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Conditional Data Labels

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Product(s):  Tableau Public, Tableau Desktop
Version(s):  6.1
Last Modified Date:  10 Dec 2011
You may have already figured out that you can place a field on the Label shelf to add data labels based on the values of that field. However, often you find that you do not actually want to label every mark; rather, you may want to label only the outliers, or only the data within your region. Using Tableau's calculated fields, you can create conditional data labels based on a custom field that includes only the values of interest.

Say you are analyzing the daily regional sales for a supermarket and you want to label all regions that have sales greater than $130,000. By dragging the Sales field to the Label shelf, you add data labels based on the sales for each region.

Create a calculated field.

Step 1

Select Analysis > Create Calculated Field.

Step 2

In the Calculated Field dialog box, name the field "Outliers" and write a conditional formula that describes the marks you want to label. For example, the formula to label only regions where the sales are greater than $130,000 looks like this:
 

IF SUM([Sales])>130000 THEN SUM([Sales]) ELSE null END
If the region's sales are greater than $130,000... then label the marks with the Sales total... otherwise don't add a label at all.

 

The Calculated Field dialog box should look like this:

Step 3

Drag the new Outliers field onto the Label shelf, replacing Sales.

The final view includes only data labels for the regions where the sales total is greater than $130,000.

  • Note: You can show or hide the data labels for individual marks. To hide a specific data label, right-click the mark and select Mark Label > Never Show.

To Learn More

  • Learn more about context filters by searching for Context Filters in the Tableau Online Help.
    Alternate Search Terms: How To Calculations mark label annotate annotations format
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