Why LOD expressions control aggregation scope in Tableau - Dashboard Impact

Dashboard Mode - Why LOD expressions control aggregation scope

Business Question

How can we use Level of Detail (LOD) expressions in Tableau to control the scope of data aggregation and get precise insights?

Sample Data

Region	Category	Sales	Order ID
East	Furniture	300	1001
East	Office Supplies	200	1002
West	Furniture	400	1003
West	Technology	500	1004
East	Technology	600	1005
West	Office Supplies	150	1006
East	Furniture	350	1007

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: SUM([Sales])
  Result: 2,500
  Shows total sales across all regions and categories.
• KPI Card: Sales per Region (Fixed LOD)
  Formula: {FIXED [Region]: SUM([Sales])}
  Example for East: 1,450
  Shows total sales fixed at Region level, ignoring other filters.
• Bar Chart: Sales by Category
  Aggregates sales by category using SUM([Sales])
  Bars show Furniture: 1,050; Office Supplies: 350; Technology: 1,100.
• Table: Average Sales per Order (Include LOD)
  Formula: {INCLUDE [Order ID]: AVG([Sales])}
  Calculates average sales per order considering each order uniquely.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+-------------------------+
| Total Sales (KPI)    | Sales per Region (KPI)  |
+----------------------+-------------------------+
|                          Bar Chart: Sales by Category          |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|           Table: Average Sales per Order (Include LOD)       |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

Filters on Region or Category update the Bar Chart and Table dynamically. The {FIXED [Region]: SUM([Sales])} KPI ignores category filters and always shows total sales per region. The Total Sales KPI updates with all filters applied.

Self Check

If you add a filter for Category = Furniture, which components update and how?

• Total Sales KPI updates to sum sales only for Furniture (1,050).
• Sales per Region KPI remains fixed per region ignoring category filter (East: 650; West: 400).
• Bar Chart updates to show only Furniture sales by category (only Furniture category bars remain).
• Average Sales per Order Table updates to average sales for Furniture orders only.

Key Result

Dashboard showing how LOD expressions control aggregation scope with KPIs, bar chart, and table using sales data by region and category.