EXCLUDE LOD expression in Tableau - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

Sales data by Region and Category

Cell	Value
A1	Region
B1	Category
C1	Sales
A2	East
B2	Furniture
C2	100
A3	East
B3	Technology
C3	200
A4	West
B4	Furniture
C4	150
A5	West
B5	Technology
C5	300

Formula Trace

{EXCLUDE [Category] : SUM([Sales])}

Step 1: SUM([Sales]) by Region and Category

Step 2: Exclude [Category] dimension, aggregate SUM([Sales]) by Region only

Step 3: Assign the Region-level sum to each row

Cell Reference Map

    A       B          C
1 |Region | Category | Sales
2 | East  | Furniture| 100  
3 | East  | Technology| 200 
4 | West  | Furniture| 150  
5 | West  | Technology| 300 

The formula uses Sales values from column C and excludes Category (column B) to aggregate by Region (column A).

Result

    A       B          C       D
1 |Region | Category | Sales | EXCLUDE LOD
2 | East  | Furniture| 100   | 300
3 | East  | Technology| 200  | 300
4 | West  | Furniture| 150   | 450
5 | West  | Technology| 300  | 450

The EXCLUDE LOD expression calculates total sales by Region ignoring Category, so each row shows the Region total sales.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the EXCLUDE [Category] part do in the formula?

A It sums sales by Category only.

B It filters out sales where Category is missing.

C It removes Category from the calculation level, summing sales only by Region.

D It multiplies sales by the number of categories.

Key Result

EXCLUDE LOD removes specified dimensions from detail, aggregating measures at a higher level.