Controlling Row and Column Concatenation

By default, Tableau Desktop allows up to six levels of dimensions on each of the Row and Column shelves. After that, the headers will start to concatenate together to save space. For example, the bar chart below has seven dimensions on the Rows shelf. The outer most dimensions (Region and State) are collapsed into a single level in the table with the labels concatenated with a comma.

You can control this behavior by selecting Analysis > Table Layout > Advanced (for versions 6.1 and earlier, select Table > Options).

The Table Options dialog box contains a variety of settings that control how the table displays.

Aspect ratio

The aspect ratio refers to the ratio of the pane width to the pane height. You can choose to constrain the aspect ratio to a specified amount or not constrain it at all. An unconstrained axis range can be useful because it means that the axes don't have to be the same length. Anytime you manually resize a row or column, the aspect ratio is unconstrained. The aspect ratio setting only applies to views containing continuous axes on both the row and column shelves. Nominative axes are not affected by the aspect ratio settings.

Default number format

You can define the number of decimal places to display by default for numbers in the view. If you select Automatic, Tableau automatically decides the number of decimal places based on the data in the field. If you select Manual, you can decide to show up to 16 decimal places.

Rows

Select from the following Row attributes:

• Maximum levels of row labels: determines the number of fields that can be added to the Rows shelf before the headers are combined on the same level.
• Maximum levels of horizontal row labels: determines the number of fields that can be placed on the Rows shelf before headers are automatically oriented vertically rather than horizontally.

Columns

Select from the following column attributes:

• Maximum levels of column labels: determines the number of fields that can be placed on the Columns shelf before Tableau begins to combine the labels.
• Show innermost level at bottom of view when there is a vertical axis: displays the innermost level of column headers at the bottom of the view (as opposed to the top) when a vertical axis is added to the view.
• Default orientation of labels at bottom of view: determines whether labels at the bottom of the view are oriented horizontally or vertically by default. You can toggle between the horizontal and vertical options by pressing Ctrl + L on your keyboard.