Difference and percent difference in Tableau - Interactive Code Practice

Practice - 5 Tasks

1fill in blank

easy

Complete the code to calculate the difference between sales of the current and previous month.

Tableau

SUM([Sales]) - LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [1])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A-1

B0

C1

D2

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using 1 instead of -1 as offset.

Using 0 which returns the current row value.

Confusing the direction of offset.

The LOOKUP function with offset -1 gets the previous month's sales, so subtracting it from current sales gives the difference.

2fill in blank

medium

Complete the code to calculate the percent difference between sales of the current and previous month.

Tableau

(SUM([Sales]) - LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [1])) / ABS(LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [1]))

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A1

B0

C-1

D2

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using 1 instead of -1 as offset.

Dividing by current sales instead of previous sales.

Not using ABS which avoids division by negative.

The offset -1 in LOOKUP gets the previous month's sales for comparison in percent difference calculation.

3fill in blank

hard

Fix the error in the calculation to correctly compute percent difference in sales.

Tableau

(SUM([Sales]) - LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [1])) / LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [1])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A0

B1

CABS

D-1

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using positive offset which looks forward.

Using 0 which looks at current row.

Using ABS as offset which is invalid.

The offset -1 is needed to refer to the previous month in the LOOKUP function for correct percent difference.

4fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to calculate the difference and percent difference between current and previous sales.

Tableau

Difference: SUM([Sales]) - LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [1])
Percent Difference: (SUM([Sales]) - LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [2])) / ABS(LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [2]))

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A-1

B1

C0

D2

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using different offsets for difference and percent difference.

Using positive offsets which look forward.

Using 0 which refers to current row.

Both calculations require offset -1 to refer to previous month sales.

5fill in blank

hard

Fill all three blanks to create a calculated field that returns percent difference formatted as a percentage string.

Tableau

ROUND(((SUM([Sales]) - LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [1])) / ABS(LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]), [2]))) * 100, [3]) + "%"

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A-1

B0

C2

D1

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using 0 or positive offsets which refer to current or next rows.

Not rounding or rounding to wrong decimal places.

Forgetting to multiply by 100 to get percentage.

The offsets -1 get previous month sales; rounding to 1 decimal place formats the percent difference nicely.