Retro month continues, with Kyle setting this challenge to recreate Andy Kriebel’s WOW challenge from 2017. A lot has moved on with the product since 2017 and this is a great example of how it can be simplified.

I completed the original challenge (see here) and was having a look to refresh myself… boy! it took a LOT more effort – sometimes I surprise myself that I managed it!

Now that we have parameters and parameter actions, the solution is WAY more simpler.

So let’s crack on…

As alluded to above, we’re going to need a parameter which is going to store the name of the state ‘on click’

pSelectedState

string parameter defaulted to ” (ie empty string)

We also need to display either the name of a State or a City dependent on the value of this parameter

Display Name

IF [pSelectedState] = ” THEN [State]
ELSE [City]
END

Pop these into a tabular view with Sales and Profit and show the pSelectedState parameter so we can test things out.

When the pSelectedState is empty, a row is displayed per State

but when pSelectedState contains the name of a State (or any text to be honest), a row is displayed per City (note all Cities are displayed, at this point, not just those for the State).

To restrict the list of Cities just to those that match the State in the pSelectedState parameter, we need

Records to Filter

[pSelectedState] = ” OR [pSelectedState] = [State]

Add this to the Filter shelf and set to True. Now the list should be restricted to the Cities in the State.

So lets’ start to build the basic viz.

Set the pSelectedState parameter to empty, then add Sales to Columns, Profit to Rows and Display Name to Text. Add Records to Filter To Filter and set to True. Change the mark type to Circle.

Create a new field

Profit Ratio

SUM([Profit]) / SUM([Sales])

format to % with 1 dp and then add this to the Colour shelf.

Add this sheet to a dashboard, then add a dashboard parameter action

Set State

on select of a mark on the scatter plot chart, set the pSelectedState parameter with the value from the Display Name field.

If we now click on a state, the cities should be displayed instead – great! But if we now click a city, we don’t get what we want – boo! This is because the selection of a City has passed the name of the City which is stored in the Display Name field into the parameter, so the scatter is trying to display records relating to a State = City Name which doesn’t exist.

To resolve this, we need to pass a different field into the parameter action

Drill Value

IF [pSelectedState] = ” THEN [State] ELSE ” END

Add this to the Detail shelf of the Scatter plot viz, then update the dashboard action to pass this field into the pSelectedState parameter instead

Reset the pSelectedState parameter to empty string, and then test again – clicking on a state and then clicking on a city should get you back to the states.

And that’s the core functionality achieved with 1 parameter, and 2 calculated fields!

We just need some additional fields to provide the relevant display for the title & sub title

Title text

IF [pSelectedState] = ” THEN ‘by State’ ELSE ‘for ‘ + [pSelectedState] END

Subtitle

IF [pSelectedState] = ” THEN ‘Click a State to drill down to City level’
ELSE ‘Click a City to drill up to State level’
END

Add these to the Detail shelf of the scatter viz, and then update the title of the sheet to reference the fields

Update the Tooltip and adjust the size of the axis fonts, and tidy up the dashboard layout, and you should be good to go!. My published viz is here.

Happy vizzin’!

Donna