Idea for this visualization
came from this article about the plight of US veterans with misconduct
discharge.The article mentions about
the research that shows US veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with general misconduct discharge have
highest risk of becoming homeless, comparing to other discharge
categories.
This study is significant because
it highlights the contradiction between the reality where the number of US
soldiers discharged with misconduct is increasing and the federal government
priority to end homelessness among veterans!
Let’s hope the federal policy will be amended to match the reality so
that the veterans can receive some help.
(Some of you might wonder if
the veterans who were discharged with misconduct deserve to have benefits from
the government as other veterans? Maybe
or maybe not.But if the question were
rephrased as “Do veterans who were deployed
multiple times and served in combat but were discharged with misconductdeserve to have benefits from the
government as other veterans?”, would that change your opinion?)
I’m pleased to present the inaugural post of a ‘How To’ series,
with the intention to share the endless Tableau tricks and tips. This
post will explain the nuances of how to create an action filter on a worksheet
where there’s a top N parameter.
For reference on how to
filter for top and top N, please review this excellent video from Tableau that
shows how INDEX() function is used for ranking.
However, in the video, top N is selected as a fixed number.
To take this one step
further where top N is a parameter, I used Superstore data to create this visualization.Here’re the steps:
1) Create a ‘Top N
Customers’ parameter.
2) Create a
calculated field ‘Rank’ using INDEX() function to rank for top N customers.
3) Create a ‘Top N
Filter’ calculated field where [Rank] <= [Top N Customers] to show top N
customers.
4) Drag the ‘Top N
Filter’ to filter pane and select ‘True’.
5) Click on ‘Edit
Table Calculation’, in ‘Compute using’, select Advanced.Move State and Customer over to Addressing
pane. Under Sort, select ‘Field’ and
select ‘Profit/Sales’ calculated field. Then click OK to exit ‘Advanced’ window.
6) Back in ‘Edit
Table Calculation’ window, select ‘Customer’ in ‘At the level’ and ‘State’ in
‘Restarting every’.This will calculate
at the customer level and restart for every state.
Since the map will be used
as a filter, it’s important to make sure that every state is visible. I decided to go with the hexagonal tile map
(read Matt Chambers’ post for instruction).
The last step is to create
an action filter where clicking on a state will show the top N customers by
profit or sales for that state.
