Split one Dimension into its components

mbaumga

5 posts

joined Nov '09

Hello,

have a look at the attached xls file. You see that I have a column called "Indicator". I now would like to make a scatter plot with KPI_1 on the x-axis, KPI_2 on the y-axis, and using KPI_3 to size the circles.

I thus somehow need to split my dimension "Indicator" into 3 specific components for each of the KPI. Can this be done in Tableau ? Or is it mandatory to have basically one column in your data source, per dimension ?

Thanks for your help !

Regards

Marcel

Attachment	Size
Tableau Problem.xls	18.5 KB

Comments

clint

Marcel,
this ought to be fairly simple -- assuming that the real data isn't more complex.
Your basic formula is going to be

IIF([Indicator]="KPI_1",[Value],NULL)
Which basically says:

If "Indicator" is equal to "KPI_1" then use [Value] otherwise do nothing

You'll set up one calculated metric per KPI so you will end up with three calculated metrics: "KPI 1 Value", "KPI 2 Value" and "KPI 3 Value". Drag one to the row shelf, a second to the column shelf, change the visualization to an x-y scatter plot and then drag the third to the size shelf.

In the attached example I've also added year to the color shelf and country to the shape shelf.

-Clint

Attachment	Size
split-dimensions.twbx	66.75 KB

mbaumga

5 posts

joined Nov '09

Clint,

thanks. I get it. However:

I don't get my scatterplot. As the calculated measure "KPI1 Value" is say 110, 120, 90, NULL, NULL, NULL and "KPI2 Value" equal to NULL, NULL, NULL, 90, 85, 115, I don't get a scatterplot. All the values for KPI1 are on the horizontal axis, and all of those for KPI2 on the vertical axis.

I still am on Tableau 4.1, so I couldn't load your tableau workbook. Can you provide it for version 4.1 ?

Thanks again !

Marcel

omomyid

84 posts

joined Jan '09

Clint here (wasn't logged in yesterday).
I suspect that TB is treating your new metrics as dimensions and/or discrete (as opposed to continuous measures) so make sure to change each into a continuous measure (using whichever aggregation is appropriate).

Luckily, I still had 4.1 installed so a 4.1 extract is attached (hopefully that will work).