Ray Givler’s Post

🤔 Should you use Boolean expressions as formulas in Tableau calculated fields rather than IF/THENs producing 'Y' and 'N'?   ☝️ Answer: Usually, yes.   ✔️ And yes, I was going for irony in a Y/N Boolean question…   There is always a use case for anything you can do in Tableau, but you can make your calculations a little more compact by making them Boolean and using a simple conditional statement rather than assigning a text value based on that condition.   Go one step further and name that Boolean as the question that it answers and end the name with a ?   You can put that Boolean on Filters, Color, Shape, wherever, and be just as effective as a Y/N column.   Yes, you may want to display a Y/N - if so, you can alias the True and False values to Y and N!   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay

🤔 Do you remember your early struggles with Tableau?   ☝️ Here is one case - a single data point on scatterplots.   Typically, a new user will drag a Measure to Rows and a Measure to Columns and wonder, "Where is my scatterplot?" because they only see a single dot.   This is because Tableau is defaulting to aggregation - that's the main point of the tool.   If you want a Mark for every row, either: ◼ Unselect Analysis | Aggregate Measures, or ◼ Move a dot-identifying-Dimension to Detail on the Marks card.   But you may want a mark for some other aggregation - not every row.   If so, play "fill in the blank" with the following statement: "I want a point for every ______."   Put that thing (or set of things) on Detail.   Additional Dimensions multiply your marks.   And there you have it!   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay

🤔 Have you ever seen an "*" in a Tableau Quick Filter?   🛸 I've only seen this on rare occasions in my years of using Tableau.   Last time, I forgot what the solution was.   Luckily, re-discovered it fairly quickly.   Somehow, I had placed ATTR(Dimension) in the Filters shelf rather than the Dimension itself.   That's all it was.   I probably Ctrl-dragged it there from a Mark label.   Regardless, it's a easy to miss and overlook the cause.   🔧 If you have this somewhere, go fix it!   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay

👀 I've been looking into Data Stories in Tableau.   🪙 There is some definitely some useful functionality there.   However, in that process, I got the screen below.   Do you know what I thought?   "Where the heck is the More Options context menu?!"   I don't think I ever even read the "More Options" hint on the dropdown arrow (aka caret, aka "disclosure triangle", aka "menu indicator") on dashboard objects. Has that always been there?   Anyhow, I eventually figured it out.   And if you didn't know, now you do!   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay

❓ Do you use "Show selections" when you publish to Tableau Server?   🤔 What are your use cases?   I don't use it, but I imagine there are situations in which it is beneficial or it would be there.   So please tell me. 🗣   I am experiencing FOMO. 😱   As an aside, I had to look up that acronym (FOMO) the first FIVE times I saw it. It just would not stick.   FOMO doesn't sound like fear or regret.   It sounds like a brand of pillow brand. 🛌   Anyhow, why "Show selections"?   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay

📝 Here is a Tiny Tableau Tip for Tuesday regarding workflow.   📃 If you are going to make a verbose entry in a tooltip with lots of editing, do it in a word processor and then paste it to your tip.   ❓ Why?   ⚠ If you accidentally hit Esc or the close X while editing a tooltip, Tableau simply discards all your changes.   😲 No prompt. No chance to undo.   👍 Hope that helps someone.   The example text in the simulated loss below is from a Tableau webpage regarding tooltips.   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay

❓ Are you struggling with a long list of Rows or Column pills in Tableau?   😲 Temporarily drag the Rows or Columns card to the left (or right) of filters and you'll get a nice long vertical list that might be easier to work with.   ❌ To undo the card placement, either drag it back in place or right-click below Marks (or in any whitespace between cards), and select Reset Cards.   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay

🤔 Are you struggling with a long list of Rows or Column pills in Tableau?   😲 Temporarily drag the Rows or Columns card to the left (or right) of filters and you'll get a nice long vertical list that might be easier to work with.   ❌ To undo the card placement, either drag it back in place, or, right-click below Marks (or in any whitespace between cards), and select Reset Cards.   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay

🤔 Did you know that in Tableau you can put a Dimension in Size?   ⌛ For a long time, I never thought of that.   💭 But one day, I was testing an idea and I thought, "Man, it would be great if I didn't need to make another variable for a measure to put on size."   💣 So I dragged the dimension that was on color to size as well, and BAM! It worked.   Wait, it gets even better! You can drag the Dimension values into the order you want (wouldn't make much sense otherwise, would it?)   There are some use cases out there for this!   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay

❓ So you have some stacked bar charts with unsightly 0's in Tableau?   🪤 There are a few ways to get rid of them.   You could check if the measure is >0 with a calculated field, and only return that same value if it is >0, and otherwise null and the null will display nothing.   The other alternative is to format 0s and a blank string, i.e., two double quotes. Even just a blank space after the ; works.   I like the formatting option - it's simpler and more efficient.   📝 This also works nicely on big tables in which a lot of repeating 0s tend to obscure 1s or other metrics.   🏗→🧠 Build to Learn!   💭🚶♀️🚶♂️ Follow for more.   #tableau #data #analytics #VizoftheRay