reading

Cover
Foreword by Nate Vogel
Foreword by Sophie Sparkes
Introduction
1. STRUCTURE
2. CONVENTIONS
3. COMPANION WEBSITE
Chapter 1: Introduction and Getting Started with Tableau
1. THE ADVANTAGES OF A MODERN ANALYTICS PLATFORM
2. MY PERSONAL TABLEAU STORY
3. THE TABLEAU APPLICATION SUITE
4. INSTALLING TABLEAU DESKTOP
5. DATA PREPARATION
6. THE SAMPLE DATASET
7. THE TABLEAU WORKSPACE
8. WORKING WITH MEASURES AND DIMENSIONS
9. WORKING WITH MARKS
10. SAVING, OPENING, AND SHARING YOUR WORKBOOKS
Chapter 2: Adding Data Sources in Tableau
1. SETTING UP A DATA CONNECTOR
2. SELECTING DATA TABLES
3. JOINS
4. UNIONS
5. DATA EXTRACTS AND LIVE CONNECTIONS
6. EDITING THE MODEL'S METADATA
7. DATA TYPES
8. ADDING HIERARCHIES, CALCULATED FIELDS, AND TABLE CALCULATIONS
9. DATA COLLECTION
10. CHECKLIST FOR INCREASING PERFORMANCE
Chapter 3: Creating Data Visualizations
1. CHART TYPES
2. READY, SET, SHOW ME
3. BAR CHARTS, LEGENDS, FILTERS, AND HIERARCHIES
4. LINE CHARTS
5. HIGHLIGHT TABLES
6. HEATMAPS
7. BULLET CHARTS
8. CUMULATIVE SUMS WITH WATERFALL CHARTS
9. REFLECTION: THE ANATOMY OF A TABLEAU VISUALIZATION
Chapter 4: Aggregate Functions, Calculated Fields, and Parameters
1. AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS
2. CALCULATED FIELDS
3. AGGREGATIONS IN CALCULATED FIELDS
4. TEXT OPERATORS
5. DATE FIELDS
6. LOGICAL FUNCTIONS IN CALCULATED FIELDS
7. PARAMETERS
8. SEARCHING TEXT FIELDS
Chapter 5: Table Calculations and Level of Detail Calculations
1. DIFFERENT TYPES OF CALCULATIONS
2. QUICK TABLE CALCULATIONS
3. CUSTOMIZED TABLE CALCULATIONS
4. LEVEL OF DETAIL EXPRESSIONS
Chapter 6: Maps
1. SYMBOL MAPS
2. FILLED MAPS
3. DENSITY MAPS
4. MAP LAYERS
5. MAPS WITH PIE CHARTS
6. VIZ IN TOOLTIP
7. REFLECTION: THE ANATOMY OF A TABLEAU MAP
8. ALTERNATIVE MAP SERVICES
9. MAPBOX MAPS
10. SPATIAL DATA
Chapter 7: Advanced Analytics: Trends, Forecasts, Clusters, and other Statistical Tools
1. OVERVIEW OF THE TABLEAU ANALYTICS PANE
2. CONSTANT, AVERAGE, AND REFERENCE LINES
3. TREND LINES
4. FORECASTS
5. CLUSTER ANALYSIS
6. PYTHON, R, AND MATLAB INTEGRATION
Chapter 8: Interactive Dashboards
1. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
2. CREATING A NEW DASHBOARD
3. THE DASHBOARD PANE
4. PLACING CHARTS ON THE DASHBOARD
5. DASHBOARD TITLES
6. NAVIGATION BUTTONS
7. DASHBOARD ACTIONS
8. DASHBOARD STARTERS: TEMPLATES FOR CLOUD DATA
9. DASHBOARD BEST PRACTICES AND INSPIRATION
Chapter 9: Sharing Insights with Colleagues and the World
1. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
2. TABLEAU ONLINE AND TABLEAU SERVER
3. TABLEAU PUBLIC
4. WEB EMBEDDING
Chapter 10: Data Preparation with Tableau Prep
1. CONNECTING TO DATA
2. WILDCARD UNIONS
3. ADDITIONAL CONNECTIONS
4. INSPECTING THE DATA
5. REMOVING UNNEEDED FIELDS
6. DATA CLEANING AND FORMATTING
7. UNIONS
8. JOINS
9. RUNNING THE FLOW AND OUTPUTTING THE DATA
10. SAVING FLOWS
Index
End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1
1. Figure 1.1 An interactive sales dashboard. We will build this in Chapter 8.
2. Figure 1.2 Formatted and aggregated report showing averages across several data...
3. Figure 1.3 Long table without any aggregations that is suitable for analysis in...
4. Figure 1.4 Folder with the sample dataset in Windows Explorer.
5. Figure 1.5 Data structure of the sample dataset in Excel.
6. Figure 1.6 Tableau Desktop start screen.
7. Figure 1.7 The data source view with the Excel file open and the names of the t...
8. Figure 1.8 Preview of the data from the Orders sheet.
9. Figure 1.9 The Tableau workspace with a yet‐to‐be‐filled canvas.
10. Figure 1.10 A green highlight appears when you drag a measure onto this section...
11. Figure 1.11 A blue highlight appears when you drag a dimension onto this part o...
12. Figure 1.12 Dragging the Segment dimension onto Color.
13. Figure 1.13 Tooltips are displayed when you point at marks.
Chapter 2
1. Figure 2.1 In Tableau, you can connect to a variety of common file and server t...
2. Figure 2.2 Supported file types shown in the Open dialog box.
3. Figure 2.3 The drop‐down menu in the Open dialog shows the file types supported...
4. Figure 2.4 The list of Tableau‐supported server connectors.
