How to 'translate' the Tableau 'FIXED', 'iNCLUDE'... LOD expressions to Alteryx

[Dev007]

Hi all,

Thanks for your attention. I need to push some calculations from Tableau to Alteryx. Not sure how to handle the 'FIXED' and 'INCLUDE' etc, level of detail expression in Alteryx (or any other LOD expression from Tableau. I found a translation table Tableau <> Alteryx but LOD expressions were not mentioned.

https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/calculations_calculatedfields_lod_include.htm

[Felipe_Ribeir0 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dev007 

My understanding about this is that LOD only make sense when you think about dynamic visuals, like the graphs from the link that you shared. It is a calculation based on your dataset, but it does not modify your dataset. Alteryx is comparable (but much more powerful) with tableau prep, not with with tableau. With Alteryx, you gonna need to manipulate the datasets until you have a final dataset that answer your question (like with tableau prep).

Considering that said, if you want to manipulate your dataset until you have the same values that you get with LOD expressions, you will mostly use the summarize tool. Just think about what aggregations your LOD expression is doing and in which order, and use Alteryx to do the same. Here is one example of how to get the same results:

INPUT (For tableau and Alteryx):

Output for the LOD Expression: AVG({ INCLUDE [Customer] : SUM(Sales)})

Output for Alteryx:

First summarize: Sum of sales per region and customer

Second summarize: Avg of the first summarize, per region

[DawnDuong]

hi @Dev007 

As @Felipe_Ribeir0 also mentioned, Alteryx is more similar to Tableau Prep, before the data enters to Tableau.

The Fixed, Include etc.. in Tableau dynamically responds to the user selections or, in the case of FIXED ignore all other dimensions regardless of what the user selections.

So I am afraid that there is no straightforward answer that can preserve this dynamism in its entirety. If you only need static reports, yes, there can be highly rigid fixes which will need to be updated if and when your reports are changed.

Dawn.

[Dev007]

@felix @DawnDuong thanks a lot for your comments