Creating calculated fields in Tableau - Formula Evaluation Walkthrough

Sample Data

This data shows sales and cost values for three products.

Cell	Value
A1	Sales
A2	100
A3	200
A4	150
B1	Cost
B2	60
B3	80
B4	90

Formula Trace

[Sales] - [Cost]

Step 1: [Sales] - [Cost] for row 2: 100 - 60

Step 2: [Sales] - [Cost] for row 3: 200 - 80

Step 3: [Sales] - [Cost] for row 4: 150 - 90

Cell Reference Map

    A       B
1 | Sales | Cost
2 | 100   | 60  
3 | 200   | 80  
4 | 150   | 90  

Arrows: Calculated Field = Sales - Cost uses columns A and B

The calculated field subtracts values in column B (Cost) from column A (Sales) for each row.

Result

    A       B       C
1 | Sales | Cost  | Profit
2 | 100   | 60    | 40
3 | 200   | 80    | 120
4 | 150   | 90    | 60

The new calculated field 'Profit' shows the difference between Sales and Cost for each product.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the calculated field [Sales] - [Cost] represent?

A Profit for each product

B Total sales

C Total cost

D Sum of sales and cost

Key Result

Calculated fields subtract one measure from another to create a new measure.