How to use Parameter actions in Tableau Desktop 2019.2 and newer

0:00For many months and many years Tableau

0:06users have been asking for the ability to

0:08add some

0:08dynamism into parameter actions and finally

0:12in Tableau 2019.2 we have parameter actions

0:16.

0:16Now it's not quite what users were asking

0:19for but actually the combination of this

0:21and

0:21some other features that Tableau released

0:24throughout the year give us the capability

0:26that we need and actually goes well beyond

0:28that. Now in order to understand parameter

0:30actions

0:31it's worth understanding parameters in full

0:34. So I'm just going to do a quick refresher

0:36for new users

0:37on what parameters are. Parameters are

0:39essentially dynamic values. I'm going to

0:42create one right now

0:43by right clicking in this white space

0:45creating a parameter and you can create all

0:48sorts of

0:48parameters but they essentially map to data

0:51types. So you can see floats, integers,

0:54strings, booleans,

0:55date and date and time fields. Now these

0:58are essentially values that the user can

1:01input into

1:01the parameter. So if I for example call

1:04this number decimal and keep it floating

1:09but I type

1:09in 1.5 hit okay you'll see my parameters

1:13created here on the bottom left hand side

1:15and then what I can do with the parameter

1:18if I show that value you can see my

1:21parameter controls

1:22now here on the left hand side if I drag

1:25that into the visualization you can see I

1:27get 1.5.

1:29I can use it as a label there's 1.5. I can

1:32even put it on size that size is going to

1:35be 1.5 but

1:36ultimately that remains where it is and

1:39when I create a calculation with the same

1:41parameter

1:42what actually happens is that every single

1:45row of the data set is assigned that value.

1:48So if I call this param for short and hit

1:52okay then you'll see that if I drag

1:55parameter next

1:56to number decimal I get a totally different

1:58total. I get 10,616 because it takes a

2:02number of records

2:03and essentially multiplies that by 1.5

2:06because every single row has 1.5.

2:07So you can start to see how parameters are

2:10useful if I change this number here to let

2:12's say three

2:15then my numbers change you can see those

2:18those two changing okay so that's a very

2:20very brief

2:21introduction to parameters you can create

2:23lots of different ones with dates, booleans

2:26there's a

2:26whole range of things you can do but where

2:28it gets really powerful is when the user

2:31can actually

2:32change the parameter using something in the

2:34visualization. So to show you how the

2:36feature

2:36works I'm going to build a new chart. I'm

2:39going to clear my sheet by clicking this

2:41icon here on

2:42the top bar and then what I want to do is I

2:45want to draw a scatter plot showing all my

2:48products.

2:48So I'm going to drag product onto detail it

2:50gives me a waffle chart with all my

2:52products

2:53and then what I want to do is see the

2:55profitability and sales as a scatter plot.

3:00So profitability on the left, sales along

3:03the bottom and what I would like to also do

3:06is maybe

3:06put quantity and size so I can understand

3:08how many of their particular product I'm

3:10actually selling.

3:11So here we have a very basic chart now a

3:14typical thing you might do in a view like

3:16this is add

3:17some filters so I'll just right click on

3:19subcategory and I'll probably right click

3:22on

3:22region as well and show filter so those

3:25filters appear on the right hand side and

3:28something you

3:29might want to do is for example do some

3:31analysis and and sort of compare

3:33performance in different

3:34regions or across different subcategories.

