Tableau Desktop Cookbook

Chapter 17. Level-of-Detail Calculations

LODs are a very powerful feature of Tableau. Much like Table Calculations, they allow you to compute a value at a level of granularity that is different from the default visualization level of detail. However, the difference between Table Calculations and LODs is that Table Calculations are computed through dimensions or discrete fields that are in the view, whereas LODs can compute using fields that are not in the view or at a different level of granularity. You can use three types of LODs: Include, Exclude, and Fixed. Each has a different use case, which we will explore in this chapter.

When you want to create an LOD calculation, you can use the help guide inside of a calculation to understand each type of LOD. In the top of that calculation window, you will see how to formulate an LOD, and you will notice it has its own syntax:

The difference between the three types of LODs is that an Exclude is less granular/more aggregated than the visualization level of detail; an Include adds additional granularity/less aggregation than the visualization level of detail; and finally, a Fixed LOD is at the level of granularity you specify regardless of what is in your view:

Note

Granularity is defined as “dimensions in the view.”

Building an ...