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The ShapeType Function | New in Tableau 2023.2

There's a new ShapeType function in Tableau 2023.2 that tells you exactly what kind of geometry you're dealing with.

Tim Ngwena •16 August 2023 •1 min read •2 min watch •2.3K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2023.2 Tableau Functions

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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

0:00Hey it's Tim here. In 23.2 there's a new

0:02function called shape type. It essentially

0:04allows you to

0:05put a geometry into the function and it

0:07will return the type of geometry that you

0:10're working

0:10with. To see how it works as ever let's get

0:13stuck in. Okay so here we are, I've

0:15actually already

0:16calculated the length of some water bodies

0:18in a previous video. What I'm going to do

0:20now is just

0:21go ahead to a new sheet and we're just

0:22going to literally open up a calculation

0:24window just so I

0:25can show you this. It's really that simple.

0:27What we need to do is to just highlight the

0:30geometry,

0:30open up our calculation sort of side panel

0:33and we'll go ahead and type in shape type.

0:36And you'll

0:36see here that it basically needs a spatial

0:38object and if you double click it it goes

0:40ahead and wraps

0:41that up. We'll say this is the shape type

0:45and so if you hit apply and hit okay we can

0:48then go ahead

0:49and put this in here and you can see that

0:51this data set has two types of shapes a

0:53line string

0:54and a multi-line string. And if we go ahead

0:56and get the water body names and put that

0:58in front

0:59they'll actually tell us which of these

1:01water bodies is a multi-line string versus

1:03a single

1:03line string. So there you go that's it's

1:05pretty much the feature in a nutshell. What

1:08this allows

1:08you to do though is to do some really

1:10interesting work when you start to think

1:11about how you're

1:12pivoting your data. You could for example

1:15have different types of geometries in a

1:17single column

1:18and then have this function return what

1:21type of geometry that is. And then you

1:23could also use that

1:24for example to filter and work with shapes

1:26and polygons and geometries however you

1:28want. So if

1:29I go ahead and put this shape type in here

1:31you can see that I actually I'm actually

1:33able to filter

1:33based on that function. So you can start to

1:35do some pretty interesting things depending

1:37on what

1:37your data set wants you to do. So there you

1:40go that's pretty much it. I just wanted to

1:42touch on

1:42this function super brief there's not much

1:44more to it. You guys can find all the

1:46creative ways of

1:47working with it but there you go. Thanks

1:48for watching and I'll see you in the next

1:50one.

1:50[Music]

2:01[ Silence ]

Rollup

Tableau 2023.2 introduces a ShapeType function that takes a spatial geometry field and tells you what kind of shape it is, which is handy when a single dataset or column mixes different geometry types.

Tim works with a water bodies dataset containing spatial geometries of different types stored in one field. He builds the calculation from scratch on a new sheet to show how simple it is.

The Breakdown

Open a calculation on the geometry field 0:21

Highlight the spatial geometry field you want to inspect and open a new calculated field.
Type ShapeType and wrap the spatial object 0:41

Type ShapeType into the calculation, then double-click the geometry field so the function wraps it as its input; it needs a spatial object to work.
Use it where geometry types are mixed 1:14

If your data pivots or stores multiple geometry types in a single column, ShapeType lets you identify what each row actually contains rather than assuming a consistent shape.
Filter by shape type 1:28

Once you have the ShapeType result, you can use it as a filter to isolate specific shapes, polygons or geometries for separate analysis.

Use It When

Reach for this when a spatial field contains more than one geometry type and you need to identify, separate, or filter records based on what kind of shape each one actually is.

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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