Book Image

Mastering Tableau

By : David Baldwin
Book Image

Mastering Tableau

By: David Baldwin

Overview of this book

Tableau has emerged as one of the most popular Business Intelligence solutions in recent times, thanks to its powerful and interactive data visualization capabilities. This book will empower you to become a master in Tableau by exploiting the many new features introduced in Tableau 10.0. You will embark on this exciting journey by getting to know the valuable methods of utilizing advanced calculations to solve complex problems. These techniques include creative use of different types of calculations such as row-level, aggregate-level, and more. You will discover how almost any data visualization challenge can be met in Tableau by getting a proper understanding of the tool’s inner workings and creatively exploring possibilities. You’ll be armed with an arsenal of advanced chart types and techniques to enable you to efficiently and engagingly present information to a variety of audiences through the use of clear, efficient, and engaging dashboards. Explanations and examples of efficient and inefficient visualization techniques, well-designed and poorly designed dashboards, and compromise options when Tableau consumers will not embrace data visualization will build on your understanding of Tableau and how to use it efficiently. By the end of the book, you will be equipped with all the information you need to create effective dashboards and data visualization solutions using Tableau.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Mastering Tableau
Credits
About the Author
www.Packtpub.com
Preface

Tableau file types


We will begin our discussion of Tableau Server by considering the various Tableau file types. This may seem a surprising place to begin, but as you read you will discover that a clear understanding of file types provides the Tableau Desktop author with foundational knowledge for efficiently and effectively interacting with Tableau Server.

The file types discussed in the following section that are relevant for understanding how to interact with Tableau Server are considered in some depth. The file types that are not relevant for understanding Tableau Server are considered only briefly. Some file types (for example, those associated with license activation) are not considered.

Tableau Data Source (.tds)

  • File format type: XML.

  • What it contains: Metadata.

  • Why it is useful: The .tds file is important because it allows the Tableau author to define default formatting and aggregation, calculated fields, data types, field types, and more. Furthermore, the .tds file can be published...