Creating Groups in Tableau (Makeover Monday Project)

Feb 5, 2024

I'm currently working on a Tableau dashboard that uses New Year's resolutions data from a Makeover Monday project, and I was hoping to show a breakdown of resolutions by category. For example, a "health" category would include resolutions like losing weight or improving diet, a "social" category for spending more time with family, etc. However, the dataset only includes the resolutions themselves; there are no categories.

Fortunately, Tableau gives you a way to create your own groups for this kind of thing. Here's what I did:

1. In the "Data" pane, right-click the Resolution field and select Create > Group.
2. In the "Field Name" text field, enter a name like Resolution Categories.
3. Select one or more fields that should be part of a new group (e.g., "Giving up smoking", "Losing weight", etc.) and then select Group.
4. Enter a name for this new group, such as Health.
5. Repeat the above steps until you've grouped everything to your liking.
6. If you'd like an "Other" groups for miscellaneous fields that don't fit anywhere else, select Include 'Other'. (Tableau gripes if you try to create your own "Other" group by hand.)

I also created a "Resolutions" hierarchy that nests the individual resolutions inside each group:

1. In the "Data" pane, right-click the newly-created Resolution Categories field and select Hierarchy > Create Hierarchy.
2. Enter a name like Resolutions and select OK.
3. Select the Resolution field and drag it into the "Resolutions" hiearchy, under "Resolution Categories".

Now when you drag the "Resolution Categories" field into the rows or columns shelf, you can select the plus sign (+) to show the individual resolutions.

#tableau