Joining tables in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

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

📋 Request: Your manager wants a report that shows total sales by product category and region. The sales data and product details are in separate tables.

📊 Data: You have two tables: Sales and Products. Sales contains OrderID, ProductID, Region, and SalesAmount. Products contains ProductID and Category.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a joined data source in Tableau combining Sales and Products tables, then build a report showing total sales by Category and Region.

Sample Data

Sales Table
OrderID	ProductID	Region	SalesAmount
1001	200	North	150
1002	201	South	200
1003	202	East	120
1004	200	West	180
1005	203	North	220

Products Table
ProductID	Category
200	Electronics
201	Furniture
202	Office Supplies
203	Electronics

1

Step 1: Connect to the Sales and Products tables in Tableau.

In Tableau, add both Sales and Products tables to the data source.

Expected Result

Both tables appear in the data source pane.

2

Step 2: Create a join between Sales and Products tables on ProductID.

Drag Products table next to Sales table and join on Sales.ProductID = Products.ProductID using an inner join.

Expected Result

Tables are joined, combining sales data with product categories.

3

Step 3: Build a worksheet showing total sales by Category and Region.

Rows: Category, Columns: Region, Values: SUM(SalesAmount).

Expected Result

A table showing total sales amounts grouped by product category and region.

4

Step 4: Format the report for clarity.

Add clear headers, sort categories alphabetically, and format sales amounts as currency.

Expected Result

Report is easy to read with clear labels and formatted numbers.

Final Result

-------------------------------------------------
| Category       | North | South | East | West |
-------------------------------------------------
| Electronics    | 370   |       |      | 180  |
| Furniture      |       | 200   |      |      |
| Office Supplies|       |       | 120  |      |
-------------------------------------------------

✓Electronics category has the highest total sales, especially in the North region.

✓Furniture sales are only in the South region.

✓Office Supplies sales appear only in the East region.

Bonus Challenge

Create a dashboard that includes this sales by category and region report along with a filter to select specific regions.

Show Hint

Use Tableau's dashboard feature and add a region filter to allow interactive selection.