Overview of level of detail

What does the term level of detail mean? A lot depends on the context in which the term is used. Within Tableau, we’ll distinguish several levels of detail, each of which is vitally important to understand in order to properly analyze data:

• Data level of detail: Sometimes referred to as the grain of the data, this is the level of detail defined by a single record of the data set. When you can articulate what one record of the data represents (for example, “Every record represents a single order” or “There is one record for every customer”), then you have a good understanding of the data level of detail. Row-level calculations operate at this level.
• View level of detail: We’ve previously discussed that the combination of fields used as dimensions in the view defines the view level of detail. Normally in a view, Tableau draws a single mark for each distinct combination of values present in the data...