How to Rearrange Columns in Tableau

Arranging columns in Tableau is one of the first things you need to learn to make your data easy to read. A well-organized table or chart helps your audience understand the story behind the numbers without getting lost. This article will walk you through several straightforward methods for rearranging columns, covering everything from simple drag-and-drop actions to more dynamic sorting techniques.

Why Does Column Order Matter Anyway?

Before we get into the "how," let's quickly touch on the "why." The order of your columns significantly affects a report's usability and the insights you can draw from it. A thoughtful layout can:

• Improve Readability: Placing related data together, like "City," "State," and "Region," creates a logical flow that is easy for the reader to follow.
• Tell a Coherent Story: The sequence of data should guide the user through your analysis. You might want to start with high-level identifiers (like Customer Name) and move to specific metrics (like Sales, Profit, and Quantity).
• Highlight Key Metrics: By moving your most important columns to the left-hand side of a table, you ensure they're seen first, drawing immediate attention to the data that matters most.
• Simplify Comparisons: Putting columns you want to compare side by side makes it much easier to see relationships and spot differences, avoiding the need for the user to scan back and forth across a wide table.

In short, customizing your column order isn't just about appearances, it's about turning a confusing wall of data into a clear, actionable report.

Method 1: Drag-and-Drop in the Data Source Pane

The simplest way to set an initial order for your columns is in the Data Source tab, even before you start building visualizations. This method changes the default order Tableau uses when you first add fields to a worksheet. It’s a great way to perform some basic housekeeping, particularly if your original data file has columns in a jumbled order.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Navigate to the Data Source tab, located in the bottom-left corner of your Tableau workspace. You'll see a preview of your data in a grid format, similar to a spreadsheet.
2. Hover your cursor over the header of the column you want to move. The cursor will change, indicating you can interact with it.
3. Click and hold the column header.
4. Drag the column left or right to its new desired position. You'll see a dark vertical line showing you where the column will be dropped.
5. Release the mouse button once you've found the right spot.

For example, if you have Order ID, City, State, and Region columns, but you want Region to appear first, you would simply click the Region header and drag it to the far left. This method is useful for pre-organizing your fields before creating multiple worksheets.

Method 2: Rearranging Columns Directly in the Worksheet

Once you are in a worksheet building a visualization, you will most likely arrange your columns by manipulating the "pills" on the Columns and Rows shelves. This is the most common and powerful way to control the structure of your charts and tables.

Fields you place on the Columns shelf appear as column headers in your visualization, and fields on the Rows shelf appear as row headers.

How to Rearrange Pills on Shelves:

Imagine you're building a simple text table to show Sales by Region and Category.

1. Drag the Region dimension from the Data pane onto the Columns shelf.
2. Next, drag the Category dimension onto the Columns shelf, placing it to the right of the Region pill. Your view will now have regions as the top-level headers, with categories nested underneath each region.
3. Now, let’s say you want to see categories as the primary columns, broken down by region. Simply click and hold the Category pill on the Columns shelf and drag it to the left of the Region pill.
4. Release the mouse button. Tableau immediately redraws the table with Category as the outer grouping and Region as the inner grouping.

This same drag-and-drop principle applies to charts. If you have a grouped bar chart, swapping the order of the pills on the Columns shelf will change how the bars are grouped and displayed on the axis. It’s an interactive and visual way to instantly change your view's layout until you find the format that best communicates your findings.

Method 3: Manually Reordering Headers in a Crosstab

Sometimes, dragging pills on a shelf reorders the entire group of headers, but what if you just want to reorder the members within a dimension? For instance, perhaps you have four regions showing - Central, East, South, West - and you want them displayed in the order East, West, Central, South for a specific reason.

Tableau lets you do this directly in the visualization.

Steps for Manual Header Rearrangement:

1. Create a view with dimension headers you want to reorder. For example, place Region on the Columns shelf and Sales on the Rows shelf. You will see column headers for "Central," "East," "South," and "West."
2. Click the header you want to move. For instance, click on "East".
3. Hold the mouse button and drag the header left or right. A thick black line will appear between the headers, indicating where the column will be placed.
4. Drag "East" all the way to the left and release the mouse. The view will update, and now the column order is "East," "Central," "South," "West."

When you do this, Tableau is creating a manual sort on that dimension. You can see this change reflected on the dimension pill itself - a small sort icon will appear. This manual sorting overrides any default alphabetical or data source order sorting for that specific sheet.

Method 4: Using the Sort Function for Data-Driven Order

Manual reordering is useful for setting a specific static order, but for many reports, you’ll want to sort your columns dynamically based on a measure. For example, you might always want to show your product categories ordered by which one has the highest sales, or your marketing channels by which has the lowest cost per acquisition.

The Sort function offers a robust way to control column order based on your data values.

How to Apply a Dynamic Sort:

1. Right-click on the dimension pill in the Columns or Rows shelf whose members you want to reorder. Using our earlier example, let’s right-click the Category pill on the Columns shelf.
2. Select Sort from the context menu. A sort dialogue box will appear with several options.
3. In the "Sort by" section, select Field. This tells Tableau you want to sort the dimension based on the value of another field.
4. From the "Field Name" dropdown, choose the measure you want to sort by. Let's select Sales.
5. For "Aggregation," keep it as Sum (or another aggregation that matches your view).
6. Finally, choose the "Sort order": Descending to show the highest value first or Ascending to show the lowest value first.
7. Close the dialogue box.

Your table will now automatically reorder the Category columns so that the one with the highest total sales appears on the left, followed by the next highest, and so on. The best part is that this sort is dynamic - if your underlying data changes or you apply a filter, the column order will automatically update to reflect the new rankings.

Best Practices for Organizing Your Columns

Knowing the technical steps is half the battle, knowing when and why to use them is what elevates a good report to a great one. Here are some user-friendly tips to keep in mind:

• Think Logically, from General to Specific: Arrange your columns to guide your audience through the data. Often, this means starting with broad categories (like Year or Region) on the left and moving to more granular details (Month or Sub-Category) on the right.
• Group Related Dimensions: If you're displaying location data, keep Country, State, and City columns together. If you're showing product details, group Category and Sub-Category. This makes the data cohesive and predictable for the user.
• Prioritize What Matters: Place your most critical summary columns - like Sales, Profit, or Conversion Rate - in a prominent position, typically near the far left (after the row labels) or far right, so they are easy to find and reference.
• Maintain Consistency Across Dashboards: If you have multiple worksheets that use the same dimensions, try to keep the column order consistent. A user journeying from a summary table to a detailed view shouldn't have to re-orient themselves because the Region column jumped from the third column to the fifth.

Final Thoughts

Mastering column arrangement in Tableau is an essential skill for creating intuitive, effective dashboards. Whether you're doing a simple drag-and-drop on the worksheet, permanently reordering fields in the data source pane, or setting up dynamic sorts based on performance metrics, a well-organized view makes all the difference in helping your audience get to insights quickly.

While mastering these techniques in Tableau is a great skill set for any analyst, sometimes a deadline is looming and you just need fast, clear answers. We built Graphed to handle exactly that. Instead of manually adjusting views, you can use simple language to ask for what you need - like, "show me sales by category and region, sorted by the highest selling region." Graphed instantly builds the report, connected to your live data sources, taking away the manual clicks so you can get right to the insights.