Binning Dates for Custom Date Levels

Published: 13 Apr 2017
Last Modified Date: 14 Mar 2018

Question

How to break a date field down into non-standard increments, such as 2 months or 15 minutes.

Environment

Tableau Desktop

Answer

Option 1: Create bins at one date level
Use this method to create bins within one date level. For example, creating bins for every 2 days

The below instructions create a view showing flight delays by day of month, broken down into 2-day increments, and are based on the attached packaged workbook DateInterval.twbx.

Select Analysis > Create Calculated Field.
Name the field Flight Delays, enter the following calculation, then click OK:
DATEPART('day', [Flight Date])
in the Measures pane, right-click Flight Delays and select Create Bins.
Name the field 2 Day Intervals, enter 2 for Size of bins, then click OK.
Drag 2 Day intervals to Columns.
Drag Arr Delay to Rows.
Right-click Arr Delay on Rows and select Measure > Average.
Place Dest State on Color.

Note: You can use this technique to look at a variety of custom date and time levels by specifying a different DATEPART in the calculation. For example, if you wanted to look at 15-minute increments, you would replace "day" with "minute" in the formula.