Why table calculations compute across the view in Tableau - Formula Trace Breakdown

Sample Data

Sales data by region used to demonstrate how table calculations compute across the view.

Cell	Value
A1	Region
B1	Sales
A2	North
B2	100
A3	South
B3	150
A4	East
B4	200
A5	West
B5	50

Formula Trace

RUNNING_SUM(SUM([Sales]))

Step 1: SUM([Sales]) for North

Step 2: RUNNING_SUM at North

Step 3: SUM([Sales]) for South

Step 4: RUNNING_SUM at South = previous running sum + current sum

Step 5: SUM([Sales]) for East

Step 6: RUNNING_SUM at East = previous running sum + current sum

Step 7: SUM([Sales]) for West

Step 8: RUNNING_SUM at West = previous running sum + current sum

Cell Reference Map

    A       B
1 |Region | Sales
2 | North | 100  
3 | South | 150  
4 | East  | 200  
5 | West  |  50  

Arrows: Sales values flow into RUNNING_SUM calculation across rows.

The table calculation references the Sales column values across all regions in the view.

Result

    A       B       C
1 |Region | Sales | Running Sum
2 | North | 100   | 100        
3 | South | 150   | 250        
4 | East  | 200   | 450        
5 | West  |  50   | 500        

The Running Sum column shows cumulative sales adding each region's sales across the view from top to bottom.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the RUNNING_SUM function do in this example?

A Calculates the average sales for all regions

B Adds sales values one by one across the regions in the view

C Shows only the sales for the last region

D Multiplies sales values across regions

Key Result

RUNNING_SUM computes cumulative totals by adding values across the visible rows in the view.