2022 Week 41 - Solution

Solution Video



Solution by Tom Prowse and you can download the workflow here.


This week's challenge is a continuation of last week, where we created a multiplication table using a static input. This week we want to take that a step further and make it dynamic based on a user input.

If you haven't already completed 2022 Week 40 then I would recommend doing that one first as we are going to use that workflow to start this solution.

Step 1 - Create Parameter

First we need to create the parameter that will allow the user to input a number to create the table. 

This is a simple parameter that uses a Whole Number and is required to have an entry at run time: 


By creating this parameter we can now input any number and our table will create a row and column up to that number.

Step 2 - Filter Table

Next we need to use the parameter within our workflow so that it creates the table based on the correct numbers. 

We want to go to the start of the workflow where we have our current input rows of 1 & 9. On the first clean step, we can use a calculated field to replace the 9 value with our select number in the parameter. By replacing the 9, this will allow our New Rows step to make sure we have the rows between 1 and the chosen number. 

We can use the following calculation to replace the 9: 

Numbers 
IF [Numbers] = 9 THEN [Parameters.Select Number]
ELSE [Numbers] END

At this stage we should still have 2 rows... 1 and then our chosen number.


Step 3 - One Row for Each

As we are allowing the user to add any number, we need to make sure we don't have repeating rows if the user inputs 1. As a result, at the moment this will create two rows, both with a 1 in them and therefore cause some duplication later in the workflow.

To overcome this, we can add an Aggregation step, between the first clean and the New Rows step, and make sure the Numbers field is in the Group By. This will then return only 1 row for each given number.

After this our workflow should work as expected and we should be able to create the dynamic table. 

Please Note: Remember last week we encountered a slight bug within Tableau Prep so you may need to run the first part of the workflow, and then update the input for the second part.

If 4 is selected then our output should look like this: 


After you finish the challenge make sure to fill in the participation tracker, then share your solution on Twitter using #PreppinData and tagging @Datajedininja, @JennyMartinDS14 & @TomProwse1

You can also post your solution on the Tableau Forum where we have a Preppin' Data community page. Post your solutions and ask questions if you need any help! 

Popular posts from this blog

2024: Week 1 - Prep Air's Flow Card

Image
Created by: Carl Allchin Welcome to a New Year of Preppin' Data challenges. For anyone new to the challenges then let us give you an overview how the weekly challenge works.  Each Wednesday the Preppin' crew (Jenny, myself or a guest contributor) drop a data set(s) that requires some reshaping and/or cleaning to get it ready for analysis.  You can use any tool or language you want to do the reshaping (we build the challenges in Tableau Prep but love seeing different tools being learnt / tried). Share your solution on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, GitHub or the Tableau Forums Fill out our tracker so you can monitor your progress and involvement The following Tuesday we will post a written solution in Tableau Prep (thanks Tom) and a video walkthrough too (thanks Jenny) As with each January for the last few years, we'll set a number of challenges aimed at beginners. This is a great way to learn a number of fundamental data preparation skills or a chance to learn a new tool — New Year...
Read more

2023: Week 1 The Data Source Bank

Image
 Created by: Carl Allchin Welcome to a New Year of Preppin' Data. These are weekly exercises to help you learn and develop data preparation skills. We publish the challenges on a Wednesday and share a solution the following Tuesday. You can take the challenges whenever you want and we love to see your solutions. With data preparation, there is never just one way to complete the tasks so sharing your solutions will help others learn too. Share on Twitter, LinkedIn, the Tableau Forums or wherever you want to too. Tag Jenny Martin, Tom Prowse or myself or just use the #PreppinData to share your solutions.  The challenges are designed for learning Tableau Prep but we have a broad community who complete the challenges in R, Python, SQL, DBT, EasyMorph and many other tools. We love seeing people learn new tools so feel free to use whatever tools you want to complete the challenges.  A New Year means we start afresh so January's challenges will be focused on beginners. We will u...
Read more

How to...Handle Free Text

Image
Free isn't always a good thing. In data, Free text is the example to state when proving that statements correct. However, lots of benefit can be gained from understanding data that has been entered in Free Text fields. What do we mean by Free Text? Free Text is the string based data that comes from allowing people to type answers in to systems and forms. The resulting data is normally stored within one column, with one answer per cell. As Free Text means the answer could be anything, this is what you get - absolutely anything. From expletives to slang, the words you will find in the data may be a challenge to interpret but the text is the closest way to collect the voice of your customer / employee. The Free Text field is likely to contain long, rambling sentences that can simply be analysed. If you count these fields, you are likely to have one of each entry each. Therefore, simply counting the entries will not provide anything meaningful to your analysis. The value is in ...
Read more