Set Actions feature was released by Tableau in version 2018.3 and was a game changer. This feature can be used for lots of different use cases but in this tutorial i will be sharing how we can use set actions to show drill down functionality in tableau.
Lets get started.
Data
We will be usingh Sample super store data for this tutorial. Once you connect to the data source, please go to sheet 1. Before we start visualising the data, lets create few calculated fields.
Calculated Fields
- Category Set: This field is used to create a set for all the categories in the data source

Categories: Create a new calculated field showing all the categories with ‘▼ ‘ and ‘► ‘ to show the expanded or collapsed list. You can see all such shapes by going to Unicode website.

Sub Category: Create a new calculated field showing all the subcategories based on the Category selection set.

Now that we have created all the calculated fields, we can now start building the visualisation.
Worksheet
- Drag Category hierarchy to the row shelf
- Drag Categories calculated field to row shelf
- Drag Sub Categories calculated field to row shelf
- Drag Order date to Column Shelf
- Hide header for Category hierarchy

After doing a bit of formatting, move the sheet to the dashboard and then apply set action. If we apply set action at worksheet level then we have to apply it again at dashboard level. In order to apply set action, select the sheet on which we need to apply set action and select Category Set in the target set section.

Once we apply set action and done with the formatting, we are ready with the drill down and will look like below.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and can find this dashboard on tableau public by clicking here.