Columnar report in Tableau

Question

I'm new to Tableau. I'm using Tableau Desktop Professional 10.0.15. I need to write a very simple report that does not use any visualization. Here's a example of the layout (the numbers are made up):

Web Site 1              North America   Europe
Total Hits              3,523,483       3,523,483
Sessions                1,248,234       1,248,234
Unique Visitors         1,809,392       1,809,392
New Visitors            383,932         383,932
% new                   10.9%           10.9%
Avg Page Views per user 1.9             1.9

Web Site 2              North America   Europe
Total Hits              3,523,483       3,523,483
Sessions                1,248,234       1,248,234
Unique Visitors         1,809,392       1,809,392
New Visitors            383,932         383,932
% new                   10.9%           10.9%
Avg Page Views per user 1.9             1.9

The users want the measures to be in one column, but they're not the same measures. Some measures need to be formatted as percentages. The average should have 1 decimal place. I have a feeling it's not possible to format the same measure differently in Tableau. Ideally, there would be something like a banded report where I could stack the measures on top of each other. But, I don't see a way to do that in Tableau. I could create a table in my database and put the measures in the same field and add the formatting in the database (which feels wrong), but it would have to be text (to have '%'). But, Tableau won't treat a text field as a measure. Also, it seems like if you don't add a measure, Tableau will insert a fake measure and put 'Abc' as the value (at least, I think that's why I'm getting these 'Abc' columns in my reports that I didn't add and that aren't in my data).

It seems like Tableau wants you to do something like this:

Unfortunately, this is not what my users want. Any suggestions?

You're trying to use a hammer as a saw. Tableau is a data visualization tool. While it can output numbers and tables of data, it cannot do so in the exact manner you describe above in your example output. For that, you will need to find a different tool. IF your end users are the least bit flexible, Tableau can come close to the output you described (again, IF your users are flexible). — Sam M
Can tou show how database data looks like? beacuse this will decide how tableau decide to show the data — Siva

Armin Armin · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-08T18:18:32

In Tableau it's possible to put many measures in a single column using the measure names in rows.

To do this, add to filters shelf the dimension called Measures Names (the last one). Select all the Measures you'd like to show (Hits, Sessions, Visitors, Views, etc.). Then, drag this dimension to the rows shelft. Next, drag the measure called Measures Values (the last one too) to the marks shelf, specifically in the text box. You can also add other dimension to rows shelft (like website) to the left of Measures Names. This will show a table similar to your requirement.

By default, the Measure Values are SUM of each measure. Just right click on them and select the aggregation you need (AVG, COUNT or other).

Finally, you can format each measure as you want, right click a measure value, and select Format...

Columnar report in Tableau

1 Answers