BigData / Tableau Interview Questions
What is a calculated field in Tableau?
A calculated field is a new field you define using a formula built from existing fields, constants, and Tableau's built-in functions — it lets you derive values the raw data source doesn't already contain.
// Profit Ratio SUM([Profit]) / SUM([Sales]) // Custom category IF [Sales] > 1000 THEN "High" ELSE "Low" END
- Calculated fields can be simple arithmetic (like Profit Ratio above), logical (IF/CASE statements), string manipulations, or date math.
- Once created, a calculated field behaves exactly like any other field — it can be dragged onto shelves, used in filters, or referenced by other calculated fields.
- Calculations can be row-level (evaluated per record) or aggregate-level (evaluated after data is aggregated, like the Profit Ratio example, which needs SUM() to make sense at the visualization's level of detail).
Calculated fields are one of the most powerful features in Tableau because they let you reshape and derive new metrics without ever touching or duplicating the source data itself.
Once created, how does a calculated field behave in Tableau?
Why does a calculation like SUM([Profit])/SUM([Sales]) need the aggregations explicitly?
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