INTRODUCTION TO

TABLEAU
What is Tableau
Tableau is a data visualization tool that lets us analyze virtually any
type of structured data and produce highly interactive and attractive
graphs, dashboards, and reports in minutes .

Using Tableau Effectively

Tableau makes it e asier to cre ate powerful, visual information that
communic ates what is important better than a spreadsheet or text
table . Tableau has advanc ed capabilities for more technic al users,
but it dra matically lowers the bar for cre ating dashboards and
performing analytic al analysis for non-tec hnic al analysts and
information consumers. ” – Dan Murray, Interworks

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As an introduction, let’s take a step ba ck and give the 100,000 foot view
of Tableau . It’s important to understand how or why you might be
working with your data and to assess what your level of usage might be.
Below are some important questions to consider:

Will I b e cre ating my own reports or will I only a cc ess reports others
have created ?
Will others need to a ccess the reports I create ?
Will reports I create need to be available to the general public?
Do I need a license?

The answer to ea c h of these questions will determine the typ e of

a ccess you’ll need and how you’ll need to handle the distribution or
publication of your material .

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Here at Princeton, we use Tableau in a manner similar to the way in which
we use the data warehouse . Differences arise from the structure of the
tool itself.

Tableau Desktop is central to the creation of all Tableau visualization

and data sources. In fact, if you only want to cre ate reports but d o
not have a need for circulation or wider consumption, the d eskto p
version would be all you need .

Tableau Server is used when you have a visualization that has been
designed to be consumed by others . If you have a specific, restricted
audience and would like to control the manner in which they intera ct
with your work, they should be defined on the server and you would
publish your work to be a ccessed .

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Tableau Public is a version of server but security has been setup such that
the visualizations published here may be a ccessed without
authentication . This is where you would publish work that you want
anyone at all to view and consume . An example of this would be a
graph demonstrating historical applications to the university. This might
be included on the Princeton public website .

CeDAR takes a role in the Princeton Table au world by centrally

managing the Tableau Desktop licenses and providing training . We
also maintain the Tableau Servers (Development, Pro duction, and
Public) . Finally we coordinate the Princeton Tableau User Group
where we c an all share experiences and ask questions of one another .

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The goal for this course is to introduce Tableau within the context of its
usage at Princeton University. Upon completion, you should
understand :

How Tableau is used at Princeton

Basics of the Tableau reporting tool
Basic c alculations
Common visualization types
Creating a basic Dashboard
Publishing and sharing

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GETTING YOUR DATAREADY
Choose a connection or an existing workbook from the Tableau
Welcome Page.
Note: Upon installing Tableau, check your loc al drive for My Tableau
Repository

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Once you choose your data source, you (and it) are brought to the
Data Source Page where you c an format your metadata .

Sheets on the left navigation pane behave like tables in a database .

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Splitting
String fields can be split into multiple fields for easier analysis
Automatic or custom split options
Aliasing
Roles (time, ship date/order date)
Binning (high/low sales)
Renaming
Data types
Geographic roles
Calculated fields
Pivoting
Data interpreter
Helps clean up data

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THE INTERFACE
We work in workb ooks which contain worksheets, dashboards, and
stories
Worksheets are also known as Views of your data
We drag and drop fields from the data source onto Shelves
Rows, Columns, Filters …
Items that appear on shelves are called Pills
If the Pill is blue, it is a Dimension
If the Pill is green, it is a Measure

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When you bring your data into Tableau, it automatically pla ces the
fields into one of two categories. Dimensions or Measures.

Dimensions are fields that organize your data into cate gories (or
buckets) .
Individual dimension values are called Members
Usually Non-numerical and provid e critical, contextual meaning
to a Measure .
Who, what, when, where, why

Measures return numeric values for “me asuring” different

dimensions.
Usually aggregated (sum, average, min, max, etc.)
Things you c an d o math on that are generally meaningless
without context
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Revenue grew $22m during Q2
2017 in the Eastern Region for
Technology !

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Change between data source, worksheets, and dashboards
using the tabs at the bottom

You can also add new worksheets, dashboards, or story

boards using the “new” buttons.

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Once you’ve connected to data and evaluated
available dimensions and me asures in the Data
pane, you’ll need to decide where to drag desired
dimensions and measures. You may choose to
drag dire ctly onto the visualization or onto a
particular shelf or card.
The most common shelves are the Columns and
Rows. Dragging dimensions and measures to
these determines the layout of your visualization .
Use c ards to navigate pages, filters, and marks on a
worksheet .
The Page shelf acts as a modified Filters shelf
allowing you to page through values .
The Filters shelf allows you to narrow data down .
The Marks c ard allows you to customize the
display of the ‘marks’ that make up your chart.
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Use dashboards to organize and interact with multiple worksheets

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Use stories to combine elements and create directed, interactive
analysis

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Use Show Me to sele ct or c hange between
different visualizations .
Anytime you’re editing a new or existing
worksheet, you’ll notice the Show Me tab at
the upper right of the screen .
Show Me displays a series of thumbnail images
re presenting the different typ es of c harts you
c an create with just a few clicks.
If you’ve already created a chart but would
like to switch to another, clicking a new
thumbnail from the Show Me dialog box will
change your current visualization .
Note: Only thumbnails for visualizations that are
applic able to the dimensions and measures
you’ve selected from your data pane will be a
ctive.

