Parameter for top N control in Tableau - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Parameter for top N control

Dashboard Goal

Show the top N products by sales, where N is controlled by a user parameter.

Sample Data

Product	Category	Sales
Alpha	Electronics	500
Beta	Electronics	300
Gamma	Furniture	450
Delta	Furniture	200
Epsilon	Office Supplies	150
Zeta	Office Supplies	100
Eta	Electronics	350

Dashboard Components

• Parameter: Top N - Integer parameter with values from 1 to 7, default 3. Controls how many top products to show.
• Calculated Field: Rank by Sales - RANK_UNIQUE(SUM([Sales]), 'desc') ranks products by total sales descending.
• Filter: Top N Filter - Filter to keep only products where [Rank by Sales] <= [Top N].
• Bar Chart: Shows Product on Y-axis and SUM(Sales) on X-axis, filtered by Top N.
• Table: Lists Product, Category, and Sales for the filtered top N products.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
|      Top N Parameter  |      Bar Chart       |
|    (User Control)     |  (Top N Products)    |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|                      Table (Top N Products)  |
+----------------------------------------------+
    

Interactivity

The Top N Parameter lets the user select how many top products to display.

Changing this parameter updates the Top N Filter, which filters both the bar chart and the table to show only the top N products by sales.

Self Check

If you set the Top N parameter to 2, which products appear in the bar chart and table?

Answer: The two products with highest sales are Alpha (500) and Eta (350). So only these two appear.

Key Result

Dashboard showing top N products by sales controlled by a user parameter.