# User functions in Tableau: Use server attributes to control your workbook.

> 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:** 2021-06-09
- **Format:** Video · 16 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Tableau (calculated fields, cloud, fullname, isfullname, ismemberof, isusername, server, userdomain, username)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/user-functions-in-tableau-use-server-attributes-to-control-your-workbook
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZguf-UJaPg

I walk through Tableau's user functions, which let you check attributes of the current user pulled from Tableau Server or Tableau Online. I demonstrate the information functions (FULLNAME, USERDOMAIN, USERNAME) and the Boolean functions (ISMEMBEROF, ISFULLNAME, ISUSERNAME), and how to simulate different users and groups to test them.

## Key takeaways

- The user dropdown at the bottom right of Tableau Desktop lets you simulate the dashboard as specific users or groups pulled live from Tableau Online, so you can test conditional logic before publishing.
- FULLNAME, USERDOMAIN and USERNAME need no data input and behave like a parameter fed dynamically by the server with the current user's details — useful for personalised welcome messages.
- ISMEMBEROF requires a string literal for the group name (not a calculation), and returns false if it can't reach the server, which matters when using it for security.
- Username and full name are often different — on Tableau Online the username is typically your email, whereas full name is your display name.
- The strongest use case is ISMEMBEROF with group membership to drive conditional calculations for different business units, rather than targeting named individuals.

## Chapters

- 0:00 What user functions do
- 0:44 Simulating users and groups
- 1:36 Where groups come from in Tableau Online
- 2:13 FULLNAME function
- 4:05 USERDOMAIN function
- 5:53 USERNAME function
- 6:52 Simulating groups vs individuals
- 8:33 ISMEMBEROF and group checks
- 11:51 ISFULLNAME and ISUSERNAME
- 13:48 Best use case: conditional calculations by team

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/user-functions-in-tableau-use-server-attributes-to-control-your-workbook

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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