# The ShapeType Function | New in Tableau 2023.2

> 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:** 2023-08-16
- **Format:** Video · 2 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Analytics
- **Tools:** Tableau (calculated fields, maps, shapetype)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/the-shapetype-function-new-in-tableau-2023-2
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxWaEhood2E

I demonstrate the new ShapeType function introduced in Tableau 2023.2, which takes a spatial geometry and returns the type of geometry you're working with. Using a water bodies dataset, I show how it distinguishes between line strings and multi-line strings, and how you can use the result to filter and work with different shapes.

## Key takeaways

- The ShapeType function in Tableau 2023.2 takes a spatial object and returns its geometry type
- Build it by highlighting the geometry field, opening a calculation, typing ShapeType and double-clicking to wrap the spatial object
- The function distinguishes geometry types such as line string versus multi-line string
- You can store different geometry types in a single column and use ShapeType to identify them
- The returned shape type can be used as a filter to selectively work with shapes, polygons and geometries

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/the-shapetype-function-new-in-tableau-2023-2

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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