Grouping members in Tableau - Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

Grouping members lets you combine related data items into one group. This helps simplify your view and analyze categories together instead of separately.

When you want to combine several product names into one product category on your sales chart

When your customer list has many similar names and you want to see them as one group

When you want to analyze regions by grouping several cities together

When you want to clean up your view by merging small categories into an 'Other' group

When you want to compare grouped data instead of individual items in a bar chart

Steps

Step 1: Select

- Data pane under Dimensions or Measures

The list of members (data items) appears for the chosen field

Step 2: Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on Mac) to select multiple members

- Data pane list of members

Selected members are highlighted

Step 3: Right-click the selected members

- Data pane list of members

A context menu appears

Step 4: Click 'Group' in the context menu

- Context menu

A new group field is created and added to the Data pane

Step 5: Drag the new group field to Rows or Columns shelf

- Worksheet view

The view updates to show grouped members as one combined category

Before vs After

Before

The view shows separate bars for 'Product A', 'Product B', and 'Product C' with sales values 100, 150, and 120

After

The view shows one bar labeled 'Group 1' combining 'Product A', 'Product B', and 'Product C' with total sales 370

Settings Reference

Group Name

📍 Group dialog box after creating a group

Name the group to identify it in your data

Default: Group 1

Ungroup

📍 Right-click group field in Data pane

Break the group back into individual members

Default: N/A

Common Mistakes

Selecting only one member before clicking Group

Grouping requires at least two members selected to combine

Select multiple members by Ctrl-clicking (Cmd-click on Mac) before right-clicking and choosing Group

Trying to group members from different fields

Grouping works only within the same field or dimension

Select members from the same field to create a group

Summary

Grouping members combines multiple data items into one category for simpler analysis

You create groups by selecting members, right-clicking, and choosing Group

Groups appear as new fields you can use in your views like any other dimension