Getting Started with Tableau 2019.2

261 Pages·2019·8.179 MB·English

by  Tristan Guillevin

Getting Started with
Tableau 2019.2
Second Edition
Effective data visualization and business intelligence
with the new features of Tableau 2019.2
Tristan Guillevin
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Getting Started with Tableau 2019.2
Second Edition
Copyright © 2019 Packt Publishing
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However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Commissioning Editor: Amey Varangaonkar
Acquisition Editor: Devika Battike
Content Development Editor: Unnati Guha
Technical Editor: Sayli Nikalje
Copy Editor: Safis Editing
Project Coordinator: Manthan Patel
Proofreader: Safis Editing
Indexer: Priyanka Dhadke
Graphics: Jisha Chirayil
Production Designer: Nilesh Mohite
First published: September 2018
Second edition: June 2019
Production reference: 1040619
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-83855-306-7
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Contributors
About the author
Tristan Guillevin started his professional life in 2015 as a consultant, where
he discovered Tableau. Quickly, data visualization became a real passion! During
this time, he provided data visualization expertise to more than thirty clients in
many different sectors around the world. In 2017, Tristan won the global Iron Viz
competition in Las Vegas. Now, he helps people with Tableau through webinars,
conferences, blog articles, and this book! Tristan currently works at Ogury as a data
visualization engineer.
I'd like to first thank Laura for her daily support and understanding.
Writing a book is not an easy task, even for a second edition. A
special thanks to Ivett, Sayli, Unnati, and all the Packt team for
making the publication of this book possible. Finally, to everyone
with the same passion for data visualization, thanks for having
contributed making this passion grow on me, from my first bar chart
to the completion of this book.
About the reviewer
Ivett Kovács was always very comfortable with data—after majoring in statistics,
she started working as a data analyst. She was one of the first Hungarian power
users of Tableau Desktop 2012, and has been mastering Tableau ever since.
Currently, she is Starschema's senior data visualization expert, leading a team of 10+
dataviz developers. She is not only Tableau certified, but has also been a Tableau
Ambassador since 2017, as well as an Iron Viz judge.
She is also a featured volunteer with Viz for Social Good. She has developed several
Tableau dashboards on various social topics, such as the refugee crisis and gender
inequality in tech companies and political institutions.
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Table of Contents
Preface vii
Section 1: An Introduction to Tableau 1
Chapter 1: Catching Up with Tableau 2019 3
Connector improvements 4
Worksheet enhancement 4
MakePoint and MakeLine (2019.2) 5
Vector Map (2019.2) 6
Other improvements 7
New actions 8
Improved URL Actions (2019.1) 8
Change Parameter (2019.2) 8
Empowered Dashboard 11
Show/Hide containers (2019.2) 11
Replace Worksheets (2019.2) 13
Other improvements 14
Tableau Server 14
New browsing experience (2019.2) 15
Ask Data (2019.1) 16
New Alerts view (2019.2) 18
Device preview (2019.1) 19
Other improvements 19
Summary 20
Chapter 2: The Tableau Core 21
The different Tableau products 21
Speaking Tableau 22
Dimension and Measure 24
Blue and green – Discrete and Continuous 25
[ i ]
Table of Contents
The toolbar options 26
Live or Extract 27
Live 27
Extract 28
Summary 28
Chapter 3: Getting Started with Tableau Desktop 29
Connecting to data 30
Creating your first set of visualizations 31
Sales and profit by sub-categories – bar charts 31
Profit evolution – line charts 33
Profit by state – filled maps 36
Building your first Dashboard 37
Assembling the Dashboard 38
Adding interactivity to your Dashboard 40
Using Tableau for data exploration 41
Summary 44
Section 2: Connecting, Building, and Sharing 45
Chapter 4: Connecting to Data and Simple Transformations 47
Data connections 48
General rules 48
Connecting spatial files 50
Join data easily 51
The join principle 51
Join requirements and types 51
Hands-on with a simple join 53
Join risks 54
Union your data 56
Hands-on with a union example 56
Simple transformations 58
The Data Interpreter 59
Splitting a column 60
Pivot 60
Summary 62
Chapter 5: Building an Efficient Data Source 63
Understanding the data source 63
Data types in Tableau 64
Generated information 65
Data source options 65
Refreshing a data source and dealing with changes 66
[ ii ]
Table of Contents
How to refresh a data source 67
Dealing with changes 68
Field customization and default properties 70
Field customization options 70
Default properties 71
Hierarchies 72
Groups, sets, and bins 74
Groups 75
Sets 77
Bins 79
Summary 81
Chapter 6: Design Insightful Visualizations 83
Creating visualizations 84
Building a visualization, the automatic way 84
Double-click 84
Show Me 85
Building a visualization, the manual way 85
The Mark type 86
Mark properties 95
Color 95
Size 97
Label (text) 98
Detail 100
Tooltip 100
Shape 102
Path 102
Angle 103
Using multiple Measures 103
Dual Axis 105
Measure Names and Measure Values 106
Filters 108
Filtering a Continuous field 109
Filtering a Discrete field 110
Quick filters 110
Filter hierarchy 112
Context 112
Global filter hierarchy 114
Pages 114
Worksheet options and formats 116
Pill options 116
Worksheet menu options 117
[ iii ]