Category: tableau

Tableau – Top Filters ”; Previous Next The Top option in Tableau filter is used to limit the result set from a filter. For example, from a large set of records on sales you want only the top 10 values. You can apply this filter using the inbuilt options for limiting the records in many ways or by creating a formula. In this chapter, you will explore the inbuilt options. Creating a Top Filter Using the Sample-superstore, find the sub-category of products which represents the top 5 sales amount. To achieve this objective, following are the steps. Step 1 − Drag the dimension Sub-Category to the Rows shelf and the Measure Sales to the Columns shelf. Choose the horizontal bar as the chart type. Tableau shows the following chart. Step 2 − Right-click on the field Sub-Category and go to the tab named Top. Here, choose the second radio option by field. From the drop-down, choose the option Top 5 by Sum of Sales. On completion of the above step, you will get the following chart, which shows the top 5 Sub-Category of products by sales. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Extracting Data ”; Previous Next Data extraction in Tableau creates a subset of data from the data source. This is useful in increasing the performance by applying filters. It also helps in applying some features of Tableau to data which may not be available in the data source like finding the distinct values in the data. However, the data extract feature is most frequently used for creating an extract to be stored in the local drive for offline access by Tableau. Creating an Extract Extraction of data is done by following the menu – Data → Extract Data. It creates many options such as applying limits to how many rows to be extracted and whether to aggregate data for dimensions. The following screen shows the Extract Data option. Applying Extract Filters To extract a subset of data from the data source, you can create filters which will return only the relevant rows. Let’s consider the Sample Superstore data set and create an extract. In the filter option, choose Select from list and tick mark the checkbox value for which you need to pull the data from the source. Adding New Data to Extract To add more data for an already created extract, you can choose the option Data → Extract → Append Data from File. In this case, browse the file containing the data and click OK to finish. Of course, the number and datatype of columns in the file should be in sync with the existing data. Extract History You can verify the history of data extracts to be sure about how many times the extract has happened and at what times. For this, you can use the menu – Data → Extract History. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Date Calculations ”; Previous Next Dates are one of the key fields which is extensively used in most of the data analysis scenarios. Hence, Tableau provides a large number of inbuilt functions involving dates. You can carry out simple date manipulations such as adding or subtracting days from a date. You can also create complex expressions involving dates. Following are the steps to create a calculation field and use date 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 available in Tableau. You can change the dropdown value and see only the functions related to Date. Create a Formula Now, find out the sales volume along with the difference in the date of sales in months from 21st March 2009. 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. Also drag the ship Date with months. The following screenshot shows the Sales values. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Data Joining ”; Previous Next Data joining is a very common requirement in any data analysis. You may need to join data from multiple sources or join data from different tables in a single source. Tableau provides the feature to join the table by using the data pane available under Edit Data Source in the Data menu. Creating a Join Consider the data source ‘Sample superstore’ to create a join between Orders and Returns table. For this, go to the Data menu and choose the option Edit Data Source. Next, drag the two tables, Orders and Returns to the data pane. Depending on the field name and datatype, Tableau will automatically create a join which can be changed later. The following screenshot shows the creation of an inner join between Orders and Returns using the Field Order ID. Editing a Join Type The type of join which the table creates automatically can be changed manually. For this, click the middle of the two circles showing the join. A popup window appears below which shows the four types of joins available. Also Tableau automatically greys out some types of joins, which it finds irrelevant on the basis of data present in the data source. In the following screenshot, you can see the inner and left outer join as the available joins. Editing Join Fields You can also change the fields forming the join condition by clicking the Data Source option available in the join popup window. While selecting the field, you can also search for the field you are looking for using a search text box. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Data Sources ”; Previous Next Tableau can connect to all the popular data sources which are widely used. Tableau’s native connectors can connect to the following types of data sources. File Systems such as CSV, Excel, etc. Relational Systems such as Oracle, Sql Server, DB2, etc. Cloud Systems such as Windows Azure, Google BigQuery, etc. Other Sources using ODBC The following picture shows most of the data sources available through Tableau’s native data connectors. Connect Live The Connect Live feature is used for real-time data analysis. In this case, Tableau connects to real-time data source and keeps reading the data. Thus, the result of the analysis is up to the second, and the latest changes are reflected in the result. However, on the downside, it burdens the source system as it has to keep sending the data to Tableau. In-Memory Tableau can also process data in-memory by caching them in memory and not being connected to the source anymore while analyzing the data. Of course, there will be a limit to the amount of data cached depending on the availability of memory. Combine Data Sources Tableau can connect to different data sources at the same time. For example, in a single workbook you can connect to a flat file and a relational source by defining multiple connections. This is used in data blending, which is a very unique feature in Tableau. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Save & Delete Worksheet ”; Previous Next An existing worksheet can be both saved and deleted. This helps in organizing the contents in the Tableau desktop environment. While you can save a worksheet by clicking the save button under the main menu, you can delete a worksheet using the following steps. Deleting the Worksheet To delete a worksheet, right-click on name of the worksheet and choose the option ‘Delete Sheet’. The following screenshot shows the worksheet has been deleted. