Calculated Field Tableau for Percent Positive Likert Scale Data

Introduction

When analyzing survey data with Likert scales, it's often useful to calculate the percentage of positive responses. Positive responses typically include "Agree" and "Strongly Agree" categories. This guide will walk you through creating a calculated field in Tableau to automatically compute these percentages.

Tableau's calculated fields allow you to perform complex calculations directly within your data visualization. This is particularly useful for survey data where you need to derive metrics from raw responses.

Likert Scale Basics

A Likert scale typically consists of 5 response options:

1. Strongly Disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly Agree

For percentage positive calculations, we consider "Agree" and "Strongly Agree" as positive responses. The calculated field will sum these responses and divide by the total number of responses to get the percentage.

Creating the Calculated Field

To create a calculated field for percent positive Likert scale data:

1. Open your Tableau workbook with the survey data
2. Right-click on the Measures or Dimensions pane
3. Select "Create Calculated Field"
4. Name the field "Percent Positive"
5. Enter the formula:

   Formula

   SUM([Strongly Agree] + [Agree]) / SUM([Strongly Agree] + [Agree] + [Neutral] + [Disagree] + [Strongly Disagree])

6. Click OK to create the field

This formula sums the positive responses and divides by the total number of responses to get the percentage.

Visualizing Results

Once you've created the calculated field, you can use it in various visualizations:

• Bar charts to compare percentages across different survey questions
• Heat maps to show patterns in positive responses
• Line charts to track changes in positive responses over time
• Dashboard cards to display key metrics

To create a simple bar chart:

1. Drag the survey question to Columns
2. Drag the "Percent Positive" calculated field to Rows
3. Right-click on the "Percent Positive" field and select "Quick Table Calculation" > "Percent of Total"

Practical Example

Let's look at a concrete example with survey data about customer satisfaction:

Using our calculated field:

• Product quality: (45 + 80) / (45 + 80 + 30 + 15 + 5) = 125/175 ≈ 71.43%
• Customer service: (30 + 65) / (30 + 65 + 40 + 20 + 10) = 95/165 ≈ 57.58%

This shows that customers are more satisfied with product quality than customer service in this example.