Tableau Basics
dimensions · measures · marks · filters · shelves · chart types · sorting · groups · hierarchies
Sheet 1 of 2
Tableau Desktop
Beginner
Printable
Tableau Desktop — Interface at a Glance
1
Data Pane (left)
Lists all fields from your data source. Blue = Dimensions, Green = Measures. Drag fields from here onto shelves or the canvas.
2
Columns & Rows Shelves (top)
Fields placed here define the X and Y axes. Dropping a dimension creates headers; dropping a measure creates an axis with values.
3
Marks Card
Controls the visual encoding: Color, Size, Label, Detail, Tooltip, Shape. Drop fields here to add visual layers to your chart.
4
Filters Shelf
Drag any field here to filter the view. Right-click to configure filter type, condition, and "Show Filter" for interactive controls.
5
Pages Shelf
Creates a page-by-page animation or flipbook. Drop a date or dimension here to step through the data over time or by category.
6
Show Me Panel
Top-right panel suggesting chart types based on fields selected. Highlighted icons show valid chart types for your current selection.
7
View / Canvas
The central area where your visualization renders. Click marks to select them or right-click for context options like drill-down.
8
Sheet / Dashboard / Story Tabs
Bottom tabs. Worksheets hold individual charts. Dashboards combine multiple sheets. Stories arrange views into a guided narrative.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo |
| Ctrl + D | Duplicate sheet |
| Ctrl + W | Close sheet |
| Ctrl + E | Edit calculated field |
| Ctrl + R | Refresh data source |
| Ctrl + Alt + F | Format font |
| F7 | Fit view to window |
| Ctrl + Shift + D | Duplicate data source |
| Ctrl + 1–4 | Switch fit mode |
| Alt + Drag | Copy a pill to shelf |
| Del | Remove field from shelf |
Dimensions vs Measures
| Dimensions | Measures | |
|---|---|---|
| Colour in pane | Blue | Green |
| Data type | Qualitative — categories, names, dates | Quantitative — numbers you can aggregate |
| Default pill | Discrete (blue pill) | Continuous (green pill) |
| On axis | Creates headers / labels | Creates a numeric axis |
| Examples | Region, Product, Customer, Date | Sales, Profit, Quantity, Discount |
| Aggregation | None by default (group by) | SUM, AVG, COUNT, MIN, MAX… |
🔵 Discrete Dimension — Blue pill → headers
🟢 Continuous Measure — Green pill → axis
Swap Discrete ↔ Continuous: Right-click any pill → Convert to Discrete / Convert to Continuous. Dates are often used as both — discrete for grouping by month labels, continuous for a timeline axis.
Marks Card — Visual Encoding
| Mark Property | What it controls | Best used with |
|---|---|---|
| Color | Hue or gradient of each mark | Category (discrete) or range (continuous) |
| Size | Area / radius of each mark | Numeric measure — e.g. bubble chart |
| Label | Text shown on or near each mark | Measure or dimension value annotation |
| Detail | Adds granularity without visible encoding | Dimension that splits marks without changing look |
| Tooltip | Text shown on hover | Extra context fields or formatted values |
| Shape | Icon / symbol for each mark | Categorical dimension on scatter plots |
| Path | Order / direction of line drawing | Line charts — connect marks in sequence |
| Angle | Rotation of pie / donut slices | Pie / donut chart type only |
Mark type dropdown: The top of the Marks card has a dropdown — Automatic, Bar, Line, Area, Square, Circle, Shape, Text, Map, Pie, Gantt, Polygon. Changing this switches the chart type instantly.
Chart Types — When to Use & How to Build
📊 Bar Chart
Compare categories
Dimension → Rows, Measure → Columns (or swap)
📈 Line Chart
Trends over time
Date → Columns, Measure → Rows, Marks = Line
⚪ Scatter Plot
Correlation of two measures
Measure → Columns, Measure → Rows, Dim → Detail
🗺️ Map
Geographic data
Geo field (Country/State) → auto-generates map
🥧 Pie / Donut
Part-to-whole (<6 slices)
Marks = Pie, Dim → Color, Measure → Angle
🌳 Treemap
Hierarchical proportions
Dim → Color/Label, Measure → Size, Marks = Square
🔴 Bubble Chart
3 measures at once
Measure → Rows/Columns, Measure → Size/Color
📦 Box Plot
Distribution & outliers
Dim → Columns, Measure → Rows, Show Me → Box plot
📋 Text Table
Crosstab / pivot view
Dims → Rows/Columns, Measure → Text on Marks
🔥 Heat Map
Pattern across two dims
2 Dims → Rows/Columns, Measure → Color + Size
📉 Area Chart
Cumulative trends
Date → Columns, Measure → Rows, Marks = Area
⏱️ Gantt Chart
Task timelines
Date → Columns, Task → Rows, Duration → Size
Don't use pie charts with more than 5 categories — switch to a bar chart. Avoid 3D charts entirely in Tableau — they distort perception and make accurate reading impossible.
Filters — All Types & Order of Operations
Filter Order of Operations (top = first applied)
| # | Filter Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Extract Filter | Limits rows loaded into Tableau extract (.hyper) |
| 2 | Data Source Filter | Filters before data reaches any worksheet |
| 3 | Context Filter | Creates a temporary table — other filters run against it |
| 4 | Dimension Filter | Filters discrete fields (text, date parts, boolean) |
| 5 | Measure Filter | Filters aggregated results (e.g. SUM(Sales) > 1000) |
| 6 | Table Calc Filter | Hides marks after table calculations are done |
Context Filters are powerful for performance. Mark a dimension filter as Context (right-click pill in Filters shelf → Add to Context) to pre-filter data before FIXED / TOP N calculations run.
