cookies to help us understand how you interact with
migration greater than 50,000 in 2019.
our website.

Particularly, thisall”,
By clicking “Accept represents
you consentthe percentage
to our of states
use of cookies. with
For more annualplease
information,

inbound or outbound
see our privacy policy. migration � 50,000 people. For instance, in 2019,
there were 12 out of 52 states and this corresponds to 23%.
Reject all

Before creating the donut chart, we’ll need to calculate the year-over-
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year population migrations.
Cookie settings

def calculate_population_difference(input_df, input_year):

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def calculate_population_difference(input_df, input_year):

selected_year_data = input_df[input_df['year'] == input_year
previous_year_data = input_df[input_df['year'] == input_year
selected_year_data['population_difference'] = selected_year_data
return pd.concat([selected_year_data.states, selected_year_data

The donut chart is then created from the aforementioned percentage

value for states migration.

def make_donut(input_response, input_text, input_color):

if input_color == 'blue':
chart_color = ['#29b5e8', '#155F7A']
if input_color == 'green':
chart_color = ['#27AE60', '#12783D']
if input_color == 'orange':
chart_color = ['#F39C12', '#875A12']
if input_color == 'red':
chart_color = ['#E74C3C', '#781F16']

source = pd.DataFrame({
"Topic": ['', input_text],
"% value": [100-input_response, input_response]
})
source_bg = pd.DataFrame({
"Topic": ['', input_text],
"% value": [100, 0]
})

plot = alt.Chart(source).mark_arc(innerRadius=45, cornerRadius

theta="% value",
color= alt.Color("Topic:N",
scale=alt.Scale(
Hello there �
#domain=['A', 'B'],
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domain=[input_text, interact with
''],
our website. # range=['#29b5e8', '#155F7A']), # 31333F
By clicking “Accept all”, you consent to ourrange=chart_color),
use of cookies. For more information, please
see our privacy policy. legend=None),
).properties(width=130, height=130)
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text = plot.mark_text(align='center', color="#29b5e8", font

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plot_bg = alt.Chart(source_bg).mark_arc(innerRadius=45, cornerRadius
theta="% value", Cookie settings
color= alt.Color("Topic:N",
scale=alt.Scale(

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# domain=['A', 'B'],
domain=[input_text, ''],
range=chart_color), # 31333F
legend=None),
).properties(width=130, height=130)
return plot_bg + plot + text

Convert population to text

Next, we’ll going to create a custom function for making population

values more concise as well as improving the aesthetics. Particularly,
instead of being displayed as numerical values of 28,995,881 in the
metrics card to a more concised form as 29.0 M . This was also
applied to numerical values in the thousand range.

Metrics cards showing states with high inbound/outbound migration in the

selected year of interest �2019 in this case).

Hello there �
def format_number(num):
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if num > 1000000:
our website.
if not num % 1000000:
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return f'{num // 1000000} M'
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return f'{round(num / 1000000, 1)} M'
return f'{num // 1000} K'
Reject all

Accept all

3.6 App layout Cookie settings

Finally, it’s time to put everything together in the app.

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Finally, it’s time to put everything together in the app.

Define the layout

Begin by creating 3 columns:

col = st.columns((1.5, 4.5, 2), gap='medium')

Particularly, the input argument (1.5, 4.5, 2) indicated that the

second column has a width of about three times that of the first
column and that the third column has a width about twice less than
that of the second column.

Column 1

The Gain/Loss section is shown where metrics card are displaying

states with the highest inbound and outbound migration for the
selected year (specified via the Select a year drop-down widget
created via st.selectbox ).

The States migration section shows a donut chart where the

percentage of states with annual inbound or outbound migration �
50,000 are displayed.

with col[0]:
st.markdown('#### Gains/Losses')

df_population_difference_sorted = calculate_population_difference

if selected_year > 2010:

Hello there �
first_state_name = df_population_difference_sorted.
first_state_population
Thanks for stopping = understand
by! We use cookies to help us format_number(df_population_difference_sort
how you interact with
first_state_delta = format_number(df_population_difference_sorted
our website.
else:
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first_state_name = '-'
see our privacy policy.
first_state_population = '-'
first_state_delta = ''
Reject all
st.metric(label=first_state_name, value=first_state_population
Accept all
if selected_year > 2010:
last_state_nameCookie settings
= df_population_difference_sorted.states
last_state_population = format_number(df_population_difference_sorte
last_state_delta format_number(df_population_difference_sorted

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last_state_delta = format_number(df_population_difference_sorted
else:
last_state_name = '-'
last_state_population = '-'
last_state_delta = ''
st.metric(label=last_state_name, value=last_state_population

st.markdown('#### States Migration')

if selected_year > 2010:

