Group Your Data

Applies to: Tableau Cloud, Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server

You can create a group to combine related members in a field. For example, if you are working with a view that shows average test scores by major, you might want to group certain majors together to create major categories. English and History might be combined into a group called Liberal Arts Majors, while Biology and Physics might be grouped as Science Majors.

Groups are useful for both correcting data errors (e.g., combining CA, Calif., and California into one data point) as well as answering "what if" type questions (e.g., "What if we combined the East and West regions?).

Create a group

There are multiple ways to create a group. You can create a group from a field in the Data pane, or by selecting data in the view and then clicking the group icon.

Create a group by selecting data in the view

In the view, select one or more data points and then, on the tooltip that appears, click the group icon .

Note: You can also select the group icon on the toolbar at the top of the workspace.

If there are multiple levels of detail in the view, you must select a level to group the members. You can select to group all dimensions, or just one.

Create a group from a field in the Data pane

In the Data pane, right-click a field and select Create > Group.
In the Create Group dialog box, select several members that you want to group, and then click Group.

The selected members are combined into a single group. A default name is created using the combined member names.

To rename the group, select it in the list and click Rename.

Tip: You can search for members using the Find option near the bottom-right of the dialog box. (Tableau Desktop only)

Include an Other Group

When you create groups in Tableau, you have the option to group all remaining, or non-grouped members in an Other group.

The Include Other option is useful for highlighting certain groups or comparing specific groups against everything else. For example, if have a view that shows sales versus profit product category, you might want to highlight the high and low performing categories in the view, and group all the other categories into an "Other" group.

Includes Other	Does not include Other

To include an Other group:

In the Data pane, right-click the group field and select Edit Group.
In the Edit Group dialog box, select Include 'Other'.

Edit a Group

After you have created a grouped field, you can add and remove members from the groups, create new groups, change the default group names, and change the name of the grouped field. You can make some changes directly in the view, and others through the Edit Group dialog box.

To add members to an existing group:

In the Data pane, right-click the group field, and then click Edit Group.
In the Edit Group dialog box, select one or more members and drag them into the group you want.
Click OK.

To remove members from an existing group:

In the Data pane, right-click the group field, and then click Edit Group.
In the Edit Group dialog box, select one or more members, and then click Ungroup.

The members are removed from the current group. If you have an Other group, the members are added to it.
Click OK.

To create a new group in a group field:

In the Data pane, right-click the group field, and then click Edit Group.
In the Edit Group dialog box, select one or more members, and then click Group.
Click OK.

Note: To rename a group, select the group in the Edit Group dialog box, and then click Rename.

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