Learning Tableau

Scope and direction

Scope and direction are terms that describe how a table calculation is computed relative to the table. When a table calculation is relative, rearranging the fields in the view will not change the scope and direction. Let's see what scope and direction are:

• Scope: The scope defines the boundaries within which a given table calculation can reference other values
• Direction: The direction defines how the table calculation moves within the scope

You've already seen table calculations being calculated using the Table (Down) option. In these cases, the scope was the entire table and the direction was down. For example, the Running Total calculation ran from top to bottom of the entire table, adding values as it moved.

To define scope ...