Category: tableau

Tableau – Bullet Graph ”; Previous Next A bullet chart is a variation of Bar chart. In this chart, we compare the value of one measure with another measure in the context of finding the variation in the first measure within a range of variations in the second measure. It is like two bars drawn upon one another to indicate their individual values at the same position in the graph. It can be thought of as combining two graphs as one to view a comparative result easily. Creating Bullet Graph Using the Sample-superstore, plan to find the size of profits for the respective sales figures in each Sub-Category. To achieve this objective, following are the steps. Step 1 − Drag and drop the dimension Sub-Category from the data pane into the column shelf. Step 2 − Drag and drop the measures Profit and Sales to the Rows shelf. The following chart appears which shows the two measures as two separate categories of bar charts, each representing the values for sub-categories. Step 3 − Drag the sales measure to the Marks card. Using Show Me, choose the bullet graph option. The following chart shows the bullet graph. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Gantt Chart ”; Previous Next A Gantt chart shows the progress of the value of a task or resource over a period of time. It is extensively used in project management and other types of variation study over a period of time. Thus, in Gantt chart, time dimension is an essential field. The Gantt chart takes at least a dimension and a measure in addition to the time dimension. Creating a Gantt Chart Using the Sample-superstore, plan to find the variation of quantities of different SubCategory of products according to their ship mode over a range of time. To achieve this objective, following are the steps. Step 1 − Drag the dimension order date to the Columns shelf and Sub-Category to the Rows shelf. Next, add the order date to the Filters shelf. Right-click on order date to convert it to the exact date values as shown in the following screenshot. Step 2 − Edit the filter condition to select a range of dates. It is because you want individual date values and there is a very large number of dates in the data. The range is created as shown in the following screenshot. Step 3 − Drag the dimension ship mode to the Color shelf and the measure quantity to the Size shelf under the Marks card. This produces the Gantt chart as shown in the following screenshot. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Basic Sorting ”; Previous Next Sorting of data is a very important feature of data analysis. Tableau allows the sorting of data of the fields, which are called dimensions. There are two ways in which Tableau carries out the sorting. Computed Sorting is the sort directly applied on an axis using the sort dialog button. Manual Sorting is used to rearrange the order of dimension fields by dragging them next to each other in an ad hoc fashion. Computed Sorting This type of sorting involves choosing a field to be sorted and directly applying the sort using the sort dialog box. You have the option to choose the sort order as ascending or descending and choose the field on which to apply the sort. Example Choose Sample-Superstore to apply sorting on the field named discount by using the dimensions order date and Subcategory as shown below. The result shows the name of the sub-categories in a descending order arranged for each year. Manual Sorting This is basically changing the order in which the visualization elements appear in the screen. For example, you want to show the sales volume of different product segment in a descending order, however you have your own choice of order. This sort is not as per the exact values of number or text, rather they represent the user’s choice of ordering. Hence, they are called as manual sorting. In the following example, you move the segment named Home Office, below the segment named Consumer, even though the sales volume of Home Office is the lowest. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Line Chart ”; Previous Next In a line chart, a measure and a dimension are taken along the two axes of the chart area. The pair of values for each observation becomes a point and the joining of all these points create a line showing the variation or relationship between the dimensions and measures chosen. Simple Line Chart Choose one dimension and one measure to create a simple line chart. Drag the dimension Ship Mode to Columns Shelf and Sales to the Rows shelf. Choose the Line chart from the Marks card. You will get the following line chart, which shows the variation of Sales for different Ship modes. Multiple Measure Line Chart You can use one dimension with two or more measures in a line chart. This will produce multiple line charts, each in one pane. Each pane represents the variation of the dimension with one of the measures. Line Chart with Label Each of the points making the line chart can be labeled to make the values of the measure visible. In this case, drop another measure Profit Ratio into the labels pane in the Marks card. Choose average as the aggregation and you will get the following chart showing the labels. