FIXED LOD expression in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a sales analyst at a retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants to see the total sales per product category regardless of the filters applied on the sales region or date.

📊 Data: You have sales data including Order ID, Product Category, Sales Region, Order Date, and Sales Amount.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Tableau dashboard showing total sales by product category using a FIXED LOD expression that ignores filters on region and date.

Sample Data

Order ID	Product Category	Sales Region	Order Date	Sales Amount
1001	Electronics	East	2024-01-05	500
1002	Furniture	West	2024-01-07	700
1003	Electronics	East	2024-02-10	300
1004	Office Supplies	South	2024-02-15	200
1005	Furniture	East	2024-03-01	400
1006	Electronics	West	2024-03-05	600
1007	Office Supplies	North	2024-03-10	150
1008	Furniture	South	2024-03-15	350
1009	Electronics	North	2024-04-01	450
1010	Office Supplies	West	2024-04-05	300

1

Step 1: Connect your sales data to Tableau and open a new worksheet.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Data is loaded and ready for analysis.

2

Step 2: Create a calculated field named 'Total Sales by Category Fixed' using a FIXED LOD expression to calculate total sales per product category ignoring filters on region and date.

{FIXED [Product Category]: SUM([Sales Amount])}

Expected Result

The calculated field returns total sales per product category regardless of filters.

3

Step 3: Drag 'Product Category' to Rows shelf.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Rows show each product category.

4

Step 4: Drag the calculated field 'Total Sales by Category Fixed' to Columns shelf.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Columns show total sales per product category ignoring filters.

5

Step 5: Add filters for 'Sales Region' and 'Order Date' to the worksheet and select any subset of regions and dates.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Filters apply but the total sales per category remain constant.

6

Step 6: Create a dashboard and add this worksheet with filters for region and date.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Dashboard shows total sales by product category fixed, unaffected by region or date filters.

Final Result

Product Category | Total Sales by Category Fixed
---------------------------------------------
Electronics      | 1850
Furniture        | 1450
Office Supplies  | 650

✓Electronics is the highest-selling product category with total sales of 1850.

✓Furniture follows with total sales of 1450.

✓Office Supplies have total sales of 650.

✓These totals remain the same even when filtering by sales region or order date.

Bonus Challenge

Modify the FIXED LOD expression to calculate total sales per product category and sales region, ignoring only the order date filter.

Show Hint

Use {FIXED [Product Category], [Sales Region]: SUM([Sales Amount])} and apply filters only on Order Date.