By: Eric Parker
Eric Parker lives in Seattle and has been teaching Tableau and Alteryx since 2014. He's helped thousands of students solve their most pressing problems. If you have a question, feel free to reach out to him directly via email. You can follow him on LinkedIn or sign up for a Tableau Office Hour to work with him directly!
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Table Calculations are a family of functions in Tableau Desktop which allow users to reference data at the aggregated, data point (mark) level. They are a powerful but often misunderstood component of the Tableau ecosphere.
Some of the most common applications of Table Calculations include calculating Percent of Total, Percent Difference and Rank.
Table Calculations differ from standard calculations in a number of key ways. First, standard calculations typically create a new column of data in the data source. Table Calculations do not. Table Calculations are flexible and their application is specific to the worksheet they are used on and what dimensions are used in that sheet.
When using Table Calculations, you also have the ability as a user to set a Scope (Table, Pane, Cell) and Direction (Across, Down, etc.). Scope and Direction allow you to answer the question, "How do I want this Table Calculation to compute?" For example, if you have two dimensions (State and City) and one measure (Sales) and want to calculate a percent of total, you have two main options.
Option 1: Calculate the percent of total across all cities/states so the entire worksheet adds up to 100%.
Option 2: Calculate the percent of total where each state is the scope so each state adds up to 100%.
The more dimensions in the view, the more options you have available.
Want to master the basics of Table Calculations? Check out this in-depth video to better understand what they are, how they work, and how they can help you!
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