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Tableau | Data visualisation

How to use new Parameter Actions aggregations in Tableau Desktop 2019.3 and newer.

Tableau 2019.3 lets parameter actions concatenate your selected marks into a parameter and keep them there after you deselect.

Tim Ngwena •9 December 2019 •1 min read •7 min watch •1.7K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2019.3

Watch on YouTube

Tableau 2019.3 added new aggregation options for parameter actions, including first quarter, third quarter and concatenation.
When configuring a change parameter action, choose the field that matches the axis your reference lines sit on (profit, not sales) so values update correctly.
Concatenation requires the target parameter to be set as a string data type, not a float, in order to work.
You can dynamically feed a list of selected dimension members (such as cities) into a parameter and display it in the worksheet title.
Values fed into parameters via these actions persist on the view even after you deselect the marks.

0:00In 2093, Tableau have improved the aggreg

0:06ations available to you when you use

0:08parameter actions.

0:10To show you this, I'm first going to build

0:12a very basic chart. I'll drag profits onto

0:14columns and sales onto rows. I'll then

0:18break this down by city. I'll rotate this

0:2290 degrees

0:22just to make it easy to see. You'll also

0:26see that country and state have been

0:27brought into

0:28the view because they're part of the

0:29hierarchy. Next up, I'll create the

0:32parameter. The first

0:33one I'll create, we'll actually use to show

0:36the first quarter. Let's call this first

0:39quarter.

0:42I'll set this to value zero and hit okay. I

0:47'll duplicate this. Then I'll edit this.

0:52Call it third quarter. I'll also leave this

0:58as a value of zero. Then I'll show both of

1:02these parameter controls on our view on the

1:05right hand side. At the moment, these are

1:07both set to zero. The next thing I'll do is

1:10I'll add a reference line to reflect both

1:12of these values. I'll select first value. I

1:16'll give it a custom label. Select the value

1:21.

1:21I'll put FQ for first quarter. I'll make

1:25this line orange so it's a little bit easy

1:27to see.

1:28I'll make it thin. You'll see that because

1:32I selected zero, it sits on the axis. I'll

1:35add another reference line. This time, the

1:39third quarter. Again, I'll go to custom.

1:44Select

1:44a value. Then I'll put TQ. I'll make this

1:47line a slightly different color. I'll make

1:51it green. I'll also make it thin. You'll

1:55see here that both items are now on that

1:57axis.

1:58If you want to, you can move one of these

2:01labels to the right hand side. All you have

2:04to do is go to the alignment, select the

2:06right hand side, and you'll see the first

2:09quarter

2:09labels on the left and the third quarter

2:12labels on the right. Both of them are

2:14sitting on

2:15the zero axis. Now, the final step is to

2:18get this parameter action to change these

2:21values.

2:22I'll head up to worksheet actions. I'll add

2:26the first action by selecting change

2:29parameter.

2:31We'll affect the first quarter. We have to

2:34make sure we choose the right value here

2:37because

2:38if I was to say choose sales, I would

2:41actually be showing the first quarter for

2:43the selection

2:44on the sales which is not where I've

2:47actually set the reference lines. What I

2:49need to actually

2:50do is make sure I choose profit which is on

2:52my Y axis because that's the axis I use for

2:54the reference lines. I'll select profit and

2:57you'll see here that we have first quarter

3:00and third quarter as the new aggregations.

3:03You won't, however, see the third option

3:04which

3:05is concatenation. We'll come to that in a

3:07second. Select first quarter. I'll call

3:10this

3:11FQ action so it's easy to reference it

3:15later. Click okay. Click okay and we'll

3:19test this

3:20out. If I select four items, you'll see

3:22that the first quarter changes to reflect

3:25and when

3:26we deselect, that stays. Right. Let's apply

3:29the second one. Let's go to actions, add an

3:32action, change parameter. This time the

3:35third quarter, field, profit, third quarter

3:39is the

3:40aggregation. Hit okay. Before we do that,

3:43we need to remember to change our names. I

3:46'll

3:46call this third quarter. It's always good

3:51to label your parameters. Now when we

3:54select

3:55the items, both lines change to reflect the

3:59options. You can also see the parameter

4:01values

4:01are updating here on the right hand side.

