Book Image

Tableau 10 Complete Reference

By : Joshua N. Milligan, Tristan Guillevin
Book Image

Tableau 10 Complete Reference

By: Joshua N. Milligan, Tristan Guillevin

Overview of this book

Graphical presentation of data enables us to easily understand complex data sets. Tableau 10 Complete Reference provides easy-to-follow recipes with several use cases and real-world business scenarios to get you up and running with Tableau 10. This Learning Path begins with the history of data visualization and its importance in today's businesses. You'll also be introduced to Tableau - how to connect, clean, and analyze data in this visual analytics software. Then, you'll learn how to apply what you've learned by creating some simple calculations in Tableau and using Table Calculations to help drive greater analysis from your data. Next, you'll explore different advanced chart types in Tableau. These chart types require you to have some understanding of the Tableau interface and understand basic calculations. You’ll study in detail all dashboard techniques and best practices. A number of recipes specifically for geospatial visualization, analytics, and data preparation are also covered. Last but not least, you'll learn about the power of storytelling through the creation of interactive dashboards in Tableau. Through this Learning Path, you will gain confidence and competence to analyze and communicate data and insights more efficiently and effectively by creating compelling interactive charts, dashboards, and stories in Tableau. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: • Learning Tableau 10 - Second Edition by Joshua N. Milligan • Getting Started with Tableau 2018.x by Tristan Guillevin
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Title Page
About Packt
Contributors
Preface
8
Deeper Analysis - Trends, Clustering, Distributions, and Forecasting
Index

Creating and editing calculations


A calculation is often referred to as a calculated field in Tableau. This is because, when you create a calculation, it will either show up as a new measure or a dimension in the data pane (unless it is an ad hoc calculation). Calculations consist of code that references other fields, parameters, constants, groups, or sets, and use combinations of functions and operations to achieve a result. Sometimes this result is per row of data and sometimes it is done at an aggregate level. We'll consider the difference shortly.

There are multiple ways to create a calculated field in Tableau:

  1. Navigate to Analysis | Create Calculated Field... from the menu.
  2. Use the drop-down menu next to Dimensions in the data pane:
  1. Right-click an empty area in the data pane and select Create Calculated Field.
  2. Use the drop-down menu on a field, set, or parameter in the data pane and select Create | Calculated Field....
  3. In Tableau 9.0 or later, double-click an empty area on the Rows, Columns...