Book Image

Getting Started with Tableau 2018.x

By : Tristan Guillevin
Book Image

Getting Started with Tableau 2018.x

By: Tristan Guillevin

Overview of this book

Tableau is one of the leading business intelligence tools used worldwide, in organizations of every scale. In its latest release, Tableau 2018 promises richer and more useful features related to visual analytics, reporting, dashboarding, and a host of other data visualization aspects. Getting Started with Tableau 2018.x will get you up and running with these features. The book starts with all the new functionalities of the different Tableau 2018 versions, along with concrete examples of how to use them. However, if you're new to Tableau, don't worry! The rest of the book will guide you through each major aspect of Tableau with examples. You'll learn how to connect to data, build a data source, visualize your data, build a dashboard, and share it online. In the final chapters, you'll also learn advanced techniques such as creating a cross-database join, data blending, and more. By the end of the book, you will have a firm understanding of how to effectively use Tableau to create quick, cost-effective, and business-efficient business intelligence solutions.

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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Title Page
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Contributors
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Catching Up with Tableau 2018
Catching Up with Tableau 2018
Tableau Desktop
Tableau Server/Online
Summary
2
The Tableau Core
The Tableau Core
The different Tableau products
Speaking Tableau
Dimension and Measure
Blue and green – Discrete and Continuous
The toolbar options
Live or Extract
Summary
3
A First Dashboard and Exploration
A First Dashboard and Exploration
Connect to data
Create a first set of visualizations
Building your first Dashboard
Using Tableau for data exploration
Summary
4
Connect to Data and Simple Transformations
Connect to Data and Simple Transformations
Data connection
Join data easily
Union your data
Simple transformations
Summary
5
Build an Efficient Data Source
Build an Efficient Data Source
Understanding the Data Source
Refresh a Data Source and deal with changes
Field customization and default properties
Hierarchies
Groups, Sets, and Bins
Summary
6
Design Insightful Visualizations - Part 1
Design Insightful Visualizations - Part 1
Creating a visualization the automatic and manual way
 The different Mark types
Mark properties
Summary
7
Design Insightful Visualizations - Part 2
Design Insightful Visualizations - Part 2
Using multiple Measures
Filters
Pages
Worksheet options and format
Summary
8
Create Powerful Dashboards and Stories
Create Powerful Dashboards and Stories
Before we start
Dashboard basics
Tiled, Floating, and Container Layouts
Dashboard Actions
Creating a Story
Summary
9
Publish and Interact in Tableau Server
Publish and Interact in Tableau Server
Introduction to Tableau Server
Tableau Server contents
Publishing and modifying contents
Interacting with published Contents
Device layout
Summary
10
An Introduction to Calculations
An Introduction to Calculations
Calculated Field basics
Advanced functions
Summary
11
Analytics and Parameters
Analytics and Parameters
Using built-in Analytics tools
How to work with Parameters
Creating a year-on-year comparator
Summary
12
Advanced Data Connections
Advanced Data Connections
Cross-database Join
Data-blending
Wildcard Union
Summary
13
Deal with Security
Deal with Security
Tableau Server security
User Filters
Row-level filters
Summary
14
How to Keep Growing Your Skills
How to Keep Growing Your Skills
The Tableau Community
Tableau Public
Community projects
Ambassadors, Zen Masters, and Iron Viz
Summary
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think
Index
Index

Simple transformations

Tableau is not a data-preparation tool. It's always better to have a clean file to start with. However, Tableau offers some simple transformation tools. When you connect to a dataset, you can, for example, use the Data Interpreter, split a column into multiple columns, or pivot your data. Let's see a case for these transformations.

For this section, I created a dataset to clean in Excel, as illustrated here:

Note

If you want to reproduce the example, you can download the Dataset to clean  file from my website, book.ladataviz.com section in the Chapter 4: Connect To Data and Simple Transformation section, or use this direct link: https://ladataviz.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Dataset-to-clean.xlsx.

Three things are problematic with this dataset:

  • There is a column header for the years
  • The countries and the cities are in the same column
  • Each year is in a different column, preventing the creation of a simple line chart

Now, let's fix the first problem of this dataset with the...

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