Before diving into quick table calculations in Tableau you’ll want to review calculated fields if you need refreshing.

Table calculations address data in the cache table and allow you to perform calculations on visible results. So, what does that mean? Once our visualization is rendered, we can ask Tableau to literally look at the results, numbers, bars or plots. And then do math on those visible results. Table calculations allow you to compare a singular measure to itself.

There are a few types of quick table calculations:

• Running Total
• Difference
• Percent Difference
• Percent of Total
• Rank
• Percentile
• Moving Average
• YTD Total
• Compound Growth Rate
• Year Over Growth Rate
• YTD Growth

Percent Difference

Here is an example using the Superstore dataset. We’ll plot Sales by the Quarter of the Order Date. Sales is continuous (not discrete). By default Tableau uses the Sum() function. Using the Quick Table Calculation allows us to use something other than Sum().

Below is our percent difference.

The formula requires two values, one from one quarter and the value from the previous quarter.