3:37Now previously what you had to do before is

3:39you'd

3:40add a reference line I'll just show you let

3:42's add profitability reference on this side

3:45the average

3:46you'd go to your particular area central

3:50let's say and you'd hover over your average

3:52yourself 101

3:54then you go to south hover over that 73 and

3:56you'd probably write this down on a on a

4:00pen and paper

4:00and you know kind of work with that if you

4:03're a little bit more of an advanced user

4:05you might

4:06actually just create that as a table build

4:08out a dashboard and again the more advanced

4:10you get

4:11the more you start to realize that you can

4:13't possibly compensate for every single

4:16variant

4:17or question that's going to come from a

4:18business user. So this is where parameter

4:21actions become

4:22really really powerful so we're going to

4:23build something similar but we're going to

4:25do it a

4:25slightly different way. First I'm going to

4:27clear the reference line and we're going to

4:31just go back

4:31to our default view bring all our data sets

4:34back in. Okay the first thing I'm going to

4:37do is create

4:38a couple of new parameters okay not a

4:40calculated field a parameter let's create a

4:43parameter

4:44and I'm just going to leave them as one

4:46actually I'll leave them as zero this is a

4:49little trick

4:50because I want them to hide along the axis

4:53so let's call this profit param

4:59and I'm going to create another one I also

5:02want that to hide on zero and I'm going to

5:06call this

5:06sales param probably figured out what I'm

5:10going to do now so on the profit axis I'm

5:13going to add

5:14a reference line and I'm actually going to

5:17you know call out that profit parameter and

5:20it's going

5:20to be sitting on zero because the value of

5:23the parameter is zero. Now some of you

5:26might be

5:27watching this and be asking well can you

5:29have not created the parameter here yes you

5:31can you can

5:32actually create parameters right from the

5:34reference line window but I just did it

5:35outside just to

5:37allow new users to sort of keep up so here

5:39we are I've done the profit parameter I'm

5:42going to add

5:43another reference line I'm going to bring

5:46in the sales parameter as well that's

5:48hiding on the axis

5:49it's very nice I'll just make these a

5:50little bit thinner I'll edit that and I'll

5:54actually do that

5:56here as well great so you can see that

5:59these parameters are hiding on the axis and

6:02just to

6:02prove to you that they're working let's

6:04show those values and let's type in

6:06slightly different values

6:07let's type in let's say 100 and if you hit

6:10enter you'll see that that line moves the

6:12axis is quite

6:13large so maybe we need a couple more zeros

6:14for you to notice the change there we go 10

6:16000 you

6:17can see that value is moving and I see but

6:19let's set that back to zero okay now the

6:23new thing here

6:24if I go to the actions menu now notice I'm

6:27going to the worksheet actions if I was

6:29doing this in

6:29a dashboard I'd need to go to the dashboard

6:32actions but here I'm working in a worksheet

6:34so I go over to the worksheet actions okay

6:36and you can actually see a parameter that I

6:39created

6:40prior to this video so let me just remove

6:42that and let's add an action and you can

6:45see the first

6:46option here is to change the parameter so

6:48this is a new feature so I'm going to

6:51change the profit

6:52parameter okay profit param okay and the

6:56target parameter here is a profit parameter

7:01and what I

7:02want to feed into that profit parameter is

7:06a particular value okay and I have to be

7:09careful

7:10here because if I choose sales for example

7:12then it's going to take whatever

7:14aggregation of sales

7:15and put it in the profit parameter which is

7:18the wrong thing I don't want to take the

7:20sales value

7:20the average sales value for example and

7:22apply it to profit because those are two

7:24very different

7:25kinds of numbers so let's hit profit and I

7:28'd like to take the average profit okay and

7:32hit okay

7:33so I've done that but nothing's happened

7:37where this comes into effect is when the

7:40user makes

7:41a selection so now watch what happens when

7:43I click and drag on these three items the

7:46profit

7:47parameter moves to reflect where the

7:49average is between those three records and

7:52the really

7:52powerful thing here is that when I deselect

7:55it stays where it is okay so let's repeat

7:58that step

7:59for sales let's add an action this time we

8:02're going to change the parameter again but

8:06this

8:07time we're going to change the sales

8:08parameter it's good to get into the habit

8:10of naming your

8:11parameters I need to make sure I choose the

8:15right metric and aggregate that in the

8:19correct way okay

8:20if I wanted to I could actually change the

8:23way that action is applied I could maybe

8:25use a hover

8:26or a menu option I can actually make this a

8:29menu option if I wanted to so I'm going to

8:31stick to

8:32select so now you can see I have two

8:34parameter actions and click okay if I

8:37select the same three

8:40I now get the average sales and the average

8:42profit I can see roughly where they

8:44intersect

8:45and when I deselect that stays where it is

8:49okay so where this becomes a really useful

8:51feature

8:51if I reset these parameters just I set

8:54these to zero

8:55let's say user opens a dashboard this is

8:59what they see and they want to do some

9:03analysis they

9:03want to do some sort of you know comparison

9:06so I'm first going to deselect everything

9:08and just bring

9:09in binders okay then I'm going to do a

9:11shortcut I'm going to hit command a or

9:14control a and windows

9:15and you're going to see the values sort of

9:17pop up then I'm going to bring the rest of

9:19my data set

9:20back in you can immediately see that even

9:22though I've brought my data set back in

9:24what I'd selected

9:25before stay selected but I can now deselect

9:28and see how that sits with the entire data

9:31set

9:31you can get even more advanced because what

9:34we can now do is create another calculated

9:37field

9:38that colors based on how a field a number

9:42behaves relative to our parameters so let's

9:46let's check if sum of cells

9:49is greater than the which one are we doing

9:56here this is a profit one

9:58oh well some cells shouldn't be checking

10:01profit should we should be checking sales

10:03sales parameter

10:04okay so we're just going to do color check

10:09okay click apply and now if I drag that

10:13onto color

10:14you'll see everything underneath the cells

10:17parameter is correctly colored blue and

10:21everything

10:21above is colored orange I can change these

10:24colors so I could say actually everything

10:27underneath is

10:29sorry everything under is red and

10:32everything above is not important so I can

10:35just do that

10:36so now as I interact with this as the

10:39average changes you can start to see how

10:42dynamic this is

10:43and this becomes really really powerful if

10:46you start to apply it in lots of different

10:48use cases

10:49before I close out the video I just want to

10:52show you some examples from the Tableau

10:54community

10:55in the past I showed you an example from

10:59Mark Reed a Tableau enthusiast in the

11:01community and

11:02today I'm going to show you an example from

11:05Lindsay Poulter now her work is incredible

11:09because if you

11:09look at her workbooks and the way she

11:11builds interfaces for Tableau she's using

11:14set actions

11:15parameter actions to give interfaces that

11:18look natural and normal and she's not

11:20always using

11:21the Tableau interface item so let's have a

11:23look at this so you can see here that you

11:25've got

11:26accessories binders and bookcases selected

11:28and essentially what's happening here is it

11:30's feeding

11:31those values here into the chart so I can

11:34see how the colored items compare to those

11:38that aren't

11:39selected so I can compare the two titles I

11:41get a readout of what's selected along the

11:43top and I

11:44also get this sort of nice interactivity to

11:47show me what I've selected it's very

11:48different compared

11:49to the drop down selector in Tableau and it

11:52looks a little bit more authentic this is

11:54just some of

11:55the power you can apply with parameter

11:57actions I highly encourage you to see some

11:59of the examples

12:00out there I couldn't possibly cover every

12:02single one of them in this video but it's

12:04definitely

12:05something to investigate if you're looking

12:07for dynamism in your Tableau workbooks and

12:09or you

12:10think letting the user interact with your

12:12visualization with dynamism is going to

12:15help

12:16with their analysis if you enjoyed the

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