Generating m*n (and more) Combinations using Tableau

Problem Statement

Generate all possible m*n (and more) combinations of codes for Product Range, Items, Cover Variations, Fabric options.

Situation

Let’s say you have multiple lists of codes. The lists look something like this:

4 Lists, one each for Range, Item, Cover, Fabric

You want to generate all possible combinations of items in each of these lists. A few examples of these combinations are:

• SONG2STCCCBRO

• SONG2STOCCBRO

• SONG2STWCCBRO

• SONG2STXXCBRO

Challenges

Ideally, I would do this using either MS Access or Power Query in MS Excel. But both these applications work in a Windows-based PC. And if you use a MacBook, you can’t use either of these applications. Besides, not everybody can jump right away to a programming language like Python or R to find a solution to a problem like this.

Solution

You never know what you could do with an amazing tool like Tableau. Import the lists in Tableau and join the lists by adding join calculations.

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The following 1-minute video describes this entire process.

#analytics #tips #tricks