5. Figure 2.5 Dialog box with connection details for a PostgreSQL database.
6. Figure 2.6 A simple data model containing only the Orders sheet from the Supers...
7. Figure 2.7 Two sheets joined based on the Region key attribute.
8. Figure 2.8 Individual sheets unioned manually.
9. Figure 2.9 Files and sheets unioned automatically with a wildcard search.
10. Figure 2.10 Radio buttons for switching between live connection and data extrac...
11. Figure 2.11 The size of an extract can be reduced with filters.
12. Figure 2.12 Changing the metadata in the data source editor.
13. Figure 2.13 Custom splits allow you to define the separators used for the spli...
14. Figure 2.14 Changing the data type via a field's drop‐down menu.
15. Figure 2.15 IFTTT applet for collecting tweets in a Google spreadsheet.
16. Figure 2.16 Search criteria for IFTTT to use on new tweets coming in.
17. Figure 2.17 Giving the spreadsheet a name.
18. Figure 2.18 Google Sheets table with column headers.
19. Figure 2.19 Selecting dimensions and measures when connecting to Google Analyti...
20. Figure 2.20 Selecting Assume Referential Integrity in the Data menu.
21. Figure 2.21 Selecting the option Single Table in the Extract Data dialog.
Chapter 3
1. Figure 3.1 A scatter plot created with the Show Me assistant.
2. Figure 3.2 A bar chart showing sales and profits by category.
3. Figure 3.3 Dragging one dimension onto another to create a hierarchy.
4. Figure 3.4 Category is part of a hierarchy, as indicated by the plus symbol.
5. Figure 3.5 Clicking the plus symbol, you expand the hierarchy to include Sub‐Ca...
6. Figure 3.6 Filter dialog box; in this example, only data rows with the segment
7. Figure 3.7 Selecting Show Filter to make the visualization more interactive.
8. Figure 3.8 Rising sales numbers as visualized with a line chart.
9. Figure 3.9 Year is the highest level of the date hierarchy.
10. Figure 3.10 The date hierarchy broken down to the monthly level.
11. Figure 3.11 Dragging the quarter off the Columns shelf.
12. Figure 3.12 Sales revenue by month and grouped by year.
13. Figure 3.13 Step lines help to highlight the difference between two data points...
14. Figure 3.14 Jump lines highlight gaps in time series; this example shows sensor...
15. Figure 3.15 The context menu's lower block of date and time options contains co...
16. Figure 3.16 Sales as a function of the continuous order date.
17. Figure 3.17 Cross table showing sales by subcategory and month.
18. Figure 3.18 Dragging with the right mouse button.
19. Figure 3.19 Cross table with colored text and a legend.
20. Figure 3.20 Changing the mark type to Square.
21. Figure 3.21 Heatmap with marks in different sizes and colors, depending on the ...
22. Figure 3.22 Edit Color dialog with the Orange‐Blue Diverging palette and Revers...
23. Figure 3.23 Heatmap showing hot spots in the data using color and size.
24. Figure 3.24 Sales revenue and sales targets next to each other, broken down by ...
25. Figure 3.25 Creating a bullet chart with the help of the Show Me assistant.
26. Figure 3.26 A bullet chart puts the focus on the difference between the values ...
27. Figure 3.27 The sort option appears when you hover over an axis.
28. Figure 3.28 Gantt bars depicting the Running Total of sales revenue.
29. Figure 3.29 Calculated field with the sales difference that is needed in a wate...
30. Figure 3.30 Waterfall chart showing the contribution of each subcategory to the...
31. Figure 3.31 With the View Data option, you can see the data rows underlying spe...
Chapter 4
1. Figure 4.1 Setting the aggregate function.
2. Figure 4.2 Adding a calculated field to the Data pane.
3. Figure 4.3 Calculation editor with expanded glossary.
4. Figure 4.4 Bar chart showing both sales revenue and the calculated profit margi...
5. Figure 4.5 Calculation to split off the first word of a string.
6. Figure 4.6 Sales revenue grouped by manufacturer, which was derived from Produc...
7. Figure 4.7 The option Create Parameter in the Data pane's context menu.
8. Figure 4.8 Configuring a new parameter.
9. Figure 4.9 The Parameters section of the Data pane.
10. Figure 4.10 Calculated field with the Factor parameter.
