Sankey Diagrams

Learn to create dynamic Sankey diagrams in Mermaid for visualizing flows, relationships, and proportional values in processes like resource and energy flow.

What are Sankey Diagrams?

Mermaid's Sankey diagrams provide a visual representation of flow and relationships between nodes, showing the proportional values in a process. Commonly used to display resource or energy flow, they highlight the relative sizes of inputs, outputs, and connections, making it easy to analyze and optimize processes.

Creating Your First Sankey Diagram

1. Launch DinoAI: From Code IDE, access DinoAI to start creating diagrams.

2. Use a Simple Prompt: Tell DinoAI what kind of Sankey Diagram you want to create. For example:

- "Create a Sankey diagram showing data flow volumes through my ETL pipeline"

- "Generate a Sankey diagram for my data warehouse showing source to destination flows"

- "Build a Sankey diagram showing data processing stages with volume changes"

1. Get Your Diagram: DinoAI will generate a complete .mmd file with proper Mermaid syntax.

2. Preview Your Work: Click the eye icon (👁️) to preview your diagram in real-time as you edit.

3. Iterate and Refine: Modify the generated .mmd file directly, or ask DinoAI to make specific changes.

Example:

Reusable Sankey Diagrams prompts for you and your team

You can create custom, standardized .dinoprompts for Mermaid's Sankey Diagrams that ensure consistency across your data team. See step-by-step guide.

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Diagram Syntax Guide

Basic Syntax

• Define the diagram using sankey-beta.

• Each row specifies a source, target, and value, separated by commas.

Formatting Rules

1. Empty Lines: You can leave blank lines for better readability.
2. Commas: Enclose text with commas in double quotes.
3. Double Quotes: Escape double quotes by using two double quotes.

Configuration Options

You can customize the diagram’s appearance using configuration settings.

Example Configuration

<script>
  const config = {
    startOnLoad: true,
    securityLevel: 'loose',
    sankey: {
      width: 800,
      height: 400,
      linkColor: 'source',
      nodeAlignment: 'left',
    },
  };
  mermaid.initialize(config);
</script>

Available Settings

• Link Colors: Adjust the link colors.

  • source: Color matches source node.

  • target: Color matches target node.

  • gradient: Smooth transition between source and target colors.

  • #hexcode: Specify a specific hex color.

• Node Alignment: Change alignment using justify, center, left, or right.

Data Team Examples

Resource Flow

Energy Distribution

Best Practices

1. Clearly define nodes and values.

2. Use intuitive labels for source and target nodes.

3. Adjust link colors and node alignments for clarity.

4. Keep the number of nodes manageable for readability.

5. Regularly update diagrams to reflect current data flows.

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Additional Resources

For more syntax options and advanced features, visit the official Mermaid documentation.