Area charts in Tableau - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

Monthly sales data for 5 months

Cell	Value
A1	Month
B1	Sales
A2	Jan
B2	100
A3	Feb
B3	150
A4	Mar
B4	130
A5	Apr
B5	170
A6	May
B6	160

Formula Trace

SUM([Sales]) OVER (ORDER BY [Month] ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW)

Step 1: Sales values by month: Jan=100, Feb=150, Mar=130, Apr=170, May=160

Step 2: Calculate running total for Jan: SUM of sales from Jan to Jan

Step 3: Calculate running total for Feb: SUM of sales from Jan to Feb

Step 4: Calculate running total for Mar: SUM of sales from Jan to Mar

Step 5: Calculate running total for Apr: SUM of sales from Jan to Apr

Step 6: Calculate running total for May: SUM of sales from Jan to May

Cell Reference Map

    A       B
1 Month   Sales
2 Jan     100
3 Feb     150
4 Mar     130
5 Apr     170
6 May     160

Formula uses column B (Sales) values ordered by column A (Month).

The formula references the Sales column (B2:B6) ordered by Month (A2:A6) to calculate running totals.

Result

    A       B       C
1 Month   Sales   Running Total
2 Jan     100     100
3 Feb     150     250
4 Mar     130     380
5 Apr     170     550
6 May     160     710

The Running Total column shows cumulative sales by month. This data is used to create the area chart, where the area under the line grows with each month.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What is the running total sales value for March?

A 130

B 380

C 250

D 550

Key Result

Running total calculation sums values from the start up to the current row ordered by a dimension.