Filter Options — Dimension Field
| Tab | Use for |
|---|---|
| General | Select / exclude specific values from a list |
| Wildcard | Match by pattern — starts with, contains, ends with |
| Condition | Filter by formula or aggregation condition |
| Top | Keep top/bottom N by a measure |
Show Filter — Quick Filters
→
Right-click any field in Filters shelf → Show Filter
Adds an interactive control card to the view. Available styles: Single Value List, Multiple Values List, Single Value Dropdown, Slider, Relative Date.
→
Apply to worksheets
Click the filter card menu (▾) → Apply to Worksheets → All Using This Data Source. Syncs the filter across all sheets.
Sorting
1
One-click sort
Click the axis label or header — a sort icon appears. Click once for ascending, twice for descending, third click to clear sort.
2
Sort by a field (computed sort)
Right-click a dimension pill → Sort → Sort By: Field → choose measure and aggregation. Updates dynamically as data changes.
3
Nested sort (multi-level)
When multiple dimensions are on Rows, right-click the inner dimension → Sort → keeps context of the outer dimension. Shows top N per group.
4
Manual sort
Drag category headers directly in the view to reorder manually. Or right-click pill → Sort → Manual → drag items in the dialog.
Always sort bar charts by value descending — it makes comparisons much easier. A sorted bar chart communicates rank instantly; an alphabetical one forces the reader to hunt for the largest bar.
Groups, Sets & Hierarchies
| Feature | What it is | How to create |
|---|---|---|
| Group | Combine dimension members into a new category (e.g. East + West = "Coast") | Select marks → right-click → Group. Or right-click field → Create → Group |
| Set | Binary IN/OUT classification — members matching a condition vs all others | Right-click dimension → Create → Set. Condition or Top N tab |
| Dynamic Set | Set that updates when data changes (condition-based) | Set with a condition — automatically recalculates on refresh |
| Combined Set | Union, intersection, or difference of two existing sets | Right-click a set → Create Combined Set |
| Hierarchy | Nesting for drill-down: Year → Quarter → Month → Day | Drag one field onto another in the Data pane → Create Hierarchy |
Sets on Marks Card: Dragging a set onto Color shows In/Out members with two colours — great for highlighting your top N customers vs the rest while keeping full context.
Aggregation & Level of Detail
| Aggregation | Meaning | Right-click → Measure |
|---|---|---|
| SUM | Total of all values | Default for most numeric fields |
| AVG | Mean value | Change via Measure → Average |
| COUNT | Number of rows | Includes duplicates |
| COUNTD | Count of distinct values | Unique customers, unique orders |
| MIN / MAX | Smallest / largest value | Good for date ranges |
| MEDIAN | Middle value | More robust than AVG for skewed data |
| STDEV | Standard deviation | Spread / variability of data |
| ATTR | Returns value only if unique in group | Else shows * |
→
Disaggregate measures
Analysis menu → Uncheck "Aggregate Measures". Shows individual row values instead of aggregated totals — useful for scatter plots of raw data.
Data Connection, Joins & Blending
Connection Types
| Type | When to use |
|---|---|
| Live | Real-time data; queries go to source every time |
| Extract | Snapshot cached in .hyper file; fast, portable, can refresh on schedule |
Prefer Extract for large datasets or when publishing to Tableau Server/Cloud. Extracts are dramatically faster than live queries for most workbooks.
Joins vs Relationships vs Blending
| Method | Use when |
|---|---|
| Join | Same data source, combine at row level (INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL) |
| Relationship | Multiple tables — Tableau joins at query time based on fields used (default since 2020.2) |
| Union | Stack rows from tables with same structure (like SQL UNION ALL) |
| Blending | Different data sources — secondary source aggregated before joining |
Relationship Tips
★
Use Relationships (not Joins) for multi-table models
Relationships preserve row-level granularity per table — avoids duplicated rows that joins can cause.
★
Define cardinality and referential integrity
Set Many-to-One or One-to-One in the relationship dialog for better query performance.
★
Blending link field
In Data → Edit Blend Relationships, set the linking field. The secondary source field appears with an orange chain icon in the Data pane.
Tableau Basics Mastery Checklist
| Interface & Fields | Key point |
|---|---|
| Identify Dimensions | Blue fields — categorical |
| Identify Measures | Green fields — numeric / aggregated |
| Build a bar chart | Dim → Rows, Measure → Columns |
| Add color encoding | Drag field to Color on Marks |
| Change mark type | Marks dropdown → Bar/Line/Circle… |
| Add a tooltip field | Drag field to Tooltip on Marks |
| Filters & Sorting | Key point |
|---|---|
| Add a filter | Drag field to Filters shelf |
| Show interactive filter | Right-click pill → Show Filter |
| Context filter | Right-click pill → Add to Context |
| Sort by measure | Right-click dim pill → Sort |
| Apply filter to all sheets | Filter card → All Using Data Source |
| Filter order 1→6 | Extract→DS→Context→Dim→Measure→Calc |
| Groups, Sets & Data | Key point |
|---|---|
| Create a group | Select marks → right-click → Group |
| Create a set | Right-click field → Create → Set |
| Build a hierarchy | Drag one field onto another in pane |
| Change aggregation | Right-click green pill → Measure |
| Use Extract not Live | For large datasets & Tableau Server |
| Use Relationships | Multi-table joins without row duplication |
Next up → Sheet 2: Tableau Calculations ·
calculated fields · LOD expressions (FIXED, INCLUDE, EXCLUDE) · table calculations · WINDOW_SUM · RANK · parameters