IF Statement Tableau: Ultimate Guide on Conditional Logic 101

Tableau is a rapidly growing Business Intelligence (BI) tool and a Data Visualization software developed to transform the way people and organizations use data to solve business problems. Data Analysis is a walk in the park with Tableau tools and the Data Visualizations are presented in the easy-to-understand format of dashboards and worksheets. Tableau comes with an extensive set of features and functions that help in making the most of business data. This blog will take you through one such classical and important function, IF Statement Tableau.

Testing logical conditions is a common task in Data Science and Business Intelligence. Logical calculations help you in decision-making by determining if a certain condition is TRUE or FALSE (Boolean Logic). Tableau comes with a set of logical statements that helps to evaluate a particular condition represented by an expression against a certain value. IF Statement Tableau is a fundamental part of Data Analytics and understanding how they work is critical while working with logical calculations. But before getting started with IF Statement Tableau, let’s discuss this robust BI platform in brief.

Table of Contents

• What is Tableau?
  • Key Features of Tableau
• What is the IF Statement Tableau?
  • Syntax
  • Tableau IF Statement Example
• Tableau IF-ELSE Statement
  • Syntax
  • Tableau IF-ELSE Statement Example
• Tableau ELSEIF Statement
  • Syntax
  • Tableau ELSEIF Statement Example
• Tableau IIF Function
  • Syntax
  • Tableau IIF Statement Example
• Conclusion

What is Tableau?

Tableau is a prominent Business Intelligence (BI) & Data Visualization tool used by companies and organizations all over the world for reporting and analyzing huge volumes of data. Developed by Pat Hanrahan, Christian Chabot, and Chris Stolte, Tableau helps in transforming raw data to a format that is easily understood by professionals at any level in an organization. Since its inception in 2003, Tableau has allowed leading industries to cut analysis time and make their organizations more data-driven.

Reading this you’re probably thinking Excel already does that, so what’s different about Tableau? Well, Tableau’s innovation was entirely focused on Visual Analysis, and it has a plethora of features and offers you so much more control over what your visualization looks like. While Excel allows users to evaluate data and do calculations, Tableau’s intuitive visualizations help you to convey your data graphically and in a visually attractive and understandable format. Tableau users can further interact and engage with data graphically to quickly uncover business insights.

Key Features of Tableau

• Multipurpose Dashboard: Tableau comes with an intuitive dashboard that allows even the non-technical users to perform quick Data Analysis and create visualizations. Users can create high-level graphs and dashboards using its easy-to-use drag and drop functionality.
• Extensive Data Sources: Tableau houses over 200 connectors and drivers that allow users to securely connect to multiple third-party applications and external data sources such as Relational Databases, Big Data, Cloud, Spreadsheets, and more.
• Powerful Collaboration: Users working on different projects can collaborate with each other on Tableau. Users can further share the dashboard on the Cloud, making it accessible to anyone from anywhere.
• Advanced Visualizations: Tableau has a vast collection of advanced Data Visualization techniques. Users can easily visualize data in the form of Charts, Tables, Graphs, Plots, Maps, etc.
• Tableau Community: Tableau has a large community of active users, Developers, and Analysts. Being a part of this community allows you to continuously learn, upskill, build powerful connections, and offer mentorship to newcomers.

What is the IF Statement Tableau?

IF Statements are a fundamental part of not just Tableau, but of other Analytics Platforms and Programming Languages as well. Logical calculations help in evaluating particular conditions against given values to facilitate correct and effective decision-making. There are 3 variants of the IF Statement Tableau: IF, IF-ELSE, and ELSEIF. Let’s start with the IF variant first.

The IF Statement Tableau returns the result (i.e. TRUE) only if the given condition is met, but if the condition is not met (i.e. FALSE) then it returns a NULL value. This is also referred to as conditional expression or Boolean expression as the result would be in the form of TRUE or FALSE.

Syntax

A typical IF Statement Tableau looks like this:

IF <Expression> THEN <True_Statement>
END

Let’s break this down and try to understand its various components.

• The IF keyword tells Tableau that an IF Statement is being performed.
• <Expression> represents the conditional expression which is nothing but a boolean statement—an evaluation that returns either TRUE or FALSE.
• The THEN keyword indicates that some return value is being specified.
• <True_Statement> is the value that will be returned if the conditional expression is TRUE.
• END represents the end of the loop.

Tableau IF Statement Example

To execute the IF Statement Tableau, you would need to create a Calculated Field. You can do so by clicking on the “Analysis” tab after loading your dataset in Tableau. Select “Create Calculated Field…” and enter the code for the calculation that you want to perform.

Here, you need to enter the code for IF Statement Tableau as shown.

Now, add this Calculated Field to the table to apply it to your dataset in Tableau. Now, you can observe in this example that the results are divided into 2 categories: Performing Good and Null. Null specifies that the condition is failed and represents the profit that is less than 0.