11. Figure 4.11 What‐if analysis with a dynamic calculation based on a parameter.
12. Figure 4.12 Setting up a string parameter with an empty current value.
13. Figure 4.13 Filtering Match to only retain data rows with True.
14. Figure 4.14 Text search with a parameter and a filter; demonstrated using the s...
Chapter 5
1. Figure 5.1 The entry Quick Table Calculation in a measure's context menu.
2. Figure 5.2 Line chart showing the running total of sales by segment.
3. Figure 5.3 Duplicate as Crosstab.
4. Figure 5.4 Edit Table Calculation in a measure's context menu.
5. Figure 5.5 Table Calculation options with calculation assistance activated.
6. Figure 5.6 The calculation assistance (yellow shading) indicates that the Table...
7. Figure 5.7 Table Calculation to compute the rank according to sales.
8. Figure 5.8 Ranking of subcategories by sales for each month.
9. Figure 5.9 The Edit Axis dialog, with the Reversed option selected.
10. Figure 5.10 Bump chart showing the evolution of products ranked by sales, inclu...
11. Figure 5.11 Changing to a Dual Axis plot.
12. Figure 5.12 Synchronizing the axes.
13. Figure 5.13 Formatting options for labels.
14. Figure 5.14 Line chart showing sales revenue over time, and the Data pane's con...
15. Figure 5.15 Settings for the Time Period parameter.
16. Figure 5.16 The formula for the moving average.
17. Figure 5.17 Line chart with moving average and dynamic parameter control.
18. Figure 5.18 Calculated field to find the date of each customer's first purchase...
19. Figure 5.19 Cohort analysis.
20. Figure 5.20 Calculated field yielding the total sales per customer.
21. Figure 5.21 Different ways of calculating averages.
22. Figure 5.22 Sum of sales, independent of region.
23. Figure 5.23 Bar chart showing how sales per subcategory at the regional level d...
Chapter 6
1. Figure 6.1 Symbol map with differently sized circles, based on the revenue in t...
2. Figure 6.2 Filled map with states shaded according to the sum of sales.
3. Figure 6.3 Creating a filled map by selecting the appropriate mark type in the ...
4. Figure 6.4 Density map.
5. Figure 6.5 Map Layers pane with the Dark background map style selected.
6. Figure 6.6 Map with pie charts showing Sales broken down by Category.
7. Figure 6.7 Using an LOD Expression and a slider filter to declutter the map.
8. Figure 6.8 A dual‐axis chart: filled map with pie charts.
9. Figure 6.9 Line chart showing the evolution of sales over time, broken down by ...
10. Figure 6.10 Embedding the Over Time chart via the Edit Tooltip dialog.
11. Figure 6.11 Tooltip with embedded line chart that appears when hovering over ma...
12. Figure 6.12 Mapbox website with access token.
13. Figure 6.13 Map services are set up via the Background Maps submenu.
14. Figure 6.14 Map Services dialog with the Add button clicked.
15. Figure 6.15 Selecting a Mapbox preset style.
16. Figure 6.16 Cities in the dataset on top of a satellite‐image background map.
17. Figure 6.17 Website https://cablemap.info/_default.aspx.
18. Figure 6.18 Connecting to spatial files.
19. Figure 6.19 The Open dialog box showing spatial files supported by Tableau.
20. Figure 6.20 Data model and preview of the Shapefile.
21. Figure 6.21 World map with undersea communication cables. Marks are sorted and ...
22. Figure 6.22 The data portal of the European Central Bank.
Chapter 7
1. Figure 7.1 Bar chart with a constant line.
2. Figure 7.2 Selection fields with different types of trend line models.
3. Figure 7.3 Line chart with an added trend line and its tooltip.
4. Figure 7.4 Dialog box with trend line options.
5. Figure 7.5 Description of a trend line.
6. Figure 7.6 Trend line model.
7. Figure 7.7 Line chart with a forecast.
8. Figure 7.8 Forecast Options dialog box.
9. Figure 7.9 Model summary.
10. Figure 7.10 Model type, quality metrics, and smoothing coefficients.
11. Figure 7.11 Customer segments based on sales and profits.
12. Figure 7.12 Working with the clusters field for Customer ID.
13. Figure 7.13 The GitHub repository for TabPy.
14. Figure 7.14 Downloading TabPy via the Git command line (here shown on a Mac).
15. Figure 7.15 The Help menu and the Settings And Performance submenu.
