How to use Cycle Fields in Tableau?

How to use Cycle Fields in Tableau?

The Cycle field option is available in the Analysis menu and is used to cycle/rotate the dimension or measure fields in a visualization. In this blog, we will understand how to use Cycle Fields in Tableau.

What is the Cycle Fields option?

In Tableau, “Cycle Fields” refers to a feature that allows user to cycle through different dimensions or measures in a visualization without manually changing them. This feature is useful in analyzing the data from various perspectives quickly.

Using Cycle Fields in Tableau

To explain this concept, I will connect to Sample-Superstore.xls. If you are new to Tableau, learn how to connect to Excel data source.

1. Create a bar chart by placing Sales on Columns, Category and Region on Rows. Place Segment on Color and finally Sales on Text (under Marks) to show the numbers on the bar as shown below:

The above chart displays Sales by Category, Region and Segment. Notice the placement of the dimensions Category, Region and Segment.

2. Now, navigate to Analysis menu and from the bottom, select Cycle Fields ( The second last option). As we make this selection, notice how the placement of fields change as shown below:

After using the Cycle fields option, Region has moved to Color and Segment has moved to Rows.

3. Use the Cycle Fields option again, this time you would notice dimension grouping or the order of dimensions on rows have changed and also Segment moved to color as shown below:

4. Use the Cycle Fields option again and this time you would notice Region and Segment are on rows and Category has come on Color as shown below:

The advantage of using Cycle Field option is that Tableau is automatically changing the position of the fields with user doing it manually or by creating a seprate chart.

For more tips like these or to learn Tableau from beginners to advanced levels, checkout my book Dashboarding with Tableau.