The Importance of Granularity (…to Blend or not to Blend?)

The ‘Granularity’ (or ‘Grain’) of the data is the most important thing I consider for any data analysis. When I get a new data-set, my first question What is the Granularity? When designing a new (Tableau) visual model, my first consideration What Granularity do I need? When calculating a measure (or KPI), my first questions: What is the Granularity? and What Granularity do I need?

I’d go as far as saying “Understanding the Grain of your data is 99% of the solution”…

Sheet Swapping using Dashboard Actions (or the Illusion of a Full Outer Join on Blended Data)

As the title suggests, this nifty trick has the dual purpose of allowing you to trigger sheet swaps using Dashboard Actions and, when two data sources contain different levels of Granularity, it lets you analyse at both levels (the Granularity of the Primary and Secondary data source). This is the ‘illusion of a Full Outer Join’…All seems a little cryptic and techie. Let’s run through an example…