When you receive a requirement to make a boring Excel style table in Tableau, consider spicing up the table by incorporating parameters. One clever use of parameters enables you to incorporate user defined rows and columns into a Tableau table layout. As a user selects a parameter value (representing a column or row), the table is dynamically updated to show the column or row that was selected.

“Parameters are useful when you want to add interactivity and flexibility to a report, or to experiment with what-if scenarios. Suppose you are unsure which fields to include in your view or which layout would work best for your viewers. You can incorporate parameters into your view to let viewers choose how they want to look at the data.

When you work with parameters, consider the following two things that are important in making them useful:

They need to be used in calculations.
The parameter control needs to be displayed so that viewers can interact with it.”

In this video I will show you how to infuse an otherwise boring table with some parameter driven interactivity. Enjoy!

Reference: Tableau Online Help