4:04Now the last step is to use the concaten

4:07ation

4:07option to show a list of the selected

4:10values when we made the selection. In order

4:13to do

4:13this, I need to create one more parameter.

4:15I'll create a parameter by clicking in the

4:18white space and I'll call this the cities

4:21parameter. The reason being is that I'm

4:25going

4:25to dynamically feed a list of cities into

4:33this option. The default value is going to

4:38be a hyphen and you'll notice that I set

4:43this up to be a float. It actually needs to

4:46be

4:46a string in order to work. I set that to a

4:49hyphen and click okay. Then I'll show this

4:52parameter on the right hand side. Now we've

4:54got our third aggregation type that's been

4:56added in this release. The last thing to do

5:00is to apply an action so that when I select

5:02a group of marks, it's going to dynamically

5:08feed a list of cities into that parameter

5:14and it's going to concatenate them into

5:18that parameter. I hit okay. The last thing

5:21I need

5:21to do is to have the list show in a

5:24particular place. I'm going to do this by

5:28putting that

5:28parameter in my title, setting the font to

5:32about 11, hit apply. You'll notice that I

5:37can't see anything at the moment. When I

5:41select four items, you'll see that the four

5:44cities

5:44I selected, Berlin, Madrid, Paris, and

5:47Vienna are also available to us. Now what I

5:50could

5:51do is also add the values from our

5:56parameter into this as well. I'll just use

6:01an abbreviation

6:02so that it's easy to see. I'll make this

6:06one size smaller again just to give it some

6:10differentiation.

6:13You'll see here I added the label in the

6:16wrong place. I need to actually add it

6:20after. Hit

6:22apply and you'll now see that the values

6:24are showing. I've got a lot of decimal

6:27places

6:27in there but that's just an example of how

6:30you can use the new functionality to

6:33generate

6:33lists and calculations available to you

6:36that stay available after you've deselected

6:39the

6:39items. That's it.

6:41it.

6:41Hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Rollup

Tableau 2019.3 added new aggregation options for parameter actions — first quarter, third quarter and concatenation — which let you feed dynamic values, including lists of selected dimension members, into parameters and have them persist after you deselect the marks.

Tim builds a simple chart of profit and sales broken down by city, then adds reference lines driven by parameters so he can demonstrate the new parameter action aggregations against them.

The Breakdown

Build a basic chart with reference lines 0:10

Start with a simple view and add reference lines whose positions are controlled by parameters rather than fixed values, so you have something visible to update dynamically later.
Create matching parameters for each reference line 0:30

Set up one parameter per reference line, defaulted to a neutral value, and display the parameter controls on the view so you can watch their values change.
Add the reference lines using the parameters 1:08

Set each reference line's value to its corresponding parameter and give it a custom label; you can move labels to either side of the axis using the alignment setting to keep them readable.
Wire up a change parameter action per reference line 2:15

When configuring the action, you must choose the field that matches the axis the reference line actually sits on, not just any measure in the view — picking the wrong field (e.g. sales instead of profit) will update the wrong context and the parameter won't reflect your selection correctly.
Use first quarter / third quarter aggregation 3:01

These new aggregation options let a parameter action pull a specific quartile value from your selected marks; label each action clearly so you can identify it later, since you'll likely have several.
Set up a string parameter for concatenation 4:05

To use the new concatenation aggregation you must first create a parameter set as a string data type — a float won't work — before building the action, since concatenation only functions with string targets.
Feed selected members into the parameter via concatenation 5:00

Build a change parameter action using concatenation so that selecting a group of marks dynamically writes their dimension values (e.g. city names) into the string parameter as a list.
Display the concatenated list and values in the title 5:21

Place the parameter in the worksheet title (adjusting font size as needed) to surface the selected members and any related aggregated values; the displayed values persist in the view even after you deselect the marks.

Worth Knowing

Choosing the wrong field in the change parameter action (matching a different axis than the one your reference line uses) will make the values update incorrectly.
The concatenation aggregation only appears as an option, and only works, if the target parameter is set to a string data type — a float parameter won't allow it.
Values pushed into parameters by these actions remain on the view after you deselect the marks, rather than reverting.

Use It When

Reach for this when you want reference lines, titles or labels that dynamically reflect whatever marks a user has selected — and stay showing that information even after they click away.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

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Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

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