How to Remove Blank Column in Tableau

Building a great dashboard in Tableau, only to have a mysterious blank column appear, is a frustration every analyst knows well. You've connected your data, dragged your pills, and arranged everything perfectly, but this empty spacer column throws off your otherwise perfect visualization. This article will show you exactly how to remove that blank column, explaining why it shows up in the first place and giving you a few different methods to handle it permanently.

What Causes Blank Columns in Tableau?

That empty column isn't a bug, it's Tableau's way of telling you something about your data or your visualization's structure. Understanding the "why" makes the "how" much easier. Most of the time, a blank column or row appears for one of these reasons:

• Null Values in Your Data: The most common culprit. If a dimension you're using to create columns has a null (or empty) value for some of your rows, Tableau will create a designated column for that "nothingness." For example, if you have sales data by city and some sales records are missing a city name, you'll get a blank column for all those unassigned sales.
• No Data for Dimension Combinations: You might see empty space if there's no data for a specific intersection of dimensions. Imagine you are building a matrix of sales by Region and Product Category. If the "West" region had zero sales for the "Office Supplies" category in your selected time frame, you might see an empty cell or an entire blank column, depending on your setup.
• The "Abc" Placeholder Column: If you drag one or more dimensions onto your Rows or Columns shelves but don't add a measure (like Sales, Profit, or Customer Count), Tableau shows a placeholder column with "Abc" values. This is its way of saying, "You've given me categories, but you haven't told me what number to show for them."
• Table Calculations and Data Density: More advanced features, particularly those that rely on the position of data in a table (like INDEX() or LOOKUP()), can create empty columns if the underlying data structure isn't dense enough or is filtered in a specific way.

Fortunately, no matter the cause, getting rid of these columns is usually straightforward. Let's walk through the most effective methods, starting with the easiest.

Method 1: Filter Out the Null Values

The simplest and most direct way to remove a blank column is to tell Tableau to ignore the data that's causing it. This is done by adding a filter. This method works perfectly when the blank represents data you simply don't care about or want to see in your viz.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Identify the Culprit Dimension: Look at your Columns and Rows shelves to see which pill (your dimension) is creating the headers. The blank is usually associated with one of these dimensions. For example, let's say the dimension is called [Customer Segment].
2. Drag the Dimension to Filters: Drag the [Customer Segment] pill from your data pane (or by holding Ctrl/Cmd and dragging the pill from your Columns/Rows shelf) and drop it onto the Filters card.
3. Exclude Nulls: A pop-up window will appear showing all the values for that dimension. You will see a list with all of your segments ("Corporate," "Small Business," etc.) along with a value labeled "Null".

That's it! As long as that filter is active, any rows of data where [Customer Segment] is null will be ignored for this worksheet, removing the blank column.

Pro Tip: The 'Special' Filter Option

If you have a dimension with hundreds or thousands of values, finding "Null" in the list can be tedious. A quicker way is to look for the "Special" tab within the filter configuration pop-up. Click on it, and you'll find an option for "Non-null values." Selecting this tells Tableau to automatically include everything that isn’t null. This is a very clean and efficient way to achieve the same result.

Method 2: Use a Calculated Field to Handle Nulls

Sometimes, filtering out the data isn't the right move. The data behind that blank column might be important, you just want to label it differently instead of hiding it entirely. For example, maybe those nulls don't represent junk data, but "Guest Checkouts" or "Uncategorized Entries."

In this case, a calculated field gives you the power to transform the nulls into something more meaningful.

Step-by-Step Instructions

We’re primarily going to use the IFNULL function, which is perfect for this. It checks if a field is null and lets you provide a fallback value if it is. Let’s see how it works:

1. Create a Calculated Field: Go to the top menu and select "Create Calculated Field," or right-click on the data pane and give your new field a descriptive name like [Clean Customer Segment].
2. Write the Formula: In the editor, write the following formula:

IFNULL([Customer Segment], "No Segment")

1. Replace the Original Dimension with Your New Field: Now drag the new calculated field onto your viz in place of the old [Customer Segment]. The blank column will disappear, and any values that were null will now be replaced with the "No Segment" label.

This approach is very powerful for cleaning up your data without losing context about your underlying data source. It gives you valuable insight into what your nulls might represent.

Method 3: Handle the "Abc" Column

If you've built your viz and it looks just like a basic spreadsheet with headers but no data, showing an "Abc" column filled with placeholders, fear not! This is really easy to fix and is caused by having a dimension on your Rows or Columns shelf but no measure to provide actual data values.

Quick Fix: Add a Measure

The fix for the "Abc" placeholders is simple: add a measure to your view. Drag a measure from the data pane onto the view, or drag a measure onto the Marks card like Sum of Sales or Profit, which will replace the "Abc" with actual numerical values. If you can't add a measure, drag something like Number of Records or Index to the column or row shelf to provide a placeholder value.

As soon as you do this, the "Abc" placeholders will be replaced by your actual numerical values, getting rid of that empty look of your column quickly.

Final Thoughts

Dealing with blank columns in Tableau is a common nuisance that can be easily handled by understanding why they happen and applying the right fix, whether transforming null values with calculated fields or getting rid of placeholders by adding measures. Mastering these techniques will give you more control over your data visualizations, ensuring they look and function exactly the way you want.

With Graphed, the entire process becomes more intuitive. While Tableau is valuable, manually fiddling with BI tools often takes time. Graphed streamlines this by generating reports in plain English and creating live dashboards directly connected from your data sources, automatically handling nuances, so you get to focus on insights instead of fighting with data.