While analysing the Sample Superstore dataset, I wanted to filter data by multiple related fields. For example, selecting a Region should automatically filter by States, and those States should further filter by Cities.
Initially, I applied filters independently, but it didn’t update the records based on each other’s selection. As a solution, I used Tableau’s cascading filters to filter records in hierarchical order.
In this Tableau tutorial, I’ll explain how to create cascading filters in Tableau using Tableau’s Sample Superstore dataset, with three real-world examples.
What are Cascading Filters in Tableau?
In Tableau, Cascading filters, also known as dependent filters, are filters in which the selection in one filter controls the options in another filter. This filter creates a dependency between filters, so that when a user selects a value in the first filter, only the related or relevant values appear in the subsequent filters.
In Tableau, cascading filters ensure users see only the required data options based on their previous selections.
For example, if you select “West” in the Region filter, the State filter will then show only states from the West region, such as California and Oregon.
Use Cascading Filters in Tableau
In the examples below, we will see the method to add a cascading filter in the Tableau worksheets and filter the records using it.
Now, connect the Tableau with the Superstore dataset and follow the methods below.
Example-1: Filter Records in Geographic Hierarchy Using Cascading Filter
In this example, we will create and use the cascading filter to filter Sales data by Region, then State, then City.
- To create the view, add Sales to Text and City to Rows.
- After this, add the Region, State and City to the Filters section and select All Values for the fields and click OK.
- To add control over the filter values, we need to add them in the view. For this, click on the field dropdown in Filters and select Show filter, and do it for all filters.
With this, you will see the dimension values on the right-hand side of the worksheet. In the filters, even if you select the Central region, it will also show all states that are in the database.
- To add cascading to the filters, click on the State filter dropdown in the and select Only relevant values and do the same for the Ci