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Tableau | Data prep

Running Sums with no hacks in Tableau Prep | New in Tableau 2023.3

Tableau Prep now does running sums natively in 23.3, and honestly this interface is my favourite bit of the whole Tableau platform this year.

Tim Ngwena •16 November 2023 •1 min read •7 min watch •2.8K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2023.3 Tableau Prep Builder tutorial Jan-2020

Watch on YouTube

Running calculations are created by selecting a column, adding a calculated field, and choosing 'running calculation' from the dropdown in a clean step
Whatever field you order by is automatically removed from the group by options, so you can't both group and order by the same field
Grouping by a dimension like sales region restarts the running sum within each group, similar to using panes in Tableau Desktop table calculations
The interface animates the rows being summed and uses blue highlights on the right to show where each running sum ends
You can compute running sums or running averages on any measure such as sales, profit or discount

0:00Tableau Prep now does running sums natively

0:04. It's new in 23.3 to find out

0:05how, as ever, let's get stuck in. Okay so

0:08to do this I've just opened a standard

0:10flow in Tableau Prep. This is one of the

0:12default flows that comes in. It's called

0:13Superstore. If you look on the bottom left

0:16when you open Tableau Prep this is

0:17the flow you'll see. Now if I just zoom out

0:20here you'll see this is a very

0:22simple flow. It's already been built for us

0:24. All I'm going to do is actually add a

0:26step. In fact I've already added it so I'm

0:28going to delete it here because I

0:29forgot to do that before I hit record. Let

0:32's go over to this rolling up of

0:34sales and if we just look at this step you

0:35can see there's some aggregation

0:37happening. And what I want to do is show

0:39you this function. To do that I'm just

0:41going to hit this plus icon and select the

0:43clean step. The reason I need to do

0:45this is because the calculation we're going

0:47to add is actually created from

0:48selecting a column and selecting a

0:50calculation. So if I take my sales column

0:53as an example and I go ahead and create a

0:55calculated field you see I get this

0:57drop down and in there you can see the

0:58running calculation is the new feature.

1:00Let's go ahead and select that and it opens

1:02up this beautiful interface. This

1:04is one of the best parts of Tableau Prep. I

1:07think it's my favorite bit out of the

1:09whole entire Tableau platform this year.

1:12This has just been such a nice addition

1:13to Tableau Prep because of the way it works

1:16. It breaks down how to do multi row

1:18counts in a way that I think enhances what

1:20we've seen in Tableau Desktop for

1:23table calculations. How does it work? Well

1:25it's super simple. First you need to

1:27select what you're going to group your

1:29table by and if you think about it when

1:31we're doing running sums there is

1:33essentially a grouping and the default

1:35option is just to do a running sum on the

1:37whole entire table so by default

1:39that's what's selected. You can change this

1:42and you can choose some of the

1:43other items. You can choose the year of

1:44sales or quantity. But let's go ahead

1:47and choose the ordering first because I

1:49want to show you a behavior that you

1:52should be aware of when you do this and you

1:53might wonder why can't I see

1:54something. This is probably going to be why

1:57. If I select year of sales to order

1:59the running sum calculation that makes

2:01sense because time is generally a good

2:03way of ordering our information. But as

2:05soon as we select year of sale there you

2:08can no longer group by it. So this is going

2:10to be just something to watch out

2:11for. If you're ordering by something it's

2:14removed from the group by section and

2:16these are all the fields in this particular

2:18step. So you do have the

2:20option to choose how you're grouping and

2:21how you're going to order your data.

2:23That's an important element because of

2:25course you're going to need to run your

2:27running sum in a specific direction and

2:29that's decided by how you order the data.

2:32So if we order by year you can see it

2:35pretty much grabs all our years and it

2:37puts them together and then it shows us the

2:40sum that it's going to do. So the

2:42nice thing about this interface is that it

2:44actually explains exactly what's

2:45going on. So if we do a running sum on the

2:47full table what we should see is

2:49that the second row is the previous two

2:51rows combined. So if I click on that

2:53second row you can see Tableau does this

2:55really nice animation that shows a

2:57dotted line around the sums that it's doing

2:59and then it shows you the result

3:01in the current box that you're in. So as

3:03you start to go down you can see this

3:04animation update. It's just a really nice

3:07touch. I don't know why this makes me

3:09so happy. Whoever's built this, absolute

3:11chef's kiss. Love it. Now when you start

3:15to work with this a bit more you might

3:17notice that there's a few things to be

3:19aware of. So let's change this up a little

3:22bit. Instead of grouping by year

3:24of sales, let's actually instead of

3:27grouping by full table let's go ahead

3:28and actually group by sales region and you

3:31'll see that it changes a bit because

3:33now we're slightly changing the context. So

3:35if I go back to the top of my data

3:37you can see here, USCA, LATAM and then you

3:40've got the ordering by year of sales.

