How to add dynamic up and down KPI arrows in Tableau - 2 ways | Tableau Quick Tip | sqlbelle

[@yolindaburns3447]

Thank you. This was extremely useful!

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Yolinda, happy to hear you found it useful! 🙂

[@dxwallace55]

Anybody ever tell you you have such a "soothing" teaching voice that allows the student to relax, and take in things and process information much easier?

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Doug :)

[@rajmahal8429]

You are Magician!!! Thank you SqlBelle. Happy Holidays.

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Raj!

[@danishalam8259]

One word Amazing... You saved my day. God Bless YOU & ur family, friends, neighbors etc..

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Danish! Glad to hear you found the video helpful!

[@horanghaejunior6989]

you dont know how much i really need this, thank you sooooo much

[@rajsamant1]

You are teaching difficult things in easy way, thanks

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Rajendra! Glad you found it helpful! :)

[@black4460]

I’ve Made so many charts I’m running out of ways to show data. This was nice. Thanks

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you :)

[@irinak8804]

Your advice helped me a lot!!! Thank you so much!

[@hiteshbaradiya6542]

Very useful, to the point solution. Loved it.

[@bairamsunil]

Thank you for the great tip, I tried the same but due to some reason I couldn't get the triangle shapes, so used ascii ALT+30 and ALT+31 to get triangle shapes.

[@krishn3538]

Thank You. It is extremely useful. Added Bonus for me was dragging the measure from the Mark and making it a calculated field. Amazing

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Krish! So happy to hear you found the video useful :)

[@PaperBackBoutique]

hi , great technique is there a way to create the up and down arrows only for a specific measure , if i have multiple measures in tabular chart ?

[@DM-og1iy]

Likewise. Using method # 2 with multiple measures, the arrows appear for all the measures -- not just the specific measures I have formatted as percentages.

[@SagarSingh-uh3ow]

This was asked in my last Interview. Thanks for the solution

[@sqlbelle]

That's great, thanks for sharing Sagar! Glad it was helpful :)

[@DHRUV170591]

Thank you so much. Appreciated your effort. You have provided me with great learning resources.

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Dhruv! That is great to hear :)

[@edwardgreen763]

Thanks for this it's great. Do you have a video for creating the same visual but showing the difference between today and yesterday

[@sqlbelle]

Hello Edward, there are a few ways to do this depending on what you have on your canvas. Table calculations can be one way to do it; but it can also be done with regular calculations. Here is the table calculations video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZCnloSaepdoeMU

[@peterparker4358]

Thank you, i like the most things in your video are used for business dashboard really thank you again

[@sqlbelle]

That is great to hear, thank you for your feedback Peter! 🙂

[@marcilla1231]

THIS IS GOLD. Thanks so much! Really helpful

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Marie! Happy you found the video helpful :)

[@onlineshopping8462]

If we get fixed color for the negative and positive values from client then we can take those shapes of those color from text editor here ms word directly and can put in measure format under pane window in last custom option

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you. That should work as well.

[@jesuszarate6456]

Very nice!! There's a way to add colour with the first way? I have many columns and with the second way only work with one colum

[@maseedilyas203]

Brilliant use of font colour , I thought we were going to create a separate calc field for color and drop it to color field

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you maseed, I hope it was helpful! 🙂

[@PatrickBateman12420]

hehe, me too.

[@brendensong8000]

Thank you for sharing this! very simple and effective!!!

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Brenden

[@nareshkumargamming577]

HI , Excellent Explanation. Please upload more videos on Tableau. Thank you

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Naresh!

[@rubenagurcia906]

thank you for your tutorial!, How can show indicators without showing the previous months?

[@PinkiG54]

@sqlbelle, How can I limit the indicator to just one column like a column that indicates the total or sum of other columns?

[@vsagar4b38]

Great Nicely Explained,Enjoyed the Video. Thanks

[@Ivy_1057]

Thank you! This is very helpful 👍🙏

[@tarun007]

Thank you so much, Very detailed and informative video.

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Tarun!

[@josephshuffield6113]

Hello sqlbelle, thanks for the excellent tutorial! I have adapted this method in a particular way, but need help with color. My table shows the median days it took to process a particular kind of document each month, plus arrows or equal signs indicating whether that value is more, less, or equal to the previous month's value (so I've created three calculated fields--one for each arrow, and one for the equal sign, and they are using the same Quick Table Difference calculation which determines whether the current month is more, less, or equal to the previous month). The challenge I'm facing is: I need the arrow or equal sign (which is generated by the running difference calculation) to be either red or green based on whether the monthly median processing days value is below/equal to OR above a certain threshold--the symbol (which is tied to the difference calculation) needs to be green if the monthly median value is below or equal to the threshold, and red if above. So the median value would control the color of the running difference symbol. If you're interested in this problem, is there a way I can get in touch with you?

[@imthiyaz613]

Very Simple and extremely useful.

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Imthiyaz, happy to hear you found it useful :)

[@aryansena7290]

Can you please make video for conditional colour formatting .. like we have different table for threshold value and as per that another table data color will change

[@sqlbelle]

Hi Aryan! I just posted the video tutorial that tackles conditional formatting. Hope you will find it helpful! kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2ncgnqagKxpmqs

[@joselmorajr3249]

Awesome video and tips!!!! I need some assistance. I’m following all of the suggestions you mention in terms of coloring the arrows but when I implement it there is no coloring. In the preview window, I get my value then the black up arrow followed by 2 NULLS displayed with the appropriate coloring. Not sure what I’m doing wrong.

[@sqlbelle]

Hello Jose, If you are able to provide the definitions for the calculated fields, and the text in your label, I may be able to help check. Please let me know. Donabel

[@joselmorajr3249]

@@sqlbelle Thanks for your time. To give you a little bit of background. I have one data source that I want to compare the inventory from yesterday and today. I have a worksheet that display the appropriate inventory counts. As an example, I have a sheet that displays today’s inventory count 100 units. Yesterday’s sheet displays as 80 units. I have a 3rd sheet that displays the difference of 20 units. What I would like to do is have an arrow that point upward and color of red when the difference is positive (rising inventor is not good), and green when negative. Keep I mind that the data source is the same table that lists the number of records per day. I’ve tried to implement the tips you provided but the arrows do not come out on the sheet; neither the up or down arrow come out as part of the calculation when using your methods. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

[@sqlbelle]

Hello Jose - it may be dependent on how your data is structured in your data source and how you are presenting it in the worksheets. If you are able to provide a sample workbook (with sanitized/fictional data, but with similar structure) - either in Tableau public where I can download it from or if you are able to email me, I am happy to have a look.

[@reykiseprianza8728]

nice and simple, love it!

[@janardhana1111]

this is awesome, lovely tip. thank you soo much

[@abdullahData2738]

thank you, very simple and effective

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Abdullah!

[@lorentius2356]

Very nice video thanks! What if I have multiple measures? I tried to create a calculated field for each measure but it does not work :/ Thanks :)

[@sqlbelle]

Hello Lorentius. You may need to do a strategy similar to this, where there would be multiple axes for each one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2ncgnqagKxpmqs

[@elwyndude]

How would I show the up/down once at the end of the list which should represent increase/decrease when comparing Current Year Volume to Previous Year Volume (at all times). So even if they expand the date view, it still is based on Current Year vs Previous. My head I am thinking this would be added as a shape, separately as a calculated field... and then calculated fields for current and previous year total.

[@madhuchowdary1246]

awasome . Extremly simple and very useful

[@sqlbelle]

Happy to hear that, thank you Madhu!

[@RAJMANOJ01]

Awesome 🤩Exceptional skills or should i call it Expertise 🤔

[@ralucadot7980]

Niiiiiceee!!! Just the thing I needed :) Thank you!

[@sqlbelle]

Glad to hear, thank you Raluca!

[@laxmipriyapradhan1704]

If you wanted to compare values a time series to the prior value in the which of the following would allow you to accomplish this easiest in Tableau

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Laxmipriya, I think your best bet is Table Calculations: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZCnloSaepdoeMU

[@pbottiglione]

This works if you don’t need totals. What if i want to insert up and down arrows with colors and totals for only specific measures?

[@sqlbelle]

Thanks! You're right. If there needs to be certain conditions, you may need to use strategies similar to these: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2ncgnqagKxpmqs

[@dikshachourasiya9749]

Thankyou ,very beneficial but I want to ask what actually KPI's are ??

[@sqlbelle]

Thanks Diksha, KPIs are Key Performance Indicators. It's usually a series of numbers for important metrics in the business that let you know how a business is doing. For example, whether sales are up or down (and by how much) compared to previous months, previous years, against a goal etc.

[@Kiz-i8o]

Hi! THE ARROWS...HOW DO I GET THEM? I cannot seem to copy into Tableau the Word or PNG arrows that I have on file and the ALT+30 0r 31 is not working- Please help

[@sqlbelle]

Hello - you can try to copy from some online resources like this: copypastecharacter [dot] com

[@ameyapatankar6902]

What if I have to add one more Measure to the table? It is showing the arrow for both the % difference and the actual measure. I want it only for the % difference

[@sqlbelle]

Hello Ameya - you may need to create a few calculated fields if you have multiple measures. For example 2 calc fields for sale (one for positive, one for negative), 2 calc fields for Profit (one for positive, one for negative) and put them all in the tooltip.

[@PaperBackBoutique]

@@sqlbelle can you please explain the same scenario as described by ameya , i have a similar use case

[@bairamsunil]

How I can get the shapes only for specific measure, by using this method its place icons on all measure, please let me know.. thanks in advance

[@MrMike1689]

Hello, When I try to copy the arrow marks from Word I get check marks in Tableau?

[@sqlbelle]

Hello Mike, I feel that sometimes happens with font differences. I think there's a couple things you can try: 1. check the font in the tableau editor to ensure it's the same as the font you selected in Word, or 2. (preferred) go to a website with the text based characters (for example copychar dot cc) and copy from there Please let me know if either of these help.. Donabel

[@MrMike1689]

@@sqlbelle Thanks I wasn't able to get the Word symbols to work but copychar worked perfectly! Thanks again !

[@elliotcox26]

Can this be used for just increase or decrease by number and not percentage?

[@supriyah8631]

Hi I need help .. how can we show these arrows with colors for different measures on same worksheet like u have only profit measure but I have different measures like MOM% for : profit ,sales , balances and many more.. pls help

[@sqlbelle]

Hello Supriya, if it's for a tooltip as text, you may need to employ the same strategy I mentioned in the video. Another alternative is to possibly create another worksheet, and use that as a viz in tooltip (and use shape instead, and put measure names in color to vary the color).

[@supriyah8631]

@@sqlbelle thanks for the reply.. actually I need only two colors and two shapes up arrows in green and down with red. If I put measure names in color and shapes instead of automatic/text I will get colors but how the shapes will change according to positive and negative value.

[@sqlbelle]

@@supriyah8631 You will need to create a calculated field which gives 2 values: positive and negative. You can use this field in your Shapes, one for the upward arrow, another for the downward arrow.

[@supriyah8631]

@@sqlbelle yes u r right . This is possible if I have only one measure like when profit < 0 , profit > 0 and will put this into shapes n I will get two shapes based on calculated results . But now If I do same for sales then I cannot put again sales calculation in shape ...right?

[@angelav7999]

Could you tell how you copied the arrows from word to custom format? I am trying and its not working. Thank you Belle

[@abhinavsingh706]

Thanks for such amazing video.

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Abhinav!

[@nupurkhandelwal4578]

Hi.. I a using tableau public and not able to get the arrows instead i am getting different numbers while pasting the arrow from MS word to tableau.Can you help

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you nupur. You can try to copy and paste characters from other websites that offer these (if you search for copy paste character, there should be a few). Please give this a try. You should be able to use the text arrows with edition of Tableau.

[@esteeliebenberg4211]

Hi, Thank you for the video. That was very helpful. Can you please explain what to do if you only want to show the result for the most recent year or month and its trend indicator (arrow) without showing the other columns (or years / months)? Is it possible?

[@sqlbelle]

Hello Estee, Thank you for your feedback! And yes we can show just the most recent year or month indicator. I can add a follow on video to this, but the general strategy will involve another calculated field using the following table calculation functions: LOOKUP() - to look up the last value/point; will determine if symbol should be shown LAST() - to show last value Hope this helps, thank you again for your comment! Donabel

[@jonathanbarrios9976]

How can I only show the colored arrows in one column and not all of them? Thanks

[@aryob7733]

Thx Bella. Well it really helps 👍

[@sqlbelle]

Happy to hear this Aryo!

[@larcat6548]

hi. is it possible to have checkbox icon in just one column in a spreadsheet view? basically it a normal table but one column is a conditional true or false in a form of a check/uncheck box icon

[@sqlbelle]

Thanks Lar - I don't think we can do this out of the box. Workarounds I can think of are: - putting an image (possibly from the shapes property in the marks card) - Tableau extension

[@larcat6548]

@@sqlbelle i did a workaround. my client wanted me to replicate their excel sheet which shows a combination of regular cells, cells that are colored, and cells with checkboxes. in order to customize this, all my columns are dual axis pills from calculated fields with values 1 and 0. one contains the text/shape, one containes the background color (white if regular cell). tnx

[@larcat6548]

@@sqlbelle do you have a video where you have a table with text values then when you click on a row, the table will repopulate showing the related records? its like a drill down but in ecxel table form

[@AjayTheDjay]

Great video!

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Dj Tible

[@AjayTheDjay]

@@sqlbelle I’ll be using this on a dashboard I’m designing. Keep it up!

[@rajaborgohain9653]

What about 0% change values. Using your method, for 0% values sometime up or sometime down arrow is appearing. Can you show how to add a different symbol for 0%

[@sqlbelle]

Thanks Raja. Tableau follows the Microsoft number format. If you are pertaining to the custom numeric format, there is specific formatting for zero values: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/number-format-codes-5026bbd6-04bc-48cd-bf33-80f18b4eae68?_fsi=jcj31lht&ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us If you are using calculated fields, then you will simply need to have 3 conditions.

[@mehdiboudra4707]

Super cool! Thanks!

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Mehdi!

[@mtgmtgyoutube221]

Thanks a lot. Very useful !!

[@sqlbelle]

Glad it was helpful!

[@thirdsandaime9649]

how about arrow up and down comparing months like for example Feb is 10 then March is 15 so arrow up then April is 12 so arrow down

[@pulakverma1670]

Wow... Can't believe it can be done in such a simple way. 👍 Wondering if I can use negative arrow in "else" clause 🤔 not sure if I am missing something if this not work 😀

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you for your comment, Pulak! Much appreciated!

[@SaniyaMapari]

I think she created 2 different calculated fields because we could give them different colors. If we would have used jst one field with if-else I dont know how the colors could have been differentiated.

[@pulakverma1670]

@@SaniyaMapari Yes... Completely agreed with you. I realised this when I was doing it practically.

[@abhishekarunachala]

Hi Really great..Can you please share the dataset for the viz.

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you abishek! The data set is based on the Chinook database, which can be downloaded from here: archive.codeplex.com/?p=chinookdatabase Hope this is helpful!

[@rahulpdiggi9888]

Extremely useful.

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Rahul!

[@RohitKumar-uv1pu]

Thanks you.. Extremely useful..

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Rohit! Glad you found the video useful :)

[@RK-wf7re]

Nice content, but how to doif we have multiple measures ?

[@jennagraham8709]

Wonderful! Thank you!

[@pushkarchauhan8587]

So underrated

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Pushkar!

[@ayurfort5458]

The tooltip color is not changing for up and down arrows for 2017, its showing same how to achieve that?

[@ronaldfungss]

Amazing. Thanks a lot.

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Ronald!

[@janardhana1111]

pls do same kind of session for Animations in tableau

[@rajaborgohain9653]

What about 0%change. With your method, 0% values are showing as up arrow for some rows and vice versa. Can you show how to add a different symbol for 0%change.

[@sqlbelle]

Tableau follows the Microsoft number format. If you are pertaining to the custom numeric format, there is specific formatting for zero values: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/number-format-codes-5026bbd6-04bc-48cd-bf33-80f18b4eae68?_fsi=jcj31lht&ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us If you are using calculated fields, then you will simply need to have 3 conditions.

[@AliciaMarkoe]

Thank you 🦋

[@rachitsingh4913]

AMAZING!!!!!

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Rachit!

[@kishoredubbasi9780]

Thank You ! But the lower triangle is not working dynamically for my KPI, I am using 2020.4.2 in first method

[@sqlbelle]

Hmm the triangle should show up regardless of the version... the strategies in the video are not version-specific. Would you be able to share your formula?

[@kishoredubbasi9780]

@@sqlbelle Thanks for the response! #,##0;-#,##0▲;#,##0;-#,##0▼

[@bommineniachyuthreddy2127]

This is perfect!

[@mutalukanyinemalili9201]

i have many columns and i want to use only 2 and this doesn't work at all on my problem

[@yunusteli8697]

Hi How can we show the same in Month on moth growth or decline of profit

[@yunusteli8697]

Pls help

[@yunusteli8697]

In comparison with the previous month sales

[@cococnk388]

Merci Miss.

[@StockSpotlightPodcast]

Fantastic

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Sonder :)

[@mustaphaelouahabi9316]

.........Bravo! 👍

[@mustaphaelouahabi9316]

☄ A Request: Can you please make a crash course about "Data Mining" using Tableau? (If possible 🙏) Thanks in advance! 🙏

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you for your support, as always, Mustapha. Much appreciated. I will definitely look into adding these topics in future videos - thank you for your suggestion!

[@rijzone]

U2 or Bono?

[@Hooleey]

Great video, but sad that Tableau has not integrated an easy and convenient way to do this.

[@sqlbelle]

Yes, I agree. Although I am quite hopeful as the new versions that come out keep on adding awesome stuff. Every version is better :) Overall, I've learned to live with some of the workarounds (I use Tableau almost daily). I might be biased though; I love working with Tableau (warts and all)

[@DoingItRight53]

My image isn't pasting in formula. Please help

[@gauthambr9683]

Paste the icon from the word document not the image

[@moshoodlawal4028]

Useful

[@chandrakumarreddyvennapusa7806]

When I try this I am getting 2 arrows mam

[@sqlbelle]

Hello chandra, Please check the condition for your two calculated fields for arrows. One should be a less than sign, the other should be a greater than sign. Please let me know how it goes. Donabel

[@black4460]

I don’t know why. But this worked the 1st time. Now it won’t Color anything anymore 🤔

[@sqlbelle]

Hmm .. do you have a published workbook I can look at?

[@black4460]

@@sqlbelle hi. It’s ok now. I cleared everything and rebuilt and it is now working. Not sure what happened.

[@ManojKumarmamtha]

2015 year values are not visible...

[@sqlbelle]

Hello Manoj. The chart is showing change from previous year, and the first year is 2015 hence there will be no reported change. There is nothing to compare against, that's why it is showing as blank. Hope this helps clarify the chart. Once the chart is developed and ready to be rolled out, typically the first year is hidden.

[@ManojKumarmamtha]

@@sqlbelle thanks for the reply... I have requirement can you able to help... Can I have your mail I'd?

[@bhavi9826]

Iam not able to paste that arrow 😢😢😢😢

[@sqlbelle]

have you tried one the websites? for example from here? copypastecharacter.com/arrows

[@firstname4337]

great explanation, but damn, tableau is stupid -- this should be so easy, yet they make it so convoluted

[@palmtree5519]

This is awesome. Thanks!

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you :)

[@nikolikethis]

Thank you!!

[@sqlbelle]

Thank you Andreas!