Ascending and descending sort in Tableau - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Ascending and descending sort

Goal

See sales data sorted by product name and sales amount in ascending and descending order to find top and bottom performers easily.

Sample Data

Product	Category	Sales
Notebook	Stationery	150
Pen	Stationery	300
Desk Chair	Furniture	450
Monitor	Electronics	700
Mouse	Electronics	350
Stapler	Stationery	120
Desk Lamp	Furniture	200

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: SUM([Sales])
  Result: 2270
• Bar Chart 1: Sales by Product (Ascending)
  Sorted by Sales ascending
  Shows products from lowest to highest sales
• Bar Chart 2: Sales by Product (Descending)
  Sorted by Sales descending
  Shows products from highest to lowest sales
• Table: Product Sales Details
  Columns: Product, Category, Sales
  Default sort: Product name ascending (A to Z)

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+--------------------------+
|      Total Sales      | Sales by Product (Asc)   |
|       (KPI Card)      | (Bar Chart 1)            |
+----------------------+--------------------------+
| Sales by Product (Desc) Bar Chart 2               |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| Product Sales Details Table                        |
+--------------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

Sorting is controlled by clicking on the axis or header in Tableau:

• Click on the Sales axis in Bar Chart 1 to toggle ascending/descending sort.
• Click on the Sales axis in Bar Chart 2 to toggle descending/ascending sort.
• Click on the Product column header in the table to sort alphabetically ascending or descending.
• All components update their sort order independently based on user clicks.

Self Check

Add a filter for Category = 'Stationery'. Which components update and how?

• The KPI card updates total sales to 570 (150 + 300 + 120).
• Both bar charts update to show only Stationery products sorted ascending and descending by sales.
• The table updates to show only Stationery products sorted by product name ascending.

Key Result

Dashboard showing total sales and product sales sorted ascending and descending with interactive sorting and filtering.