Book Image

Learning Tableau 10 - Second Edition

Book Image

Learning Tableau 10 - Second Edition

Overview of this book

Tableau has for some time been one of the most popular Business Intelligence and data visualization tools available. Why? Because, quite simply, it’s a tool that’s responsive to the needs of modern businesses. But it’s most effective when you know how to get what you want from it – it might make your business intelligent, but it isn’t going to make you intelligent… We’ll make sure you’re well prepared to take full advantage of Tableau 10’s new features. Whether you’re an experienced data analyst that wants to explore 2016’s new Tableau, or you’re a beginner that wants to expand their skillset and bring a more professional and sharper approach to their organization, we’ve got you covered. Beginning with the fundamentals, such as data preparation, you’ll soon learn how to build and customize your own data visualizations and dashboards, essential for high-level visibility and effective data storytelling. You’ll also find out how to so trend analysis and forecasting using clustering and distribution models to inform your analytics. But it’s not just about you – when it comes to data it’s all about availability and access. That’s why we’ll show you how to share your Tableau visualizations. It’s only once insights are shared and communicated that you – and your organization – will start making smarter and informed decisions. And really, that’s exactly what this guide is for.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
8
8. Deeper Analysis – Trends, Clustering, Distributions, and Forecasting

Relating parts of the data to the whole


As you explore and analyze data, you'll often want to understand how various parts add up to a whole. For example, you'll ask questions such as:

  • How many patients with different admission statuses (in-patient, out-patient, observation, ER) make up the entire population of patients in the hospital?

  • What percentage of total national sales is made in each state?

  • How much space does each file, sub-directory, and directory take up on my hard disk?

These types of questions are asked about the relationship between the part (patient type, state, and file/directory) and the whole (entire patient population, national sales, and hard disk). There are several types of visualizations and variations that can aid you in your analysis.

Stacked bars

We took a look at stacked bars in Chapter 1, Creating Your First Visualizations and Dashboard where we noted one significant drawback: it is difficult to compare values across categories for any bar other than the bottom-most...