16. Figure 7.16 External Service Connection window to configure a local TabPy conne...
17. Figure 7.17 Calculated field with Python script.
18. Figure 7.18 Trellis chart, with trend lines and colors according to the correla...
19. Figure 7.19 Configuring the R connection in Tableau.
20. Figure 7.20 Configuring a secure connection to RServe.
21. Figure 7.21 Scatter plot with a LOESS smoother.
22. Figure 7.22 Configuring the connection to a MATLAB Production Server.
Chapter 8
1. Figure 8.1 A blank dashboard.
2. Figure 8.2 Defining the dashboard template size.
3. Figure 8.3 A second worksheet is being added to the dashboard.
4. Figure 8.4 A dashed line indicates where the additional worksheet will be inser...
5. Figure 8.5 A dashboard with three charts.
6. Figure 8.6 Dashboard with title.
7. Figure 8.7 The dashboard with a navigation button.
8. Figure 8.8 Edit Button dialog box.
9. Figure 8.9 Using the top‐left sheet as a filter for the other sheets.
10. Figure 8.10 Filter action in use: only data from Furniture/Central is shown in ...
11. Figure 8.11 The Actions window lists all existing actions for the workbook.
12. Figure 8.12 Choosing a filter.
13. Figure 8.13 Configuring a filter action.
14. Figure 8.14 Empty Web Page object in a dashboard.
15. Figure 8.15 Configuring a URL action.
16. Figure 8.16 Clicking a city loads the corresponding Wikipedia entry.
17. Figure 8.17 Creating a dashboard with Dashboard Starters.
18. Figure 8.18 Dashboards can be tested with sample data by clicking Continue With...
19. Figure 8.19 The Tableau Public gallery.
20. Figure 8.20 Many visualizations can be downloaded from Tableau Public.
Chapter 9
1. Figure 9.1 Publishing a dashboard via the Server menu.
2. Figure 9.2 Connecting to Tableau Online or Tableau Server.
3. Figure 9.3 Signing in to Tableau Server or Tableau Online.
4. Figure 9.4 The Publish Workbook dialog.
5. Figure 9.5 Data source with the Ask Data view in Tableau Online.
6. Figure 9.6 Ask Data's response to a user's question.
7. Figure 9.7 Data preview tooltip shows most common values.
8. Figure 9.8 Dashboard showing Bitcoin prices, accessed through the Tableau Mobil...
9. Figure 9.9 Save To Tableau Public in the Server menu of Tableau Desktop.
10. Figure 9.10 Sign‐in dialog for Tableau Public.
11. Figure 9.11 Entering a name for the new workbook on Tableau Public.
12. Figure 9.12 Editing the visualization's settings.
13. Figure 9.13 The author's Tableau Public profile.
14. Figure 9.14 Copying the embed code via the Share menu.
15. Figure 9.15 Embedded visualization.
Chapter 10
1. Figure 10.1 Tableau Desktop start screen.
2. Figure 10.2 Supported file types and database technologies are shown in the Con...
3. Figure 10.3 Open dialog in Tableau Prep.
4. Figure 10.4 The Tableau Prep workspace with the Flow and Input areas.
5. Figure 10.5 Multiple Files tab, with Wildcard Union selected.
6. Figure 10.6 Multiple files are selected in the Open dialog.
7. Figure 10.7 Flow with three input steps.
8. Figure 10.8 Unneeded fields can be eliminated from the flow by deselecting the ...
9. Figure 10.9 Using search to eliminate multiple fields.
10. Figure 10.10 Adding a cleaning step to a flow.
11. Figure 10.11 Workspace with the Profile pane.
12. Figure 10.12 Calculated field for adding the Region field.
13. Figure 10.13 Calculated field for creating a date field.
14. Figure 10.14 Changing the data type in the Profile pane.
15. Figure 10.15 Renaming steps helps to keep track of changes.
16. Figure 10.16 Dropping one step onto the New Union field of another step.
17. Figure 10.17 In a union, fields with different names but similar content can be...
18. Figure 10.18 Adding an Excel file and a cleaning step to the flow.
19. Figure 10.19 Trim function to remove superfluous spaces.
20. Figure 10.20 Group And Replace function for grouping different values that have...
21. Figure 10.21 Join profile with Left Join selected.
22. Figure 10.22 Output pane with output‐to‐file options.

Visual Analytics with Tableau^®

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VISUAL ANALYTICS WITH TABLEAU^®

About the Author

About the Technical Editors

Credits

Acknowledgments

Foreword by Nate Vogel

Foreword by Sophie Sparkes