Tableau IF-ELSE Statement

The IF-ELSE Statement also tests for particular conditions. This variant is essentially similar to the IF Statement only with a minor difference. The difference is that the failed condition will not return the NULL value but instead will return the specified return value.

• If the conditional expression is satisfied (TRUE), the statement after the THEN keyword will be returned.
• When the conditional expression is not satisfied (FALSE), the statement after the ELSE keyword will be returned.

Syntax

A typical IF-ELSE Statement Tableau looks like this:

IF <Expression> THEN <True_Statement>
ELSE <False_Statement>
END

Let’s break this down and try to understand its various components.

• The ELSE keyword tells Tableau that an ELSE Statement is being performed.
• <False_Statement> is the value that will be returned if the conditional expression is FALSE.

Tableau IF-ELSE Statement Example

To execute the IF-ELSE Statement, you need to enter the code for IF-ELSE Statement in the Calculated Field as shown.

Now, you can observe in this example that the results are divided into 2 categories: Performing Good and Bad Performance. Similar to the previous example, “Performing Good” is returned whenever the condition is satisfied. “Bad Performance” specifies that the condition is failed and represents the profit that is less than 0. So, instead of Null, a stated statement “Bad Performance” is returned for a failed condition.

Tableau ELSEIF Statement

Unlike IF Statement Tableau, ELSEIF is capable of evaluating multiple conditional expressions. This function executes in a sequential manner and the conditions will only be evaluated if the previous IF or ELSEIF statement fails.

If the first condition expression is satisfied, it will execute the statement stated after the THEN keyword. However, if the condition is not satisfied, the next ELSEIF expression will be evaluated and executed.

Syntax

A typical ELSEIF Statement Tableau looks like this:

IF <Expression1> THEN <True_Statement1>
ELSEIF <Expression2> THEN <True_Statement2>
ELSEIF <Expression3> THEN <True_Statement3>
.....
ELSE <False_Statement>
END

Let’s break this down and try to understand its various components.

• The ELSEIF keyword tells Tableau that an ELSEIF Statement is being performed.
• <Expression2> represents the conditional expression and it will be evaluated only if <Expression1> is not satisfied.
• <True_Statement2> is the value that will be returned if <Expression2> is TRUE.
• However, if <Expression2> is not satisfied, Tableau will go on to evaluate <Expression3> and so on.

Tableau ELSEIF Statement Example

To execute the ELSEIF Statement, you need to enter the code for ELSEIF Statement in the Calculated Field as shown.

Now, you can observe in this example that the results are divided into 3 categories: High Profit, Low Profit, and Medium Profit. “High Profit” is returned whenever the first condition expression (profit greater than or equal to 2000) is satisfied. “Medium Profit” is returned when the first condition expression is not satisfied, and the second expression (profit between 1000 and 2000) is satisfied. However, if neither conditions are satisfied, and if the profit is below 1000, “Low Profit” will be returned.

Tableau IIF Function

The IIF Statement Tableau comes in handy while performing logical calculations. This function returns BOOLEAN results and categorizes them into 3 categories: TRUE, FALSE, and UNKNOWN. Similar to the IF Statement Tableau, IIF Statement returns a TRUE value when the conditional expression is satisfied, and a FALSE value for a failed condition. However, when the data contains values that yield an “unknown” result from the boolean comparison, the IIF Statement will either return the UNKNOWN value (if specified) or the NULL value. This typically happens when there are null values in the data set.

Syntax

IIF(test, then, else [unknown])

Let’s break this down and try to understand its various components.

• The IIF keyword tells Tableau that an IIF Statement is being performed.
• test represents the conditional expression.
• then is the value that will be returned if the conditional expression is TRUE.
• else is the value that will be returned if the conditional expression is FALSE.
• [unknown] is the unknown value returned if the conditional expression is neither TRUE nor FALSE.

Tableau IIF Statement Example

To execute the IIF Statement, you need to enter the code for IIF Statement in the Calculated Field as shown.

Now, you can observe in this example that the results are divided into 3 categories: Create Certificate, Do Nothing, and Null. “Create Certificate” is returned whenever the Letter Grade is A. “Do Nothing” is returned when the Letter Grade is anything (B, C, D, etc.,) but A. However, if the conditional expression is neither TRUE nor FALSE, i.e., when the Letter Grade row has missing grades, a “Null” value is returned.

Conclusion

Tableau is a prominent Data Visualization and BI tool that allows users to integrate various Data Sources and create attractive Charts, Dashboards, and Reports according to user-specified data that can be shared easily. Tableau doesn’t require any programming skills to operate, making it one of the most sought-after applications by people from various sectors. However, one must be familiar with basic logical functions such as IF Statement Tableau in order to generate actionable insights from raw data.

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