The Data pane contains a few fields that are not part of your data, two of which are Tableau Measure Names and Tableau Measure Values. The Measure Values field always appears at the bottom of the Tableau Measures area of the Data pane and contains all the measures of your data collected into one field. The Tableau Measure Names field always appears at the bottom of the Dimensions area of the Data pane and contains all the names of the measures collected into a single dimension.  You can use these to display multiple Tableau measures in the same view without having to use your secondary axis (freeing it up for other things).

Using Tableau Measure Names and Measure Values

What if we wanted to compare Sales and Profits on the same axis?

  1. Drag Ship Date to Columns.
  2. Now drag Sales to Rows. We now have a basic line chart.
  3. Drag Profit onto the y-axis of your chart (where it says sales and then lists the values).
  4. This plots them both on the same axis.  You’ll see that Tableau Measure Values are now on your Rows shelf and Tableau Measure Names are on the Color shelf.
  5. What if we wanted to plot Order Quantity on the chart?  Drag that onto the y-axis as well.  You’ll see a third Tableau Measure Name pops up.
  6. What if we wanted to label each of those lines with their respective Tableau measure names?  Drag Tableau Measure Names onto the Labels shelf.
  7. For further formatting here, click on the Label and switch it to Line Ends, and then choose “Label start of line.” 
  8. You can see the flexibility that these provide us.  You can also use these to create data tables.  Go to Show Me and click the text table option (first box at the top left).  See how it converts to a data table and utilizes the Tableau Measure Names and Values.
Tableau Measure Values
Tableau Measure Names

Building Your Own Tableau Data Table with Tableau Measure Names and Measure Values

The E-commerce team wants to know the Sales vs. Profit per Product Subcategory.  They want this presented on one chart and sorted from highest profit to lowest.  They would like to know what percent of the total sales and profits each Product Subcategory represents (i.e. Binders comprise 30% of sales and 10% of total profits, for example).  They want the ability to filter this by Marketing Channel.  We want to build them a dashboard that looks like this:

Building Tableau Data Table Using Measure Names and Measure Values
  1. Build a dual axis chart plotting Sales on the first axis and Profit on the secondary axis. Segment by Product Subcategory (hint: use the Columns shelf).
  2. Sort from highest to lowest on Profit.  
    • Hint: Click the Profit fill, then sort desc.
  3. Synchronize the axes by right clicking on the Profit axis.
  4. Hide the Profit axis by right clicking on it.
  5. Format Sales to bars and Profit to circles.  Change the colors using the Tableau 20 palette.
  6. Add drop lines by right clicking into the main area of the chart.
  7. Add both Sales and Profit to the tooltip again, make these Quick Table Calcs > Percent of Total.  Ensure they are computed along table down, as we want to see the percentage contribution across all Sub-categories.
  8. Format the tooltip so that it looks nice.  Hint: Remove the “compute along table down” portion of the label.
  9. Rename the axis to “Sales vs. Profits.”
  10. Add Marketing Channel to the Filter shelf.  Check All.
  11. Rename the tab “Sales vs. Profit by Subcat.”
  12. Change the title to “Sales vs. Profits by Product Line.”
  13. Open a new tab and build a table using Tableau Measure Names and Measure Values.
    • Hint: Bring Tableau Measure Values to the Text shelf.
  14. Show Sales and Order Quantities per Subcategory and show their percent contributions.
    • Hint: You’ll need to bring out 2 more instances of each of the metrics, change them to a Table Calc, and ensure their aggregation is at a sum.  
    • You may need to change the aggregation to an avg. or to a min to bring the fields into the view at first.
  15. Set the view to Entire View.
  16. Convert your table to a highlight table by Profit on the Color shelf and changing the Mark type to Square.
  17. Click on the % of Total Sales field and sort descending.
  18. Ensure % of Order Quantity is computed using Table Down.  If it isn’t, click on the pill over under Tableau Measure Values and change the Compute Using.
  19. Now, change the labels for the % of columns by right clicking on them > Edit Alias.  Change them to % of Total Sales and % of Total Orders, respectively.
  20. Title the chart to “Sales vs. Order Quantities by Product Line.”
  21. Rename the tab “Sales-Orders-Prod Subcat.”
  22. Build a dashboard, bringing in the charts we just created.  
  23. Put the bar chart on top and the table down below.
  24. Move the legends to improve spacing.
  25. Add a quick filter for the Marketing Channels (Hint: use the Analysis menu at the top).  Set it to Floating.
  26. Apply the Quick Filter to both charts by clicking the down arrow of the Filter and select “Apply to Selected Worksheets.”  Choose the two worksheets you just created.
  27. Add a title like you see in the example.

Did you like our scenario-based practice guide? How did your dashboard turn out? We’d love to see how you built your first Tableau Data Table using Tableau Measure Names and Measure Values. Looking for more hands-on Tableau training? Check out our interactive Tableau course for individual learners! Want to be able to do the above with your company’s data, or looking for a class for your employees or department? At Data Crunch we specialize in corporate Tableau training courses that help your business achieve real insights from data. Check out all of our corporate Tableau course offerings here.