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Add Dimensions and/or Measures from the Data pane to the Shelves
and Cards to create visualizations.

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Objective: Open Tableau, connect to data, build a basic visualization to show Sales
for each Sub-Category broken down by Order Date Year vs. Category. Use color
show sum of Profit.
1. Open Tableau.
2. Connect to Excel.
3. Navigate to Excel Data Source per class instructions
Typically under this path:
My Tableau Repository > Datasources > 10.x > en_US- US > Vital Stock Supplies.xls
4. Click Open.
5. This is the Data Source screen. Here, we will add sheets from the Excel file to act as the
fields for our visualization.
6. Under Sheets, drag Orders to where it says “Drag sheets here”. Our data appears in
the bottom pane.
7. In the bottom portion of the left pane, under the Go to Worksheet prompt, click Sheet.
8. In the left pane, within the Data tab, under Dimensions, drag Order Date to the
Columns shelf and Category and Sub-Category to the Rows shelf.
9. Under Measures, find and drag Sales to the Columns shelf and Profit to the Color mark
on the Marks c ard.
10. Double -click the bottom of the worksheet and rename it to Bar Chart.
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Sum of Sales for each Sub-Category broken down by Order Date Year vs. Category. Color shows sum of
Profit. The view is filtered on Order Date Year, which keeps 2014, 2015, 2016 and2017.

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Tableau supports an additional method for automatically generating
views of data called Automatic Double- Click. To use this method,
double -click fields in the Data pane that you’d like to see in your
visualization . Ea ch double -click results in a “best guess” for how you
would like the field to be presented in your view .
Note: The order in which you double -click a measure or a dimension is
signification .

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SORTING & FILTERING
Analysis can be enhanced by sorting results
Sorting can be done using buttons for simple sorting

Or … manually through the advanc ed

sorting dialog which is achieved by right -
clicking on a Pill from the Shelf and
clicking Sort.

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Filtering results allows you to focus on particular
aspects of your data
Filter by dragging data fields from the Data pane
to the Filters c ard

Filtering c an also be created by right -clicking a Pill on a Shelf

In either c ase, a Filter dialog box will

reflect the data type chosen and
prompt you for additional criteria
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Numeric Filter Dialog Box Text Filter Dialog Box

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Filtering Data
Simple filtering c an b e d one by
selecting the headers or marks in a
View and choosing the Keep Only or
Exclude options
The Dimension members are removed
from the View and the filtered fields are
added to the Filters shelf
When selecting headers that are part
of a hierarchy all of the next level
members are selected automatic ally
Individual marks c an be selected on a
View, making it e asy to focus on or
remove outliers

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Apply Filters to Multiple Worksheets
When you had a filter to a worksheet, be default it applies to the
current worksheet .
Sometimes, however, you might want to apply the filter to other
worksheets in the workbook .
You c an select specific worksheets to apply the filter to or apply it
glo bally to all worksheets that use the same data source or related
data sources.
On the Filters shelf, right -click the field
and select: Apply to Worksheets > All
Using Related Data Sources

Filters that use this option are global

across the workb ook.

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Objective: We see a potential problem with the profitability of the furniture category.
Let’s enhance our results from the last exercise by performing a simple sort, and
filtering the results by the furniture category.

1. Right-click the Bar Chart worksheet and select Duplicate .

2. Now, rename your new worksheet New Bar Chart.
3. Click the last column in the chart.
4. From the toolbar at the top of the screen, click the Sort Descending button to sort
latest year Sales descending.
5. Let’s reduce the data set results by dragging Category to the Filters card.
6. From the Filter dialog box, uncheck Office Supplies and Technology.
7. Click OK.
8. Right-click Category in the Filters card and choose Show Filter to reveal the Filter c ard.
Note: Filter cards can be moved (dragged) from their default location (which tends to
hide under the Show Me box when it’s expanded.
9. Under Dimensions on the Data pane, right -click Region. Select Show Filter.
10. Explore.
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Sum of Sales for each Sub-Category broken down by Order Date Year vs. Category. Color shows sumof
Profit. The data is filtered on Region, which keeps Central, East, South andWest.
The view is filtered on Category, which keeps Furniture.