3:43So it actually rearranges the data to kind

3:45of first do the grouping then order

3:48by the years and so when you do the running

3:50sum, the running sum starts on

3:52the first row of course but then it ends

3:55here. Can you see it ends there on the

3:57that sort of fourth row then on the next

3:59row it starts again and then as we go

4:01down it goes again it's using our LATAM to

4:04do the grouping and then it starts

4:06again and so this is essentially like doing

4:08table calcs using panes and

4:10dimensions inside of Tableau but it's just

4:12much much easier to see what's

4:14going on here and the really nice thing

4:16here you may not didn't notice this

4:18that you actually get Tableau calling out

4:20you see this sort of blue highlighting

4:22here that's happening on the right hand

4:24side I can't really click on the right

4:25on the right part of it you can just see

4:27these blue highlights they're

4:29essentially showing you where you're

4:31running sums end and that's a super

4:33useful thing to notice because by looking

4:35at that you can see okay my

4:37running sum ends on these particular places

4:39and you can kind of go to them

4:40and look at them and so if I go back to my

4:43full table you'll see that that

4:44right-hand side changes and there isn't

4:46really one for the very end because it's

4:48just the entire table but if we change it

4:50to let's say we don't really have

4:52something else we can group by that makes

4:54sort of logical sense but yeah if

4:56we change it back to sales region or

4:58actually if we put we can't even really

5:00order by profit or discount I mean if we

5:03wanted to order the the the the rows by

5:05largest to smallest based on these measures

5:07you could do that but anyway

5:08you get the idea this interface is there to

5:11be sort of played with now you're

5:13probably wondering well you know what are

5:15the things I can do with this well of

5:17course you've got the running sum that

5:18makes total sense running average is a

5:21little bit more nuanced because of course a

5:23running average is going to be

5:25based on your grouping so again if we

5:27select average we select these you'll

5:29see that all it's doing is adding up the

5:31previous rows then dividing by three

5:33because that's what an average does so

5:34those are the two calculations you can

5:36do running some running average and then of

5:38course the computation can be done on

5:40any measure so discounts profit or sales by

5:43the way when you're done you can go

5:45ahead and hit done and you're done but the

5:47thing I always forget to do is just

5:49rename these I don't know I don't know why

5:51and I think it's actually probably

5:52because honestly speaking when it's created

5:55and it's not sort of in I don't

5:58know if it's me missing something or what's

6:00going on but I can just I just

6:02always create this I hit done and I've only

6:05really ever paid attention to this

6:08now and then I rename it I've always

6:10wondered why can't I why can't I just

6:12you know rename these right there so it's a

6:16weird one oh no you can I just

6:19had a little bug or something when whenever

6:21I clicked on that and you saw

6:22me actually smash the the mouse then and it

6:25actually works maybe that's a bug and

6:27that's happened to me all the time and

6:28maybe it's worked this time but hey

6:30that's that's the wonder of production

6:32sometimes you do these things and then

6:34they work for you when you're doing the

6:36real take but anyway here we go that's

6:38pretty much the features not much more to

6:40share there and thanks for watching

6:41this video I've been making videos about 23

6:44.3 I'm making videos about chat GPT as

6:46well I'm kind of hopping in between them I

6:48've recorded three videos actually

6:50about tableau embedding I'm kind of teeing

6:52them up so they can come out back

6:54to back so we're gonna try and do a little

6:56bit of a sprint all the way till

6:57Christmas get all the videos that I've sort

6:59of been on the backlog out so be

7:01sure to keep watching I'm also sort of

7:03fighting in between colds and winter and

7:06everything you'll probably hear my voice is

7:08going but nonetheless thanks for

7:10watching and I'll see you the next one

7:14you

7:22[BLANK_AUDIO]

Rollup

Tableau Prep can now do running sums and running averages natively from 2023.3, with a visual interface that shows you exactly how each calculation is grouped, ordered and computed — no more workaround calcs.

Tim uses the default Superstore flow in Tableau Prep, adding a clean step to a section that aggregates sales data. The goal is to demonstrate the new running calculation option that appears when creating a calculated field.

The Breakdown

Add a clean step first 0:41

The running calculation option only appears when you create a calculated field from within a clean step, so you need one in your flow before you can access it — select a column, add a calculated field, and choose 'running calculation' from the dropdown.
Choose your grouping 1:25

Running sums need a grouping context; by default it runs across the whole table, but you can instead group by a dimension so the sum resets within each group.
Choose your ordering — watch the field lock 1:42

You also pick a field to order the calculation by, which determines the direction the running sum flows. Whatever field you use to order is automatically removed from the group-by options, so you can't group and order by the same field.
Read the animated explanation 2:42

Clicking a row shows a dotted-line animation around the rows being summed and displays the result, making it easy to verify the calculation is doing what you expect as you move down the table.
Grouping by a dimension resets the sum per group 3:15

Grouping by something like sales region rearranges the data to group first, then order within each group, so the running sum restarts at the beginning of each new group — similar to using panes with table calculations in Tableau Desktop, but easier to see.
Blue highlights mark where sums end 4:21

The interface highlights on the right-hand side show exactly where each running sum ends, which is a quick way to check your grouping boundaries are correct without manually scanning the data.
Running average and other measures 5:16

Switching the calculation type to average sums the preceding rows and divides by the count, so it respects the same grouping and ordering rules. You can run either calculation on any measure, not just sales.
Rename before or after finishing 5:45

Hitting done completes the calculation, but the field name defaults to something generic, so you'll usually want to rename it — Tim notes he often forgets to do this until afterwards.

Worth Knowing

Ordering by a field removes it from the available group-by options — you can't do both on the same field.
Renaming the calculated field isn't obviously available at creation time; Tim mentions occasionally hitting a quirk where it does let him rename inline, but it's inconsistent.

Use It When

Reach for this when you need running sums or running averages in a data prep flow itself, rather than relying on table calculations in Tableau Desktop — useful when you want the running total baked into the data before it hits your workbook.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

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Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

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