How to Calculate Equivalent Comparison Dates in Tableau

Eric Parker
Tableau Dates

Do you need to use Tableau to compare values to an equivalent date from a prior year? For example, "How did sales from this Monday compare to the same Monday from last year?"

This is different than comparing to the exact same date from last year since the comparison is probably 364 days (52 weeks) ago. Additionally, this can be made complicated if there are any gaps in your data. For example, if your business doesn't record transactions on Saturdays, you can't simply use the LOOKUP function to go back 364 days because that would take you back too far. Additionally, if you apply a filter and "lose" days in your data set as a result, the LOOKUP approach will fail.

Stacked Bar Chart With Multiple Label Colors in Tableau

Ollie Linley
Design

Have you ever tried to manually change the label color for different segments of your stacked bar chart? It's really tricky! While Tableau has a default color which can be white, black, or white and black alternating, you can't dictate how that should be attributed, and it can't be edited individually.

Here's a fun workaround that lets you control every aspect of the labels in your stacked bar chart from color to size to anything else! We’ll use a dual axis chart (a Tableau workaround hero!), and a reversed axis.

How to Create Multi-Row Formulas in Tableau Prep (Difference From)

Eric Parker
Tableau Prep

One of the most powerful, underrated features in Tableau Prep is the Difference From or "Multi-Row Formula" function. It allows you to calculate the difference in values between rows of data. This is useful when you need to calculate the time elapsed between dates or the general difference in values (e.g. dollars, counts, temperatures) from one row to the next.

This kind of calculation is only available in Tableau Desktop with a Table Calculation which is limiting because Table Calculations can only execute against data that's present in a worksheet. Pre-calculating differences in the underlying data can be a game-changer!

If you're looking to harness the power of SQL's LOOKUP/PARTITION in Tableau Prep, look no further! Check out this video for a full breakdown.

Build 3 Time-Series KPI's in Tableau From Scratch

Ollie Linley
Design, Tableau KPIs

KPI's are a powerful way to draw our end-users' attention to specific key metrics. By adding in visual information in the form of bar charts, we're able to create a comparison of the current year with the previous year.

While there are numerous ways to show this kind of comparison, here are three easy and effective time-series KPI's that can add an element of visual flair to any dashboard! These bar charts are simple to create and use one or two nifty calculated fields to add the visual flair we’re looking for.

How to Build a Sales Funnel in Tableau

Eric Parker
Design, Tableau Dashboards

Want to learn how to build a sales funnel in Tableau? You've come to the right place! Most funnels are hard to interpret because they deal with size disproportion issues. The classic upside-down triangle visual likely isn't the best way for you to represent funnel data for your users.

We've built funnels for dozens of clients over the last decade and have distilled our learnings into this video! Check it out for tips on writing calculations, building a funnel visual, formatting effectively and compiling it all into a meaningful dashboard.

How to Build KPI Tiles in Tableau

Ollie Linley
Design, Tableau KPIs

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are essential for any dashboard, helping you track performance at a glance and make data-driven decisions faster. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through how to build KPIs in Tableau, from setting up calculated fields to customizing visuals that make your data stand out.

Whether you’re designing a dashboard for executives or optimizing reports for daily tracking, well-designed KPIs can bring clarity and impact. Here’s how to do that in an engaging and eye-catching way!

How to Build Multi-Fact Relationship Data Models in Tableau

Eric Parker
Tableau Relationships, Data

One of the biggest areas of technical advancement in Tableau Desktop over the last several years is the ability to model complex data sources. Relationships first debuted in 2020 but were only usable for simple data models because you could only use a single fact table as a base table.

In 2024, Tableau updated the Relationship builder to allow for multiple-fact tables and shared dimension tables. This ability is invaluable in complex analyses that leverage numerous tables.

How to Ace Your Tableau Certification

Ollie Linley
Certification

Tableau’s Certifications aim at testing your theoretical and practical knowledge of Tableau through Multiple Choice Questions. The test is designed to give your CV the stamp it needs to show that you know how to use Tableau, and that you’re confident applying theory to reality.

However, many people feel overwhelmed when studying for these exams. Knowing where to focus your attention when trying to study “the whole of Tableau” is a daunting task!

How to Build a Dashboard on Tableau Public

Ollie Linley
Design, Tableau Public, Tableau Dashboards

If you want to use Tableau for free and don't need to ensure your data is perfectly private, you can use Tableau Public! This free-to-use option is perfect for Tableau newbies, testers, or people working for organizations where expensive Tableau licenses just aren't possible.

In this video, we'll see how to build a dashboard from scratch: from connecting to data, to building worksheets, to adding actions, and finally, to publishing it.

Overlay Custom Time Periods in a Tableau Line Graph

Eric Parker
Tableau Calculations, Tableau Dates

Comparing one time period to another is a common use case in Tableau. In our experience, one of the best ways to do that is to overlay one on top of the other. The question is, how do you do that dynamically for both a current and comparison period?

Check out this video for one of our favorite homegrown solutions where you create a custom date field and a custom value label which allows you to overlay two time periods for comparison!

Tableau Table Viz Extension Explained

Ollie Linley
Design, Tableau Text Tables

Tableau text tables are very powerful, but they're also pretty rigid, right? If you're a text table power user and you haven't checked out the Table Viz Extension, drop what you're doing!

A few things you can do with this versatile extension:

  • Create columns of varying widths

  • Add filters to a single column only

  • Dynamically color/format one column at a time

  • Set different mark types for each column Ready to add this to your toolkit?

Check out this video now!

Tableau Dashboard URL Actions Explained

Eric Parker
Tableau Dashboards

How do Tableau URL Actions work? Let's dive into how they work, what they can do and some creative ways you can customize them.

URL Actions in Tableau provide the ability to generate open a tab in a browser based on a user selection. There are loads of ways to set them up too. You can reference a full URL field from your data source, you can append a field to the end of a static URL slug, heck you can even generate a form email from within Tableau using fields in your data source!

Tableau FIXED LODs Not Filtering (Dimension and Context Filters)

Ollie Linley
Level of Detail

FIXED LODs are wonderful because they allow us to aggregate our measures at a chosen Dimension level, regardless of the level of detail of the worksheet. However, they aren't affected by Dimension Filters, because they're calculated before Dimension Filters are processed.

There are various scenarios where we need to work around that. We'll use Context Filters to help us where we need our LODs to be filtered, and we'll take a look at an example where you might not want your LOD to be filtered by your Dimension Filters.

How to Set Up Data-Driven Alerts in Tableau

Ollie Linley
Tableau Server

Want to learn how to set up alerts on Tableau Cloud/Server so that you can track certain metrics in the dashboards or sheets you're following? All you need is a dashboard published to Tableau Cloud and a measure-based axis.

In this tutorial, we run through how to set up and customize data-driven alerts in Tableau. Data-driven alerts can be scheduled to run at the cadence of your choosing, so it's important to choose your timeframe wisely!

Load More