What is Drill Down

The drill down function in Tableau allows users to explore from high level summary to detailed information. It enables data to be visualized hierarchically, allowing user to navigate to deeper levels of the hierarchy through their interaction with the visualization built using the drill down function.

How Drill Down Can Be Used

In a coffee store related scenario, is it possible to explore from overall product category revenue performance to detailed revenue situation of each individual item? The answer is yes, it is possible. To better illustrate this, I will compare the differences between the original revenue bar charts I created and the revised version after applying the drill-down function.

The charts below show how revenue information can be displayed without using the drill down function in tableau, which is how I initially presented it.

The video below demonstrates how the drill down function can assist in performing the above analysis in a more compact and straightforward way. By diving into data with higher granularity, users can better identify trends and anomalies that are not apparent in aggregate data, thus gaining a deeper understanding of the factors driving high-level metrics.

Steps to Drill Down (with Set Action)

Step 1: Drag and drop Revenue into columns shelf, Category to rows shelf.

Step 2: Create a set for Category

Step 3: Create a calculated field for Product Type level drill down, then drag and drop it into rows shelf.

Step 4: Step up a set action to update the chart to show data only for selected Category.

Step 5: Create a set for Category Set

Step 6: Create a calculated field for Product Detail level drill down, then drag and drop it into rows shelf.

Step 7: Step up another set action to update the chart to display details for the selected Category and Product Type.

Author: James Pan