Innovative Tableau

Chapter 2. Parameter Actions

The chapters in Part I don’t necessarily go in order of importance or chronology, but I’m declaring author’s prerogative and starting off with my personal favorite: parameter actions. I have always described Tableau parameters as a Swiss Army knife because of their infinite applications. In case you are not familiar, Tableau parameters are user-generated values that allow you and your audience to choose the inputs of calculated fields. You, as the author, code the allowable values once, but then it’s up to the user as to which value is selected.

This unlocks a higher level of flexibility in Tableau that allows users to manipulate analyses on the fly by using a parameter control to change the values populating calculated fields. As of Tableau Desktop version 2019.2, there is a Change Parameter action, which makes the ability to change parameter values even more seamless.

How to Use Tableau Parameter Actions

Parameters are global values (i.e., not attached to a specific dataset) that can be controlled by a workbook user. These values can be used within calculated fields, filters, histogram bin sizes, and reference lines. You, as the dashboard developer, get to put some parameters around what those values can be, but from then on the end user gets to decide which value populates a calculated field or filter.

Note

Related: Practical Tableau, Chapter 14, “An Introduction to Parameters” (O’Reilly, 2018)

For an introductory example, we use a sales-by-month ...