Tableau Snippets

Cheatsheet for a variety of formatting, calculating, and dashboarding needs

FILTERING

Picking specific items to appear in quick filter

Create a "set" by R-clicking on anything in the filter shelf and selecting only the elements you want to appear in the filter

Use a calculation to filter a specific field

Example:

IF [Dimension] = "Value"
THEN [Measure]
END

This is useful when you want a filter to apply to only a single field on a worksheet

PRO TIPS

When in doubt, right-click on stuff. Almost everything in Tableau has parameters or sub-menus that can be set to customize formatting or other options in your view.

Greens vs Blues = Continuous vs Discrete

There is surprisingly little documentation in the interface (if any) that tells you the magic of simply understanding the difference between green and blue things.

Green = Continuous (create axes). But what does that mean? Think of continuous like a spectrum with no beginning or ending point. A date field set to continuous will have an axis that can be oriented to any position along the spectrum of time -- allowing you to customize the view as tightly or broadly around a range of dates as you like.

Blue = Discrete (create headers). Discrete data assumes the max and min values in your dataset are absolute endpoints. There is nothing higher or lower that can be viewed. The axis of a date field set to discreet will not appear as an endless spectrum then, but as unique intervals that can be filtered or analyzed independently.

This distinction exists so that you can use continuous dimensions or discrete measures in the view.

Aggregate calculations are always measures.

NUISANCES

Remove 'ABC' placeholder in lists

Remove "Show Header" check box
Drag another instance from data window onto "Text" mark shelf
OR
Create a calculated field " " and place on marks shelf

USING CALCULATED FIELDS

Basic IF Statement

IF sum([Measure]) > [Parameter] THEN "Too Large"
ELSE "Just Fine"
END

ELSEIF Statement

IF SUM([Measure]) >= [Paremeter] THEN "High"
ELSEIF SUM([Measure]) >= [Parameter] AND SUM([Measure]) <= [Parameter] THEN "Medium"
ELSE "Low"
END

Operators allowed in Calculations

= = or = (Equal to)
!= or <> (Not equal to)
>
<
>=
<=
AND / OR logical operators

Count Distinct

create this calculated field: SIZE()
Then drop it onto the worksheet and have it compute along whatever dimension you want a distinct count of. SIZE() counts the number of rows in a partition.

MAKING MAPS

Projections

Tableau default projection is WGS 84

Reverse Geocoding

Have a dataset with a bunch of lat / long coordinates and want to make filled maps or other views that aggregate the data by city, state, or country? Well, sadly, Tableau doesn't offer any way to do this process (often called "reverse geocoding") out of the box.
Do not dispair, however, as there are plenty of free tools on the Web that will process lat/longs and spit out street addresses. These tools are great for small datasets, but don't plan on much success with thousands of records -- at least not quickly.

CLEANING DATA

Corrcting date records that only contain year

Create a calculated field to add day and month to year values: DATE("01-01-"+[FY_Year])
OR
DATE("01/01/" + STR([Year]))

Removing Units (ex: sq ft) from numbers and converting to usable measures

FLOAT(
    REPLACE(
        (LEFT([Dimension], FIND([Dimension]," "))) , ",", "" 
        )
)

BUILDING DASHBOARDS

URL Actions

Use Case: when I click a field I want the wikipedia page for that field to appear Note: URL must be included in your dataset for each record

Add wikipedia URL to level of detail shelf on the corresponding view
Create an action that uses the sheet with the field you want to click as the source
Instead of having a target sheet, add the wikipedia URL field which will now be available as an option, because it has been added to the level of detail shelf on the corresponding worksheet

Navigate between Dashboards

Create calculated field with the text of your link, ie "Click Here to go to Dashboard 2"
Add new calculated field to a sheet
Add sheet to your source dashboard and create an action that points to the target dashboard

CUSTOMIZING VIEWS

Custom Shape Marks

In order for Tableau to recognize custom images for shapes they must be saved in the repository which is typically found in your Documents folder here: Documents -> My Tableau Repository -> Shapes.
In the shapes directory you'll find all the shape sets which Tableau uses automatically.
Create a new directory here and throw in your new shape images. Shape images should ideally be square and sized no bigger than 32 X 32

Forecasting

Forecasting is finnicky and only works well if the view has LOTS of data points and the criteria below are satisfied:
No table calculations can be applied to the current view
Also check to make sure your view has no totals or percentages displayed on the view (not supported)
Time series should be set to regular intervals (at least 5) without null values
No measures can be on the filter shelf
Only one aggregate measure is allowed per pane. Also remove "Measure Names" and "Measure Values" fields.

Table Options

By default, Tableau will only allow tables with 6 levels of row labels (fields).
To adjust this, Navigate to Analysis > Table Layout > Advanced
In the "Table Options" dialog that appears, you can adjust the max number of levels allowed up to 16 for rows and columns

ADDING THE FINISHING TOUCHES

Dynamic tooltips

In a tooltip, you can place summary statistics as well as and dimension / measure used in the view or placed on the marks shelf
Example: is landed on <AGG(Measure (pct))> of the time.

Hide specific mark labels

R-Click on label and select "Never Show"

Showing Data Refresh Date on a View

Showing data refreshed date can be added to the title of any worksheet, but not standalone text boxes on dashboards

Edit the title of your worksheet by selecting the carat at the top right corner of the title and choosing "Edit"
select the "Insert" dropdown and add "Data Update Time"

Adding symbols to tables and tooltips

Examples symbols in tables: to insert downward facing triangles for negative values, click the measure pill and select Format
In the Numbers drop-down box, select Custom, then copy and paste the down icon in the Format box.

You can also add icons to tooltips by creating separate calculated fields for the positive and negative icons - tutorial here: https://www.broadbandmetrics.com/display/Public/2014/04/28/Tableau+Pro+Tip%3A+Adding+Icons+to+Tables+and+Tooltips

SHARING WITH TABLEAU PUBLIC

Publish multiple views from the same workbook

In your workbook, hide all tabs / views you don't want people to be able to navigate to
Save to Tableau Public
Go to your published workbook settings (on the Tableau Public site), check "show sheets as tabs"

HOTKEYS

Swap Axes: Ctrl + w
Presentation Mode: F7
Clear Worksheet: Ctrl + Alt + Backspace
New Worksheet: Ctrl + M
Connect to Data: Ctrl + D
Refresh source data (not extract): F5

mccune / Tableau-Snippets