# Tableau 2020.2 Set controls full built out example

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2020-05-06
- **Format:** Video · 29 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Analytics
- **Tools:** Tableau (calculated fields, dashboards, filters, lod expressions, maps, set actions, sets)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-20202-set-controls-full-built-out-example
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR0qB_0Y2sI

I walk through building a complete Tableau 2020.2 example using the new set controls feature, starting with the finished interactive London house price map and then rebuilding it from scratch. I cover connecting the data, mapping postcodes, writing the set and LOD calculations, wiring up set actions on a dashboard, and finally exposing the set as a filter-like control.

## Key takeaways

- Tableau 2020.2 lets you expose a set as a filter-like control by adding it to the filter shelf and choosing 'show in and out of set', so users can change set membership from a drop-down rather than clicking the chart.
- To compare a selection against everything else, build an EXCLUDE LOD that excludes the set dimension, then subtract it from the plain average to get a difference-from-average measure.
- Spatial data won't always be recognised automatically, so assign a geographic role (postcode) to the out code field and switch the marks card to a map to render polygons.
- A 'highlight to self' action is a handy hack to stop set actions fading out the rest of the visualisation, keeping context visible while you select.
- Set actions and set controls are applied at the dashboard level, not on individual worksheets, so build the worksheet first then add the change-set-values action.

## Chapters

- 0:00 Finished product demo
- 2:27 Connecting the data and base chart
- 4:48 Assigning geographic roles for mapping
- 6:10 Formatting the map layers
- 7:27 Defining the analysis challenge
- 9:22 Creating the set and calculations
- 15:45 Adding context to the chart
- 17:47 Adding a date period filter
- 19:26 Building the dashboard and set actions
- 22:42 Highlight action hack
- 24:39 Using the new set control
- 26:16 Final formatting flourishes

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-20202-set-controls-full-built-out-example

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena