Understanding Booleans in Tableau

Photo by True Agency / Unsplash

A quick blog post on a what Booleans are and how they're created in Tableau :)


What is a "Boolean"?

A boolean is any calculation that returns as True / False.  

These are created when you include either a Comparison Operator or a Logical Operator within a calculation. You'll notice this little "T|F" symbol when a boolean is present in Tableau:

Comparison Operators

Examples of Comparison Operators in Tableau:

• Equal to (=)

• Not equal to (<>)

• Greater than (>)

• Greater than or equal to (>=)

• Less than (<)

• Less than or equal to (<=)

Logical Operators

Examples of Logical Operators in Tableau:

• AND

• OR

• NOT

Booleans and Colour

One cool way to use boolean calculations is to differentiate marks by colour.

For example, let's say we've built a Sales vs. Profit scatterplot in Tableau, and added States to the details mark (using "Superstore" data):

If we created the boolean calculation  "SUM(Sales)>100000" and dragged it to Color, the States above £100,000 in Sales are computed as True, and can be assigned a particular colour. Likewise, States that are below this value will be computed as False.

And that's my short summary on booleans, hope this helps!


Author:
Shreya Arya
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