Tableau Basics Cheat Sheet

Introduces Tableau's dimensions, measures, calculated fields, and Level of Detail expressions for building interactive dashboards and worksheets.

2 PagesBeginnerMar 20, 2026

Core Concepts

The vocabulary behind every Tableau worksheet.

Dimensions- Categorical/qualitative fields (e.g. Region, Category) that slice data into groups; typically blue pills
Measures- Quantitative, aggregable fields (e.g. Sales, Profit); typically green pills, default aggregation SUM
Marks card- Controls color, size, label, detail, and tooltip for the marks in a view
Shelves (Rows/Columns)- Dragging fields here defines the axes and structure of the visualization
Worksheet vs. Dashboard vs. Story- Worksheet is a single chart, Dashboard combines views, Story sequences dashboards for narrative
Live vs. Extract connection- Live queries the source in real time; Extract creates a local snapshot (.hyper) for performance

Calculated Fields & LOD

Common calculation and Level of Detail expression syntax.

text

// Basic calculated field: Profit RatioSUM([Profit]) / SUM([Sales])// IF/ELSEIF logicIF [Sales] > 1000 THEN "High"ELSEIF [Sales] > 500 THEN "Medium"ELSE "Low"END// Date calculationDATEDIFF('day', [Order Date], [Ship Date])// LOD: total sales per customer, independent of view filters{ FIXED [Customer ID] : SUM([Sales]) }// LOD: each customer's sales as a share of the overall totalSUM([Sales]) / { FIXED : SUM([Sales]) }

Building Common Charts

How to construct the most common view types.

Bar chart- Drag a dimension to Rows/Columns and a measure to the other shelf
Line chart- Drag a date field to Columns and a measure to Rows; Tableau auto-detects continuous date
Heat map- Two dimensions on Rows/Columns, a measure mapped to Color on the Marks card
Filters shelf- Drag a field here to restrict the view; context filters improve performance for dependent filters
Dual axis- Combine two measures on the same chart by dragging a second measure onto the existing axis

Pro Tip

Use a FIXED LOD expression instead of a table calculation when you need a value like 'total sales per customer' to stay constant regardless of which filters or dimensions are added to the view.

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