Example Input

Example Output

1. Basic Sankey Diagram

// this is a comment and completely ignored
// each diagram-flow is specified in the format:
// "SOURCE [AMOUNT] TARGET"
source [100] target
source two [30] target
target [65] target two
  • You can specify one flow per line.
  • SOURCE_NODE [AMOUNT] TARGET_NODE is the basic syntax for a flow / link.
  • Lines starting with a "//" are treated as comments and completely ignored in the output.
  • Names are case-sensitive. ("a" is treated different as "A")
example output sankey diagram for the left-hand input Open Example Diagram

2. Auto-Calculating Flow Amounts ([?]-operator)

salary [20] budget
// the "?" operator automatically sums-up all outgoing values
budget [?] groceries
groceries [3] vegetables
groceries [?] fruits
fruits [10] apples
fruits [5] bananas
  • You can use "[?]" as the amount to automatically sum-up all the outgoing amounts of this flow.
  • You can chain multiple "[?]" as long as there are some numeric values to sum-up in the end.
example output sankey diagram for the left-hand input Open Example Diagram

3. Sankey Diagram with Custom Colors

source red1 [100] target [red]
source red2 [10] target [red]
source red3 [10] target [red]
source green [30] target [green]
target [65] target orange [orange]
target [20] target pink [#f1337f]
  • You can optionally specify a custom color for each flow.
  • Colors are specified at the end of each line inside square-brackets.
  • You can use a set of common pre-defined color names like "red", "blue", "green", or even enter custom hex-color-codes like "#FF0000".
  • Find a list of all supported shorthand color names here: list of css color names with hex codees
example colored output sankey diagram for the left-hand input Open Example Diagram

4. Sankey Diagram with Loops

// sankeys may have loops
a [10] b
b [10] c
c [5] b
c [5] d
  • Loops referencing previous nodes are allowed.
example output sankey diagram with loops for the left-hand input Open Example Diagram

5. Color Flows Based on Source's First Word

source one [10] target one
source two [10] target one
source three [10] target one
source three [5] middle
middle [2.5] target two
middle [2.5] end
target one [10] target two
target one [10] target three
target one [10] target four
target two [15] target five
target three [10] target five
target four [10] target five
  • If the setting "Pick color based on first word only" is checked, all flows where the source starts with the same word, will have the same color.
example output sankey diagram with loops for the left-hand input Open Example Diagram

By using SankeyDiagram.net as a Sankey Chart creator, you can easily create Sankey Charts without sign-up for free.
If you want to know what exactly Sankey Diagrams / Sankey Charts are, read "What is a Sankey Diagram" and find out more about this useful data-visualization method.