Symbol maps in Tableau - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

This data shows four US cities with their latitude, longitude, and sales figures. It is used to create a symbol map in Tableau where each city is a point on the map sized by sales.

Cell	Value
A1	City
B1	Latitude
C1	Longitude
D1	Sales
A2	New York
B2	40.7128
C2	-74.0060
D2	15000
A3	Los Angeles
B3	34.0522
C3	-118.2437
D3	12000
A4	Chicago
B4	41.8781
C4	-87.6298
D4	9000
A5	Houston
B5	29.7604
C5	-95.3698
D5	7000

Formula Trace

SIZE()

Step 1: SIZE() for New York

Step 2: Assign size to marks based on Sales

Cell Reference Map

    A          B          C          D
1 | City     | Latitude | Longitude | Sales  |
2 | New York | 40.7128  | -74.0060  | 15000  |
3 | Los Angeles | 34.0522  | -118.2437 | 12000  |
4 | Chicago  | 41.8781  | -87.6298  | 9000   |
5 | Houston  | 29.7604  | -95.3698  | 7000   |

The formula uses Latitude (B), Longitude (C) to place points on the map and Sales (D) to size the symbols.

Result

Map View:
[●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●]
  New York (largest symbol)
  Los Angeles (slightly smaller)
  Chicago (medium size)
  Houston (smallest symbol)

The symbol map shows four city points placed by their latitude and longitude. The size of each symbol reflects the sales amount, making it easy to compare sales visually by city location.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the SIZE() function return in this Tableau symbol map?

A The sales value for each city

B The number of cities in the data

C The latitude of each city

D The longitude of each city

Key Result

Symbol maps use latitude and longitude fields to place points and a measure field to size symbols proportionally.