Leverage the power of Tableau to get actionable business insights and make better business decisions
Key Features
Explore all the new features of Tableau 2018.x
Begin your Tableau journey by understanding its core functionalities
Apply advanced techniques such as data blending and parameters to make the best of Tableau
Book Description
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.
What you will learn
Discover new functionalities such as density, extensions, and transparency introduced in Tableau 2018.x
Connect tables and make transformations such as pivoting the field and splitting columns
Build an efficient data source for your analysis
Design insightful data visualization using different mark types and properties
Build powerful dashboards and stories
Share your work and interact with Tableau Server
Use Tableau to explore your data and find new insights
Explore Tableau's advanced features and gear up for upcoming challenges
Who this book is for
If you're a beginner or an existing BI professional looking to get the most out of Tableau 2018's latest features, this book is for you. You'll also find this book useful if you're an aspiring analyst who wants to learn the capabilities of Tableau to answer business-specific questions. No prior knowledge or experience with Tableau or any other Business Intelligence tool is necessary.
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Yes, you can access Getting Started with Tableau 2018.x by Tristan Guillevin in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Business Intelligence. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Finally! Visualization! I know it was tempting to skip the last chapters and start here. If you did that, please start at the beginning. It's crucial that you read everything from the start. The reason is not that you won't be able to understand this chapter, but because you'll miss an essential part of what Tableau can do for you.
This chapter is divided into two parts. Creating visualizations is the core of Tableau and there is a lot to say! In this first part, we'll go through three major aspects:
Creating a visualization the automatic and manual way
The different Mark types
Mark properties
In this chapter, for all the examples, we'll use Tableau's Sample – Superstore saved Data Source. You can find it on the first page when you open Tableau:
Simply click on it, and you're ready. The Data Source is based on the Sample Superstore Excel file and uses many features we saw in the previous chapter (Hierarchies, Folders, Bins, Sets, and so on).
Ready? Let's start with the basics: how to build a visualization in Tableau.
Creating a visualization the automatic and manual way
In Tableau, the only one way to display a visualization is by adding fields in shelves. The different shelves are Rows, Columns, Marks, Filters, and Pages. When you use a field on a shelf, it becomes a pill.
However, there are two very different ways of adding a field to a shelf: the automatic and the manual way. The automatic way is useful when you want to go fast or if you have no idea how to visualize your data. The manual way is needed when you know exactly what you want to build.
Let's start with the automatic way.
Build a visualization the automatic way
There are two ways of letting Tableau do the job for you.
The first way is the one you've used almost every time in this book since now: double-click. A simple double-click on a field automatically puts it in a shelf.
Double-click
When you double-click on a field in your Data Source, the field is automatically added to a shelf on the Worksheet. Tableau decides where the field should be, based on data visualization best practices.
Of course, there are limitations to what you can do with double-clicks. You won't be able to create a lot of different visualizations. You'll never go outside certain predefined scripts. Very soon, you'll feel limited.
However, a double-click is always the most efficient way to build a map. A simple double-click on any Geographical Dimension and Tableau automatically puts the Latitude in Rows and the Longitude in Columns.
The second way of letting Tableau do the work is to use Show Me, the menu that appears at the top-right of the toolbar.
Show Me
Show Me is a special menu on the top-right of the toolbar. You can easily spot it with the
icon. If you click on the icon, you can open and close a list of all the predefined Show Me visualizations.
In the Show Me menu, you can see 24 visualizations. If no fields are selected in your Data Source, all the options are gray. If you choose one or multiple fields (using Ctrl or Command), you'll see that someoptions are now available and one of them will have an orange outline (it's the one that Tableau advises you to choose). To use an option, click on it.
Let's do a quick example using Sample - Superstore:
Simultaneously select Order Date, Category, and Profit in theDatapane
Open the Show Me menu
Click on some of the options to see different results
Show Me is useful when you start in Tableau, and when you have no idea how to visualize your data. You can click on the various options to see different results and use the one you prefer. After some time, you'll use Show Me very rarely. That's because, even if you have many possibilities, you are limited by how Tableau arranges the pill.
