Relationships

Updated May 25, 2024 ·

Overview

Relationships let you connect tables based on common fields without merging them.

• A newer alternative to joins and unions.
• Keeps tables separate – maintains individual table fields.
• Adapts the join type dynamically based on the visualization.

Imagine you have an Orders table and a Manufacturers table. Instead of joining them, you create a relationship using the Product Name field. The tables remain separate, but Tableau decides how to pull data depending on what’s used in the visualization.

# Orders table
Order_ID   Product_Name   Sales
--------------------------------
101        Laptop        1000
102        Phone         500
103        Tablet        800

# Manufacturers table
Product_Name   Manufacturer
----------------------------
Laptop        Dell
Phone         Apple
Tablet        Samsung

Why Use Relationships?

Unlike joins, relationships keep tables separate while adjusting how data is combined depending on the visualization.

• No predefined join type – Adjusts join types automatically.
• Prevents data loss – Unlike fixed joins, it keeps unmatched rows when necessary.
• Reduces data prep – Avoids complex SQL or database views.
• More flexible – Can change dynamically without affecting other sheets.

Joins vs. Relationships

With joins, you must choose Left Join, Right Join, or Inner Join upfront, which may remove important data. With relationships, Tableau picks the best join type automatically based on what fields you use.

Feature	Joins	Relationships
Merge tables?	Yes	No
Static or dynamic?	Static (fixed join type)	Dynamic (adapts to visualization)
Risk of data loss?	Yes (depends on join type)	No (keeps unmatched rows when needed)
Flexibility	Less flexible	More flexible

Lab: Workbook

In this example, we'll use the workbook below to determine which manufacturers create products that generate the most and the least profit for our fictional Superstore.

Download the files here:

• Manufacturers.csv

• 1_4_superstore_establishing_relationship.twbx

• 1_4_superstore_establishing_relationship_complete.twbx

Problem

Top-performing manufacturer:

• Find the manufacturer with the highest profit in the Technology category.
• Calculate the total profit for this manufacturer.

Worst-performing manufacturer:

• Identify the manufacturer with the lowest profit.
• Determine the total profit and number of orders.

Steps

Determine profit per manufacturer:

• Open the workbook and go to the Data Source tab.
• Select Superstore (2016-2020).xlsx to load the data.
• Double-click Orders 2016-2020 to check existing unions and joins.
• Close the canvas before proceeding.
• In the Connections panel, click Add -> Text File -> Select Manufacturers.csv.
• Drag Manufacturers.csv next to Orders 2016-2020.
• Tableau will automatically create a relationship between the tables.

Create profit chart:

• Go to the Profit by Manufacturer worksheet.
• Drag Manufacturer to Rows.
• Click Show Me and select Treemap.
• Hover over the treemap to view profit details.

Find manufacturer with lowest profit:

• Create a new sheet called Least Profit.

• Drag Profit to Columns and Manufacturer to Rows.

• Drag Manufacturer to Filters and apply a condition:

  • Filter by field: Profit
  • Set condition: Sum less than 0

• Click OK.

• Drag Orders 2016-2020 to Color in the Marks card.

Solution

Findings

• Canon generated the highest profit at 44,904.
• Cubify had the lowest performance with only 4 orders.