Grand Total and Sub-Total – Use Cases
Recently, we've seen many questions on the Forums on Grand Totals and Sub-Totals – how they are calculated, when to use them or another approach to get totals, how to sub-total some – but not all of the measures – what to do when they return an unexpected result. See the video at Link to GT […]
Use Cases – Occupancy, Turnover, Lost Customer and Schedule Availability Analysis
Occupancy and Turnover Rates and Lost customers We see a lot of questions on the Forums on calculating occupancy and turnover rates or scheduling meeting rooms and identifying lost customers. They may sound like different problems but the solutions are very similar and require joining base data with a date scaffold or to a copy […]
Sets and Set Action Use Cases
Do you use sets? If not why not? Sets are not like Groups or Filters: Sets categorize your entire data set into 2 segments – Records are either "In" or "Out" based on the value of a single dimension. All the data in the data table and available for use in any type […]
Table Calculations – When, Where and How
Want to total across the row or column, rank a dimension, or pick out a single value? Then you need a Table Calculation! But how? Table Calculation Basics Table calculations should feel familiar. They operate on the table you see in the view much like those from spreadsheet calculators. The actual "data […]
Weighted Averages
Weighted Averages Lately, there have been a lot of Forum questions about calculating weighted averages Mathematically, a weighted average is defined as the sum of the individual weights x the values divided by the total of the weights 1 Table Calculation Example Posters are familiar with how to find weighted averages with a […]
Dates Functions
Date Functions I've had my "issues" with dates – maybe you have too – Date functions allow us to make spectacular charts, compare period sales, and track trends over time. But which one do you use and when? Dates are a very special class of dimensions – they self sequence, have a built-in hierarchy, […]
Zoom in on Map Point with a Radius
"Zoom In" – to Points on Map Recently there have several Forum posts asking how to find all the points that are within a radius of a point and to be able to "zoom in" on the map – something like “I want to identify client locations are within 20 miles of each of […]
Use LODs to create layer in your data set
Need help using LOD’s – Think of your data set as a pyramid. The data you upload creates the base of the pyramid – the top is the sum of all the data. LOD expressions give you a way to create layers in your data and use those layers to categorize data into dynamic groups, sets, […]
Use a scaffold to solve the 2 date problem
The most frequently viewed workbook on my Tableau Public site is a solution to the classic 2 date problem. – The data have only a start and end date and you need to know how many programs are active on any date – Ultimately you want something like this The business question can take […]
See it your way using sets and set actions to navigate your next dashboard
Use sets and set actions to navigate your next dashboard – There are 3 steps Create sets on the dimensions you want to vary Use “Value Pickers” to visually change the set values Create the detail worksheet for your viz – here a map Add Set Actions to the dashboard The example will use […]
More than dots on a map – The renewable energy story
Renewable Energy – How big is it- A dashboard should tell a story beyond just presenting data. It needs to be interesting and when possible encourage the viewer to interact and investigate to make the story their own. This is the end product But that's several iterations later – It started like this […]