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FORMATTING
Tableau allows for extensive formatting of
your views and can be done for an entire
worksheet or down to the specific/individual
parts.
There are several ways to initiate formatting
in Tableau . You may choose options from
the Format dro p-d own menu or right-click
any element and choose Format from the
context menu .
Formatting c an include changing some or all
of the following:
Fonts
Alignment
Shading
Borders
Lines
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Highlighters
Highlighters are used to quickly find and highlight data on a
visualization
These come in handy when adding a mark (like color) to a
visualization makes it too confusing or hard to read
Used when there’s already a color mark assigned to the visualization
Previously done through legends and dashbo ard actions
Can be used with reference bands and lines
Highlighter legend supports text
searches and dropdown
Multiple highlighters can be
added to a single visualization

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Objective: We want to be able to quickly find patterns and trends in our data.
If our
visualization
assist the user in understanding
already contains awhat
colorwe’re
mark,trying
a highlighter
to focus on.
is the perfect
enhancement to
1. Create a New worksheet. Rename it Sub -Category Highlight.
2. Add Order Date to the Columns shelf and Sales to the Rows.
3. Maybe we want to be able to see the profit when you hover on a line but not have it
displayed in the a ctual Line C hart itself. To do this, drag Profit to the Tooltip.
4. Drag Region to the Color mark.
5. We want to increase the number of marks on this, so add Sub -Category to the Detail
mark. The Detail mark increases the context of our visualization.
6. Without reducing the highlighted number of marks, this is difficult to read. We could
use a filter, but that would remove the context of the selected marks in relation to the
other sub -categories. So … we will add a highlighter instead.

Continued on next page

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7. In the Marks card, right -click the Sub-Category Pill and select Show Highlighter .
8. The Highlighter Legend Box will appear/ dock and show the different Sub-
Categories . As you mouse over each Sub-Category , you’ll notice each being
highlighted in the visualization.
9. Explore.

Note: Selecting Entire View from the drop -down in the tool bar will expand the
visualization to make it more legible.

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The trend of sum of Sales for Order Date Year. Color shows details about Region.
Details are shown for Sub-Category.

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The Marks c ard provides other options to customize the appearance of
your chart. You c an change the color, size, shape, and label of your
marks as well as customizing your tooltips .

Tooltips are small pop -up text boxes that appear when you hover your
mouse over a mark. By default, tooltips show values for all relevant fields
included somewhere on your visualization .

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The Marks Card
Use the Marks card to refine and
enhance results
Color re presents data using different
colors
Size encodes data by assigning
different sizes to the marks on your
views
Lab el assigns text labels to the marks
on your Views
Drop a dimension on the Detail box to
separate the marks per the members of
the dimension
Tooltips are details that display when you
hover over one or more marks in the
View
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The Marks Card
Additional marks are available when using certain visualization
types
Shapes are available when the Mark type supports members being
displayed as shapes, like when a Scatter Plot is being used
Built-in shapes are available and custom shape palettes can be
created
Angles are available when using pie charts
There are other context -sensitive marks
which are available with other, more intricate
visualization types.

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Scatter Plots
Scatter Plots provide a way to show correlations between numerical
values
Scatter plots require at least two measures
One on ea ch of the columns and rows

Creates a simple Scatter Plot

Creates Matrix of Scatter Plots

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Objective: Create a scatter plot using colors and shapes to show the correlation
between sales and profit of different product sub-categories by category and region.

1. Create a New worksheet. Rename it Sales & Profit .

2. From Measures, drag Sales to the Columns shelf and Profit to the Rows shelf.
3. Drag Sub-Category to the bottom (empty) portion of the Marks card.
4. To distinguish our Sub-Categories , add Category to Color.
5. Add Region to Shape.
6.Right-click anywhere in the scatter plot and choose Trend Lines > Show Trend Lines .
This will show us linear trend lines.

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Sum of Sales vs. sum of Profit. Color shows details about Category. Shape shows details aboutRegion.
Details are shown for Sub-Category.

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A crosstab, sometimes referred to as a Pivot Table, is a table that summarizes data in
rows and columns of text .

Sometimes, even in Tableau, you just want to see the data and not a visualization.

You can easily convert your visualization into a crosstab.

Objective: Display the numbers associated with a data view.

1. Right-click any of the visualizations we’ve created thus far.

2. Select Duplicate as Crosstab .
A new sheet will automatically be created beside your visualization, displaying the same
information as data in rows and columns of text.

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BASIC CALCULATIONS
Basic Calculations
Calculations are created to enhance the dashboard.
Tableau takes granular data and aggregates them in the
View.
Calculations help in extending the usage of aggregations.
If we’re looking for a particular dimension or measure that
does not seem to exist in our data source, we can form them
from calculations.

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Aggregating Data
When a Measure is pla ced on a Shelf,
Table au automatically aggre gates the
data .
Tableau defaults to Sum.
You c an change the aggre gation
to other types (Average, Max, Min)
by clicking on the Pill, navigating to
Measure (Sum) and selecting from
the list of other choices.

Note: You c an disaggre gate data by

navigating to the Analysis Menu and
deselecting Aggregate Measures .

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Aggregating Data
Dimensions c an also b e aggre gate d by right-clicking the Pill,
selecting Measure, and choosing from the list of options
available:

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