Making Table Calculations work in Tableau

Table calculations – easily the most complicated tool available within Tableau, and consequently the most powerful.
If you’re not familiar with Table Calculations – they are used for all the ‘tricky’ bits of analysis your boss asks you for, but doesn’t really think you'll be able to do.
Creating a Table Calculation usually starts with a request a bit like this:
“Hey, dataguy, I have an EXCEL file here. I’ve got a KPI which shows this month’s revenue compared to the average of the previous three months – I bet you can’t work that out in Tableau!!”
This could well require the creation of a calculation which ‘moves’ – i.e. performs some calculation on data which is not in the column or row where the answer is placed, but is ‘relative’ to it.
Tough stuff if you are new to data analysis, or new to Tableau.
So here it is, a REALLY simple primer in how to MAKE TABLE CALCULATIONS WORK – EVERY TIME.
This content doesn’t lend itself to a blog post, so we’ve had to create a packaged workbook which you can download and open in Tableau… We hope you like it, and that it can kick start your analysis in Tableau.
As always, if you need more help – please contact us @ The Information Lab.
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Reader Comments (2)
Can you make the workbook available in Tableau Public?
Tom,
Thanks for posting this! It's the best explanation of table calcs I've ever read. This will make for a great training session for either our users internally and/or for ATUG.
I have only used the "advanced" option occasionally, but now I will definitely be using it all the time. It doesn't make any sense NOT to use it.
Andy