# Filter states with population difference > 50000
# df_greater_50000 = df_population_difference_sorted[df_population_d
df_greater_50000 = df_population_difference_sorted[
df_less_50000 = df_population_difference_sorted[df_population_differ

# % of States with population difference > 50000

states_migration_greater = round((len(df_greater_50000
states_migration_less = round((len(df_less_50000)/df_population_diff
donut_chart_greater = make_donut(states_migration_greater
donut_chart_less = make_donut(states_migration_less
else:
states_migration_greater = 0
states_migration_less = 0
donut_chart_greater = make_donut(states_migration_greater
donut_chart_less = make_donut(states_migration_less

migrations_col = st.columns((0.2, 1, 0.2))

with migrations_col[1]:
st.write('Inbound')
st.altair_chart(donut_chart_greater)
st.write('Outbound')
st.altair_chart(donut_chart_less)

Hello there �
Thanks for stopping by! We use cookies to help us understand how you interact with
Column 2
our website.

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second all”,column
you consent to our the
displays use of cookies. Formap
choropleth more and
information,
heatmap please

using privacy policy.

see ourcustom functions created earlier.

Reject all

with col[1]:
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st.markdown('#### Total Population')
Cookie settings
choropleth = make_choropleth(df_selected_year, 'states_code'
st plotly_chart(choropleth use_container_width=True)

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st.plotly_chart(choropleth, use_container_width=True)

heatmap = make_heatmap(df_reshaped, 'year', 'states', 'population'

st.altair_chart(heatmap, use_container_width=True)

Column 3

Finally, the third column shows the top states via a dataframe
whereby the population are shown as a colored progress bar via the
column_config parameter of st.dataframe .

An About section is displayed via the st.expander() container to

provide information on the data source and definitions for
terminologies used in the dashboard.

with col[2]:
st.markdown('#### Top States')

st.dataframe(df_selected_year_sorted,
column_order=("states", "population"),
hide_index=True,
width=None,
column_config={
"states": st.column_config.TextColumn(
"States",
),
"population": st.column_config.ProgressColumn
"Population",
format="%f",
min_value=0,
max_value=max(df_selected_year_sorted
)}
Hello there �
)
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our website.
with st.expander('About', expanded=True):
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st.write('''
see our privacy policy.
- Data: [U.S. Census Bureau](<https://www.census.gov/data/datase
- :orange[**Gains/Losses**]: states with high inbound/ outbound
Reject all
- :orange[**States Migration**]: percentage of states with annua
''')
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Cookie settings

3.7 Deploying the Dashboard app to the cloud

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3.7 Deploying the Dashboard app to the cloud

For a video walkthrough on deploying a Streamlit app, check out this
tutorial on YouTube.

BONUS� 5 reminders when building

dashboards
 Perform EDA to gain data understanding
 Identify key metrics for tracking what matters
 Decide on charts to best visualize key metrics
 Group related metrics together
 Use clear and concise labels to describe metrics

Wrapping up
In summary, Streamlit offers a quick, efficient, and code-friendly way
to build interactive dashboard apps in Python, making it a go-to tool
for data scientists and developers working with data visualization.

One of the key features of Streamlit is its ability to automatically

update and re-render the app based on incremental changes in the
data or input parameters, which makes it highly suitable for real-time
data visualization tasks.

Check out this tutorial video to follow along:

Hello there �
Thanks for stopping by! We use cookies to help us understand how you interact with

our website.

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see our privacy policy.

Reject all

Accept all

Cookie settings

What dashboards are you building? In the comments below, share

your dashboard below to inspire the community, or ask for feedback!

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your dashboard below to inspire the community, or ask for feedback!

Follow me on X at @thedataprof, on LinkedIn at Chanin Nantasenamat,

or subscribe to my Data Professor channel on Youtube!

Happy Streamlit-ing! �

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Comments
4 replies

asehmi Streamlit Creator 26 Jan

This is a really nice dashboard example. Can you do an
advanced version that includes cross-filtering?

1 reply

dataprofessor Developer Advocate at ▶ asehmi 27 Jan

Streamlit
Thanks @asehmi

Ooh, that’s a great idea, cross-filtering may require more work

but can definitely be implemented. @andfanilo has a great
video on this (https://youtube.com/watch?v=htXgwEXwmNs).

Hello there �
1 reply
Thanks for stopping by! We use cookies to help us understand how you interact with
asehmi Streamlit Creator ▶ dataprofessor 29 Jan
our website.
Thanks for reminding me about @andfanilo’s cool videos on that
By clickingtopic.
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Dashboards needto our use of cookies.
to minimize timeFor
tomore information,
insights please
so cross-
filtering
see our privacy is critical I think.
policy.

akbar_jos Reject all 12 Mar

Accept all
Continue the conversation in our forums →

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