Selective Formatting of Numbers in Tableau

Tableau Software is a surprisingly versatile tool. Not only does it provide a wide spectrum of data visualisation options but it is also a powerful reporting aid.

A rather interesting use-case I have recently encountered at work involves selectively formatting numbers present in a single datatable in Tableau.

For example, the following table contains dummy values for the Vaccination Rates of 3 randomly selected countries:

While Tableau enables the user to Format these numbers from the side panel, in order to selectively display values with a custom no. of decimal place (#.#, #.## etc.) or as custom text (E.g. for values less than 65, it shall be displayed as "≤65" instead) within the same table, the following formulas in the respective calculated fields may be considered for such instances instead.

Calculated Field: [Position of Decimal (.)]

FIND( STR([Vaccination Rates]), '.' )

Calculated Fields for Displaying a custom no. of decimal places

i) [Display=1 Decimal Place]

LEFT(
    STR([Vaccination Rates]),
    [Position Of Decimal (.)]+1
)

Note: The bolded number above represents no. of decimal places desired (a.k.a. the no. of digits to display after the "." symbol)

ii) [Display=2 Decimal Places]

LEFT(
    STR([Vaccination Rates]),
    [Position Of Decimal (.)]+2
)

Note: The bolded number above represents no. of decimal places desired (a.k.a. the no. of digits to display after the "." symbol)

Final Display of Numbers

Main Assumptions:

• 2 Decimal Places are displayed for values ≥75
• Only 1 Decimal Place is displayed for values > 65 but less than 75
• Values ≤65 are summarised as ‘≤65%’

IF [Vaccination Rates] >= 75 THEN [Display=2 Decimal Places]+'%'
ELSEIF [Vaccination Rates] > 65 THEN [Display=1 Decimal Place]+'%'
ELSE '≤65%' END

Altogether…

And there you have it! Many thanks for persisting to the end of this article! Hope you have found this guide useful and feel free to follow me on Medium if you would like more GIS, Data Analytics (Tableau-inclusive) & Web application-related content. Would really appreciate it –

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