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Tableau 201: How to Filter Out Partial Time Periods

One of the most panic-inducing visuals in data visualization is a line graph that has a sudden, and steep, decline. When there is truly an issue with the business that needs to be addressed, it …

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Tableau 201: How to Equalize Year Over Year Dates

Comparing an exact date in the current year to the same date in prior years – at least on the same date axis – is tricky in Tableau. The challenge comes from the lack of …

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Tableau 201: How to Compare Unequal Date Ranges on One Axis

In a previous post, we’ve shared a technique for comparing any date range in Tableau to the equal date range that immediately preceded the selection. But what do you do if you want to pick …

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Tableau 201: How to Make a Waterfall Chart

This post shares how to make a waterfall chart in Tableau – a visualization that helps understand how positive and negative values of dimension members are contributing to a total. What makes waterfall charts different …

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Tableau 201: How to Make a Gantt Chart

Gantt charts are traditionally used for visualizing project schedules. They are effective for illustrating task durations and dependencies in context of the larger business operation. As with several visualizations that can be built with Tableau, …

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Tableau 201: How and Why to Make Customizable Jitter Plots

“Jittering” is a technique for separating overlapping marks on a view. By giving marks some extra room by separating them into different columns, hidden data is often revealed and it is easier to visualize how …

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Tableau Fundamentals: An Introduction to Table Calculations

Tableau comes with several preset calculations that you can compute with the numbers on a view including running total, difference, percent difference, percent of total, moving average, and more. These predefined calculations are called table …

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Tableau Fundamentals: An Introduction to Parameters

As you make your way through the Tableau 201 series, and especially the Tips & Tricks section, there is one functionality that you will hear about over and over: parameters. Parameters are the solution to …

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Tableau Fundamentals: An Introduction to Calculated Fields

Possibly the most powerful feature of Tableau is its ability to allow authors to create new data from existing data through calculated fields. Calculated fields can be used to create new dimensions such as segments, …

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Tableau 201: How to Make a Control Chart

Control charts, or Shewhart charts, were designed to evaluate whether production is in a state of statistical control. Along with Pareto charts, histograms, and scatter plots, they are one of the seven basic tools for …

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