Tag Archives: triangular matrix

Comparing Each Against Each Other: The No-SQL Cross Product

Here’s a problem that has been bouncing around in my brain since I first used Tableau. How do I compare the results of every permutation of one item vs. another? Here’s an example using Superstore Sales – I put Region on Rows and Columns, and SUM(Sales) on the Text Shelf, and only see four values: Screen Shot 2013-12-11 at 9.27.56 PM

What if I want to compare Sales in Central to those in East, South, and West, and Sales in East to South and West, and Sales in West to Sales in South simultaneously? We can compare two at a time using parameters or a self-blend, or one vs. the rest in different ways via sets or table calcs or calculated fields, but how about each against each other? What if we want a correlation matrix? Read on to find out how to do this without any SQL, and learn a little bit about domain completion.

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