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Build a calendar in Tableau

This post was originally published on The Data School blog between 2018 and July 2025, before our program was renamed to MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. References throughout this article to “The Data School” or “DS” all refer to what is now MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. The program, its people, and its commitment to launching outstanding analytics careers remain the same – just under a new name.

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Have you considered if a calendar can be used as a chart in Tableau? The answer is Yes! But the Calendar is actually a heat map that uses colours to show the value of each day. For example, the following chart shows the daily profit in different months by using a continuous diverging colour legend. Then it is obvious to see which day’s profit is higher or lower.

Other than using colour to show the value, it can also show the dimensions. For instance, the following chart shows the Top1 Song of each day on Spotify. Each colour represents a song. Let’s take a look at how to do it!

Step 1. Create WEEKDAY of the date and put it into columns. Create Month of Date and Week of Date and put them into Rows.

Step 2: Filter on Rank = 1

Step 3: Put Track into colours, select the colour you want! Then Finish!

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