Learn how to use sets in Tableau to create dynamic, reusable fields that filter and segment data across worksheets. Understand the key differences between sets and filters, and discover how to apply conditions like sales thresholds or time-based breakdowns to build efficient visualizations.
Key Insights
- Sets in Tableau allow users to create new fields that act as reusable subsets of data, based on conditions such as top values or specific thresholds—for example, identifying all subcategories with sales greater than $100,000.
- Unlike filters, which are limited to individual worksheets, sets can be applied across multiple sheets, making them more versatile for consistent analysis and reporting.
- Noble Desktop demonstrates how to create sets using categorical or continuous fields, apply condition-based logic (such as sum of sales), and integrate time-based filters like single-year selectors for more granular reporting.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
Let's talk about something else now called sets. This is another way to organize your information. This is all about slicing and dicing information.
So what are sets? Well, if you think of the word subset, you get a sense of what set is. Sets is a term used to describe something that can be measured and can also vary. The things you should know about sets is that a subset of data is often referred to as sets.
They, unlike hierarchies, well, I mean, hierarchies do this as well, they create brand new fields. Categorical sets are a set that can take on one of a limited and usually fixed number of possible values. Any sets that is not quantitative is categorical.
Continuous sets are a variable that has an infinite number of possible values. In other words, any values is possible for that variable. I know I'm reading a lot of text, and usually it's not recommended you read a lot of text on the PowerPoint.
We're going to do an example, so we do have an exercise. So you can't change the data in your original dataset, but if you need more detail, you can use sets as in a subset of the information. When you go to create a set, you pick a particular type of field, and then you have three options, general, condition, and top and bottom, or just top, but top means top or bottom, and then you can choose how many records, top five, top 10, and so on.
This will create a new field that will filter some of the data out and keep certain data in. Filter uses the same interface. The benefit of using sets is it's available through all the worksheets.
You create a field that you can then use in other worksheets for your visualizations. Filters are local, but they can be used effectively on dashboards. That means they can be used in the dashboard to filter information.
Sets are a little different. So let's set the subcategory to a condition where the sales are greater than or equal to 100,000. So I'm going to go through the process.
Let's do this now. So subcategory is what I want to create a set for. So you're going to go to subcategory.
You're going to click the drop down here, and it's going to be under create. This is where I usually go to. We're also later on going to create a group and a calculated field.
So I'm going to go and create a set. This is the dialog box. The first part is what do you want to include or exclude? If you know that you want this particular field to only show, let's say, all the products that begin with the letter A, you'll call it all the products that begin with the letter A. And then when you drag this into your visualization, it's only going to show you the products that are created with the letter A. There is no field like that that exists in your database.
So you're going to create it by choosing that. You might choose something else to create a category. This is not that useful for this particular exercise.
Top. I'm going to say, give me the top 10 sales by sum or by average or median or count or maximum standard deviation. You can do your calculations here.
This is just like in conditional formatting. You have your top and bottom rules, top five, top 10. And so you just choose the value that you want the top for.
You don't get to pick what the value is. But now this field is going to be available here on the left that you can just drag into and you can create a top five report. You don't have to do the calculations.
You just drag the field in and then you'll get your report. Now, what I'm going to do is something different. I'm going to go to conditions.
When I go to condition, I'm going to choose by field. It's already set up to do what I want. I want to see all the sales where the sum is greater than or equal to.
And then I'm going to type 100,000 because I have to create reports all the time to show all the values that are greater than 100,000. I don't want to have to manually do a filter for this. I want to save a filter that I can reuse over and over again.
So I'm going to go over here and I need to come up with a good name so I could recognize this field. So I'm going to say subcategory greater than 100,000. So I'm just going to keep it simple for me to understand.
That seems like a good name for it. I'm going to click OK. There's not much else for me to do.
There are other types of conditions I could use, like a range of values. The minimum and maximum value should be something I could create my own formula, but I'll just use this. I'll click OK.
Where'd the field go? It's on the left. It's ready to be used. So could you show me how it works? Yeah.
Well, let's create a new sheet. Let's see. I'm going to rename the sheet that I'm currently on and I'll call this category-sub.
I'm going to create a new sheet and the first thing I want to bring in is sales. So I'm going to take sales and I'm going to move it into columns and now my boss says, could you create a report for all the categories that are greater than 100,000? Yeah, no problem. Here they are.
Oh wait, let me flip it. Oh, I want you to know this is normal. The first thing you're going to say is this didn't work.
