Subscriptions and alerts in Tableau - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

Daily sales data for a product over four days.

Cell	Value
A1	Date
B1	Sales
A2	2024-01-01
B2	500
A3	2024-01-02
B3	700
A4	2024-01-03
B4	300
A5	2024-01-04
B5	900

Formula Trace

IF SUM([Sales]) > 800 THEN 'Alert: High Sales' ELSE 'No Alert' END

Step 1: SUM([Sales])

Step 2: 900 > 800

Step 3: IF TRUE THEN 'Alert: High Sales' ELSE 'No Alert' END

Cell Reference Map

    A       B
1 | Date  | Sales |
2 | 01-01 |  500  |
3 | 01-02 |  700  |
4 | 01-03 |  300  |
5 | 01-04 |  900  | <-- SUM([Sales]) references B2:B5

The formula sums the Sales column (B2 to B5) to check if sales exceed 800.

Result

    A       B           C
1 | Date  | Sales | Alert Status       |
2 | 01-01 |  500  | No Alert          |
3 | 01-02 |  700  | No Alert          |
4 | 01-03 |  300  | No Alert          |
5 | 01-04 |  900  | Alert: High Sales |

The alert status column shows 'Alert: High Sales' only for the day where sales exceed 800.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the formula check in the data?

A If total sales for a day are greater than 800

B If sales on 2024-01-01 are greater than 800

C If average sales are less than 800

D If sales on 2024-01-03 are exactly 800

Key Result

IF SUM([Measure]) > Threshold THEN 'Alert Message' ELSE 'No Alert' END