Tableau Desktop Cookbook: Quick & Simple Recipes to Help You Navigate Tableau DesktopPaperback (2024)

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Part I Starting at the Very Beginning

1 Introduction to Data 3

1.1 Connecting to Data 3

1.2 Searching for Data 4

1.3 Connecting to a File 5

1.4 Messy Data Sources 12

1.5 Connecting to a Server 16

1.6 Saved Data Sources 18

1.7 Connecting to Secondary Data Sets: The Data Model 19

Creating Relationship Calculations 24

Unioning Your Data: The Physical Layer 28

Joining Your Data: The Physical Layer 32

1.8 Data Types 36

1.9 Creating Extracts 38

Summary 40

2 Getting Started with Tableau 41

2.1 Creating a New Worksheet 41

2.2 The Tableau Workspace 46

2.3 The Data Pane 47

2.4 Dimension Versus Measure 50

2.5 Discrete Versus Continuous 51

2.6 Calculated Fields 54

2.7 Shelves and Cards 59

Rows and Columns 59

Marks Card 62

Filters Shelf 67

Continuous Filters 72

2.8 What Is Show Me? 76

2.9 Formatting in Tableau 80

Summary 85

Part I Conclusion 85

Part II Building a Foundation

3 Bar Charts 89

3.1 Horizontal Bar Chart 89

Adding a Constant Line 94

Changing to a User-Controlled Reference Line 95

Adding Color to a Parameterized Reference Line 98

Adding Average Lines 100

3.2 Grouping 103

Visual Grouping 106

Discrete Grouping 107

3.3 Top N Filter 114

3.4 Stacked Bar Chart 117

3.5 100% Stacked Bar Chart (Percent of Total) 124

3.6 Discrete Bar in Bar Chart 130

3.7 Shared Axis 132

3.8 Shared Axis Bar in Bar 135

3.9 Bullet Chart 137

3.10 Histogram 142

3.11 Soundwave 145

Summary 150

4 Text 151

4.1 Tables 151

4.2 Adding Totals 153

4.3 Highlight Tables 156

4.4 Rank Tables 160

4.5 Big Actual Numbers 165

4.6 Calculating Percent Difference 170

4.7 Using Last and Hide 174

4.8 Custom Number Format 177

4.9 How to Zero Nulls 180

4.10 Showing Positive, Negative, or Neutral Values 181

4.11 Calculating a Good, OK, or Bad Status 183

4.12 Using Titles as BANs 184

4.13 Using Size 187

4.14 World Cloud 188

Summary 190

5 Lines 191

5.1 Line Charts 191

5.2 Continuous Line Charts 196

5.3 Trend Lines 200

5.4 Forecasting 202

5.5 Custom Date Format 204

5.6 Running Total 206

5.7 Year over Year Growth 210

5.8 Year to Date (YTD) Growth 213

5.9 Moving Average 216

5.10 Slope Chart 219

5.11 Sparklines 223

5.12 Small Multiple Line Charts 226

5.13 Small Multiple Controlled Version 234

Summary 238

6 Basic Mapping 239

6.1 Symbol Map 239

6.2 Filled Map 245

6.3 Dual-Axis Map 249

6.4 Mapping Nongeographic Fields 254

Summary 257

7 Basic Dashboards 259

7.1 Build a Basic Dashboard 259

7.2 Adding Basic Dashboard Interactivity 268

7.3 Objects 277

Using Horizontal and Vertical Containers 277

Adding a Text Object 285

Adding an Image Object 288

Adding a Blank Object 293

7.4 Layout Tab 295

Borders 295

Background 297

Using Padding 301

Item Hierarchy 303

Summary 306

Part II Conclusion 306

Part III Broadening Your Data Viz Knowledge

8 Square 309

8.1 Treemaps 309

8.2 Calendar Heatmap 317

8.3 Marginal Bar Charts 323

Summary 333

9 Tooltips 335

9.1 Basic Tooltips 335

9.2 Viz in Tooltips 342

9.3 Multiple Layout Viz in Tooltip 346

Summary 350

10 Area Charts 351

10.1 Basic Area Charts 351

10.2 Stacked Area Charts 355

10.3 Percent of Total Area Charts 360

10.4 Discrete Area Charts 363

10.5 Pareto Charts 367

Summary 382

11 Circles, Shapes, and Pies 383

11.1 Scatter Plot 383

11.2 Using Custom Shapes 386

11.3 Density Marks 387

11.4 Clustering 390

11.5 Trend Lines 395

11.6 Explain Data 399

11.7 Connected Scatter Plot 401

11.8 Dot Plot 408

11.9 Dot Strip Plot 414

11.10 Jitter Plot 416

11.11 Box Plots 420

11.12 Using Shapes for BANs 425

11.13 Pie Charts 430

11.14 Donut Chart 433

Summary 439

12 Gantt 441

12.1 Basic Gantt Charts 441

12.2 Barcode Charts 445

12.3 Waterfall Charts 448

Summary 455

13 Stories 457

13.1 Creating a Story 457

13.2 Adding a New Story Point 467

13.3 Blank Story Point 469

13.4 Duplicate Story Point 470

13.5 Annotations on a Story 471

13.6 "Save as New" Story 473

Summary 475

Part III Conclusion 475

Part IV Advancing Your Techniques

14 Sets 479

14.1 General Set 480

14.2 Conditional Set 482

14.3 Top N Set 486

14.4 Combined Set 488

14.5 Constant Set 493

14.6 Set Control 496

14.7 Set Actions 499

Summary 503

15 Parameters 505

15.1 Float/Integer Parameter 505

15.2 String Parameter 510

15.3 Date Parameter 514

15.4 Measure Switcher 518

15.5 Dynamic Scatter Plot 521

15.6 Dimension Switcher 523