For some reason when you do a set, they show you the values that are in that category or out of that category. So the normal thing that you need to do is you need to show all the members in the set. So you're going to go over to in or out.
You're going to click the dropdown and you want to look for the option show members in the set. You'll click that. It shows you all the sales where the values are greater than 100,000.
I'm going to choose entire view and if I look at where 100,000 is, everything is above 100,000. The great thing about this is as your data updates, you could run the same report. It's always going to look for values that are greater than 100,000 and this is available on any sheet.
I can go over here. Maybe I'll go to the pie chart. Not the pie chart.
I'll go to the bar chart here. I'm trying to think what would I want to do. Oh yeah, no, it's pretty much going to be the same thing.
So I think I'm thinking ahead to the next exercise. Yeah, so that's how you would use it. You would use it as a new type of calculation that you can then use in your Pivot Table.
So I'll go over here. I'll double click. I'll give this a name.
This set is showing sales totals all time over 100,000. What if you wanted to define a specific year? Okay, great question. You're ahead of the game on this.
The thing you may not be aware of when it comes to the SuperStore sales data, all the sales that we're looking for, looking at, are across four years. We didn't even address the year combination. So I'm going to take a look at that in a moment.
I'm going to call this subcategory over 100,000. I'll make it bold. I'll increase the font size and I'll make it blue.
That's my standard color. And I'll just say SuperStore. Like, okay.
I'll rename the tab sub category greater than 100,000. So the question is, what if you wanted to break this up based on years? We have four years of data. This automatically uses the filter option.
So the thing, the field that we're going to use maybe to take a look at sales across multiple years is going to be order date or ship date. I'm going to choose order date. If I want to see this information across four years, I'm going to take order date.
And what I want to do is I want to filter this information across four years. I'll take order date. I'll move it over here into filters.
I'll let go. Automatically, Tableau understands that this is information that can be broken up into different time periods. Just like when you're working in a Pivot Table and you bring in a date, you're able to use the grouping field.
Now if I want to see this information across four years, I'm going to select years. Then I'm going to click next. These are the four years.
I can choose how many of the years to display. None or all. If I choose none, it's almost like selecting all.
I'm going to select all of them because I want to see all the years. So I'm going to say use all. I'll click okay.
Nothing happens. That's expected because when you add a filter, it doesn't automatically show up unless you turn it on. So I'm going to go over here, click the drop down, and I'm going to choose show filter.
And when I click show filter, over on the side, here are the filters for all four years. Now I can uncheck. If I uncheck all, I don't see anything.
I'll choose 2014. This is the information only for 2014. This is the information only, well, for 2014 and 2015,2016,2017, and that's all.
And I can uncheck. We're actually jumping ahead. This is one of the topics we're going to take a look at a little later on, but it's great that you asked this question because this is something naturally that we might want to do.
Someone says, what if I just wanted to select one year at a time? It's like I have to keep unchecking. That's like not a natural behavior. Is there a way I could just show one year at a time or all? And you can.
And the problem here is this is one version of the control. What you want to do is click this little button here, and then you want to choose the option single value list. We do this exercise all the time.
Single value list is going to be your best option. You have a slider, but maybe you don't want to use a slider. Single value dropdown.
I don't want to keep clicking the dropdown. I'll choose single value list. Now this completely changes the game.
If I choose 2014, I'm only seeing 2014. If I'm choosing 2015, I'm only seeing 2015,2016,2017. This tool now becomes available as part of my dashboard.
This tool though is only available on this sheet. If I wanted to reuse this, I'd have to recreate it. It's not available on any other sheet.
If I go to another sheet, I can get subcategory, but I'd have to recreate that filter for year because it's not here. So here's my filter for anything that's greater than above 100,000. If I do a presentation and I click on this presentation mode, it's now available for me to use during my presentation, and I can easily switch between the years.
If I just want to see all, I'll click all, but I'm going to have to change this description because the subcategory for 100,000 was for all four years. I'd have to do a different definition if I wanted to do it year by year. The highest value in 2015 doesn't even go to 100,000.
So this would be for a totally different type of report. I'm going to take the filter out for year. I'll just drag this out, and then now we're back to our sales over 100,000, and that's across four years.
So that's something separate. That is a set. The thing you have to remember about a set is you have to understand that when you first create it, it's going to be in and out, and you have to do show members in set, and then you'll see all the values.
Yeah, so something happened to my pictures. This is what I did, and then it's going to show in and out, and then I have to choose show members in set. It just does that automatically.