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Show Me ”; Previous Next As an advanced data visualization tool, Tableau makes the data analysis very easy by providing many analysis techniques without writing any custom code. One such feature is Show Me. It can be used to apply a required view to the existing data in the worksheet. Those views can be a pie chart, scatter plot, or a line chart. Whenever a worksheet with data is created, it is available in the top right corner as shown in the following figure. Some of the view options will be greyed out depending on the nature of selection in the data pane. Show Me with Two Fields The relation between two fields can be visually analyzed easily by using various graphs and charts available in Show Me. In this case, we choose two fields and apply a line chart. Following are the steps − Step 1 − Select the two fields (order date and profit) to be analyzed by holding the control key. Step 2 − Click the Show Me bar and choose line chart. Step 3 − Click the Mark Label button on the scrollbar. The following diagram shows the line chart created using the above steps. Show Me with Multiple Fields We can apply a similar technique as above to analyze more than 2 fields. The only difference in this case will be the availability of fewer views in active form. Tableau automatically greys out the views that are not appropriate for the analysis of the fields chosen. In this case, choose the field’s product name, customer name, sales and profit by holding down the control key. As you can observe, most of the views in Show Me are greyed out. From the active views, choose Scatter View. The following diagram shows the Scatter View chart created. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Paged Workbook ”; Previous Next A paged workbook is used to save the view of the data in different pages for different values of the dimension or measure. A common example is to see how each type of products have performed against each other in a specific sales region. As each of the values of product type is stored as a separate page, we can view them one at a time or see it as a range of values. Creating Paged Workbook The paged workbook contains worksheets which have fields put in the page shelf. Consider an example of studying the profit of various sub-category of products in different regions. Following are the steps. Step 1 − Create a bar chart with two dimensions and one measure. In this case, drag the Measure Profit to the columns shelf and the dimensions sub-category, and Region to the rows shelf as shown in the following screenshot. Step 2 − Drag the Sub-Category field again to the page shelf. You will see that a page control is automatically added, just below the Pages shelf. This page control provides the following features to navigate through the pages in a view − Jump to a specific page Manually advance through the pages Automatically advance through pages In this case, we will see how to jump to a specific page and how to get the automatic display of pages. To go to a specific page, click on the drop-down on the page control and select Accessories. The chart seen in the following screenshot appears. Step 3 − For automatic display of pages, keep the show history checkbox ticked and click the play button. You can then see an automatic play of different pages of sub categories. While the current Sub-Category value is shown with a dark color, the previous values are shaded with light color. The following screenshot illustrates this. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – Fields Operations ”; Previous Next Tableau has many features to manipulate the fields present in Tableau data pane. You can rename the fields or combine two fields to create one field. Such operations help in better organization of the dimensions and measures, as well as accommodate two or more fields with the same name for better data analysis. Following are the important examples of such Field Operations. Adding Fields to Worksheet You can add any field to the worksheet by right-clicking and choosing the option Add to Sheet. You can also drag and drop the fields into different shelves present in the worksheet, like Columns shelf, Rows shelf, Filters shelf, and many other shelves under the Marks card. The following diagram shows the right-click option. Combining Two Fields You can combine two dimension fields to create one field. This combined field has a name which is a combination of the individual fields. The values in the dimension get combined to a single value by joining the two strings into one string separated by a comma. However, this default name can be changed by using the rename field operation. The following diagram shows the step to combine two fields. Searching Fields You can search for names of fields by using the search box option. Writing first three or more letters of the field name brings out the result showing only the fields whose name contains these letters. Reordering Fields You can change the position of fields by simply dragging them up and down. In the following example, we drag the field customer name to the place between state and city. This is usually done to bring similar fields together which are frequently used for analysis. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Tableau – File Types ”; Previous Next The result of data analysis in Tableau can be saved in various formats, to be saved and distributed. The various formats are referred as different file types and they are identified by different extensions. Their formats depend on how they are produced and for what purposes they are used. They are all stored as XML files, which can be opened and edited. Following table lists the description of each file type and their usage. File Type File Extension Purpose Tableau Workbook .twb It contains information on each sheet and dashboard that is present in a workbook. It has the details of the fields, which are used in each view and the formula applied to the aggregation of the measures. It also has the formatting and styles applied. It contains the data source connection information and any metadata information created for that connection. Tableau Packaged Workbook .twbx This file format contains the details of a workbook as well as the local data that is used in the analysis. Its purpose is to share with other Tableau desktop or Tableau reader users, assuming it does not need data from the server. Tableau Data Source .tds The details of the connection used to create the tableau report are stored in this file. In the connection details, it stores the source type (excel/relational/sap, etc.) as well as the data types of the columns. Tableau Packaged Data source .tdsx This file is similar to the .tds file with the addition of data along with the connection details. Tableau Data Extract .tde This file contains the data used in a .twb file in a highly compressed columnar data format. This helps in storage optimization. It also saves the aggregated calculations that are applied in the analysis. This file should be refreshed to get the updated data from the source. Tableau Bookmark .tbm These files contain a single worksheet that is shared easily to be pasted into other workbooks. Tableau Preferences .tps This file stores the color preference used across all the workbooks. It is mainly used for consistent look and feel across the users. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;