15.7 Parameter Actions 529

15.8 Parameter Actions: Drill Down 537

15.9 Parameter Actions: Min and Max Date Range 542

Summary 547

16 Advanced Table Calculations 549

16.1 Previous Value 550

16.2 Lookup 555

16.3 Window Calculations 558

16.4 How to Create a Control Chart 561

Summary 566

17 Level-of-Detail Calculations 567

17.1 Include LOD 569

17.2 Exclude LODs 573

17.3 Fixed LODs 577

17.4 Nested LODs 581

Summary 585

18 Advanced Mapping 587

18.1 Density Marks 587

18.2 MakePoint 590

18.3 MakeLine 593

18.4 Marks Layer 596

18.5 Distance 602

18.6 Buffer 604

18.7 Spatial Joins 606

Summary 609

19 Advanced Dashboarding 611

19.1 Actions 611

Highlight Action 611

URL Action 616

19.2 Dashboard Objects 622

Navigation Button 624

Download Object 626

Extensions 630

19.3 Floating 636

19.4 Toggle Containers On and Off Using Show/Hide 637

19.5 Device-Specific Dashboards 643

19.6 Publishing Dashboards 646

Summary 648

Part IV Conclusion 649

20 My Top 20 Tips 651

20.1 Proactive Tips 651

20.2 Technical Tips 655

Index 657

Tableau Desktop Cookbook: Quick & Simple Recipes to Help You Navigate Tableau DesktopPaperback (2024)

FAQs

How is Tableau different from Tableau Desktop? ›

Tableau Server incurs a higher cost compared to Tableau Desktop. This is due to the inclusion of various features and functions like publishing, sharing, and collaborative options, which are not available in Tableau Desktop.

How does Tableau Desktop work? ›

Tableau Desktop capabilities

Connect to data on-prem or in the cloud — then combine and clean your data with clicks, not code. With Tableau Desktop, you can easily build and iterate on visualizations with a drag-and-drop experience and dynamic previews.

How Tableau is better than excel? ›

The Tableau integration enables you to create more impactful visualizations, uncover hidden insights, and make better data-driven decisions faster than native Excel functionality.

What is Tableau in simple words? ›

Tableau is a visual analytics platform transforming the way we use data to solve problems—empowering people and organizations to make the most of their data. See How Tableau Works.

How long does it take to learn Tableau Desktop? ›

Learning Tableau can take the average person between two to six months, with mastery of more advanced features potentially taking longer. Prior experience with similar software, such as Microsoft Power BI and Excel, can expedite the learning process.

How to learn Tableau for beginners? ›

Steps
  1. Step 1: Connect to your data. ...
  2. Step 2: Drag and drop to take a first look. ...
  3. Step 3: Focus your results. ...
  4. Step 4: Explore your data geographically. ...
  5. Step 5: Drill down into the details. ...
  6. Step 6: Build a dashboard to show your insights. ...
  7. Step 7: Build a story to present. ...
  8. Step 8: Share your findings.

Which is better Powerbi or Tableau? ›

However, Tableau tends to perform better than Power BI when it comes to significantly large data sets. Power BI is faster when data sets are more limited. Again, it depends on what you're going to be using the tools for as to which is most suitable for you.

What's the major difference between Tableau Public and Tableau Desktop? ›

What are the differences between these two ? Public has limited data connections and can only publish to the Public website. Desktop Professional allows connections to a lot more sources and can publish to Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud.

Do I need Tableau Prep if I have Tableau Desktop? ›

Use both! At the end of the day, you never need to use just Tableau Prep or just Tableau Desktop. Both are integrated into the Tableau Platform along with Tableau Server and Online.

What are the benefits of Tableau Desktop? ›

Advantages of Tableau
  • User friendly interface. Tableau's interactive and easy-to-use user interface is one of its primary advantages. ...
  • Data integration. ...
  • Data exploration. ...
  • Advance analytics. ...
  • Geographical and spatial visualisation. ...
  • Scalability. ...
  • Support. ...
  • Cost considerations.
Oct 18, 2023

What is the difference between Tableau Desktop and Tableau Web Edit? ›

A lot can be done in both but for full report creation Tableau Desktop has all the capabilities available. Web editing is usually used as an ad-hoc solution to build on or edit existing workbooks, therefore it doesn't contain all the functionalities available in Tableau Desktop.

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