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Formatting ”; Previous Next Tableau has a very wide variety of formatting options to change the appearance of the visualizations created. You can modify nearly every aspect such as font, color, size, layout, etc. You can format both the content and containers like tables, labels of axes, and workbook theme, etc. The following diagram shows the Format Menu which lists the options. In this chapter, you will touch upon some of the frequently used formatting options. Formatting the Axes You can create a simple bar chart by dragging and dropping the dimension Sub-Category into the Columns Shelf and the measure Profit into the Rows shelf. Click the vertical axis and highlight it. Then right-click and choose format. Change the Font Click the font drop-down in the Format bar, which appears on the left. Choose the font type as Arial and size as 8pt. as shown in the following screenshot. Change the Shade and Alignment You can also change the orientation of the values in the axes as well as the shading color as shown in the following screenshot. Format Borders Consider a crosstab chart with Sub-Category in the Columns shelf and State in the Rows shelf. Now, you can change the borders of the crosstab table created by using the formatting options. Right-click on crosstab chart and choose Format. The Format Borders appear in the left pane. Choose the options as shown in the following screenshot. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Data Blending ”; Previous Next Data Blending is a very powerful feature in Tableau. It is used when there is related data in multiple data sources, which you want to analyze together in a single view. As an example, consider the Sales data is present in a relational database and Sales Target data in an Excel spreadsheet. Now, to compare actual sales to target sales, you can blend the data based on common dimensions to get access to the Sales Target measure. The two sources involved in data blending are referred as primary and secondary data sources. A left join is created between the primary data source and the secondary data source with all the data rows from primary and matching data rows from secondary data source. Preparing Data for Blending Tableau has two inbuilt data sources named Sample-superstore and Sample coffee chain.mdb which will be used to illustrate data blending. First load the sample coffee chain to Tableau and look at its metadata. Go to the menu – Data → New Data Source and browse for the sample coffee chain file, which is a MS Access database file. The following screenshot shows the different tables and joins available in the file. Adding Secondary Data Source Next, add the secondary data source named Sample-superstore by again following the steps – Data → New Data Source and choosing this data source. Both the data sources now appear on the Data window as shown in the following screenshot. Blending the Data Now you can integrate the data from both the above sources based on a common dimension. Note that a small chain image appears next to the dimension named State. This indicates the common dimension between the two data sources. Drag the State field from the primary data source to the rows shelf and the field Profit Ratio from the secondary data source to the Columns shelf. Then, select the bullet chart option from Show Me to get the bullet chart shown in the following screenshot. The chart shows how the profit ratio varies for each state in both the superstore and coffee chain shops. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Custom Data View ”; Previous Next A custom data view is used to extend the normal data views with some additional features so that the view can give different types of charts for the same underlying data. For example, you can drill down a dimension field which is part of a pre-defined hierarchy so that additional values of the measures are obtained at a different granularity. Following are some of the frequently used and important custom data views Tableau offers. Drill Down View For dimension fields which are part of a hierarchy, you usually need to know the result of analysis for the next or previous level of aggregation. For example, when you know the result for a quarter, you get interested to know the results for each month in that quarter, and you may even need the result for each week. This is a case of drilling down the existing dimensions to get a finer level of granularity. To drill down and drill up for individual dimension members in a hierarchy, right-click a table header and select Drill Down from the context menu. Consider a bar chart created with the dimension category in the columns shelf and the measure Sales in the Rows shelf. Right-click on the bar representing Furniture and select Drill Down. The result of the drill down action is shown in the following screenshot. Swapping Dimensions You can create a new view from an existing view by swapping the position of the dimensions. This does not change the values of the measures, but it does change the position of the measures. Consider a view for analyzing the Profit for each year for each segment and category of products. You can click on the vertical line at the end of category column and drag it to the segment column. This action is shown in the following screenshot. The result of the swapping of the two dimensions is shown in the following screenshot. As you can see, only the position of the values of the measure Profit changes for each category and segment, and not its value. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – String Calculations ”; Previous Next In this chapter, you will learn about calculations in Tableau involving Strings. Tableau has many inbuilt string functions, which can be used to do string manipulations such as – comparing, concatenating, replacing few characters from a string, etc. Following are the steps to create a calculation field and use string functions in it. Create Calculated Field While connected to Sample superstore, go to the Analysis menu and click ‘Create Calculated Field’ as shown in the following screenshot. Calculation Editor The above step opens a calculation editor which lists all the functions that is available in Tableau. You can change the dropdown value and see only the functions related to strings. Create a Formula Consider you want to find out the sales in the cities, which contain the letter “o”. For this, create the formula as shown in the following screenshot. Using the Calculated Field Now, to see the created field in action, you can drag it to the Rows shelf and drag the Sales field to the Columns shelf. The following screenshot shows the Sales values. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Basic Filters ”; Previous Next Filtering is the process of removing certain values or range of values from a result set. Tableau filtering feature allows both simple scenarios using field values as well as advanced calculation or context-based filters. In this chapter, you will learn about the basic filters available in Tableau. There are three types of basic filters available in Tableau. They are as follows − Filter Dimensions are the filters applied on the dimension fields. Filter Measures are the filters applied on the measure fields. Filter Dates are the filters applied on the date fields. Filter Dimensions These filters are applied on the dimension fields. Typical examples include filtering based on categories of text or numeric values with logical expressions greater than or less than conditions. Example We use the Sample – Superstore data source to apply dimension filters on the sub-category of products. We create a view for showing profit for each sub-category of products according to their shipping mode. For it, drag the dimension field “Sub-Category” to the Rows shelf and the measure field “profit” to the Columns shelf. Next, drag the Sub-Category dimension to the Filters shelf to open the Filter dialog box. Click the None button at the bottom of the list to deselect all segments. Then, select the Exclude option in the lower right corner of the dialog box. Finally, select Labels and Storage and then click OK. The following screenshot shows the result with the above two categories excluded. Filter Measures These filters are applied on the measure fields. Filtering is based on the calculations applied to the measure fields. Hence, while in dimension filters you use only values to filter, in measures filter you use calculations based on fields. Example You can use the Sample – Superstore data source to apply dimension filters on the average value of the profits. First, create a view with ship mode and subcategory as dimensions and Average of profit as shown in the following screenshot. Next, drag the AVG (profit) value to the filter pane. Choose Average as the filter mode. Next, choose “At least” and give a value to filter the rows, which meet these criteria. After completion of the above steps, we get the final view below showing only the subcategories whose average profit is greater than 20. Filter Dates Tableau treats the date field in three different ways while applying the date field. It can apply filter by taking a relative date as compared to today, an absolute date, or range of dates. Each of this option is presented when a date field is dragged out of the filter pane. Example We choose the sample – Superstore data source and create a view with order date in the column shelf and profit in the rows shelf as shown in the following screenshot. Next, drag the “order date” field to the filter shelf and choose Range of dates in the filter dialog box. Choose the dates as shown in the following screenshot. On clicking OK, the final view appears showing the result for the chosen range of dates as seen in the following screenshot. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Filter Operations ”; Previous Next Any data analysis and visualization work involves the use of extensive filtering of data. Tableau has a very wide variety of filtering options to address these needs. There are many inbuilt functions for applying filters on the records using both dimensions and measures. The filter option for measures offers numeric calculations and comparison. The filter option for dimension offers choosing string values from a list or using a custom list of values. In this chapter, you will learn about the various options as well as the steps to edit and clear the filters. Creating Filters Filters are created by dragging the required field to the Filters shelf located above the Marks card. Create a horizontal bar chart by dragging the measure sales to the Columns shelf and the dimension Sub-Category to the Rows shelf. Again drag the measure sales into the Filters shelf. Once this filter is created, right-click and choose the edit filter option from the pop-up menu. Creating Filters for Measures Measures are numeric fields. So, the filter options for such fields involve choosing values. Tableau offers the following types of filters for measures. Range of Values − Specifies the minimum and maximum values of the range to include in the view. At Least − Includes all values that are greater than or equal to a specified minimum value. At Most − Includes all values that are less than or equal to a specified maximum value. Special − Helps you filter on Null values. Include only Null values, Non-null values, or All Values. Following worksheet shows these options. Creating Filters for Dimensions Dimensions are descriptive fields having values which are strings. Tableau offers the following types of filters for dimensions. General Filter − allows to select specific values from a list. Wildcard Filter − allows to mention wildcards like cha* to filter all string values starting with cha. Condition Filter − applies conditions such as sum of sales. Top Filter − chooses the records representing a range of top values. Following worksheet shows these options. Clearing Filters Filters can be easily removed by choosing the clear filter option as shown in the following screenshot. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;