An Introduction to Tableau

by K. Yue

1. Introduction

• Tableau is a software company focused on interactive data visualization and analytics products.
• Three major products:
  1. Tableau desktop
  2. Tableau server
  3. Tableau online
• Students can download tableau desktop for free: https://www.tableau.com/academic/students.
• Our assignments will be based on Tableau desktop.

The general steps of using Tableau desktop:

1. Connect to data sources
2. Build data views
3. Enhance the data views
4. Create worksheets
5. Create and organize dashboards
6. Create a story

Our class with cover very simple examples of steps 1 to 4 only.

Classwork example:

[1] Prepare data sources

• Connect to MS Access file Coffee Chain.mdb. This is provided by Tableau as examples.
• Drag all three tables of the MS Access Tables in the “Data Source” tab.

[2] Prepare data views

• After connecting to the data source, Tableau distinguish between
  1. dimensions: fields that contain discrete categorical information (e.g. type Boolean, string, possibly primary key, etc.)
  2. measures: fields that contain quantitative, numerical information (e.g. number).

The idea is that measures can be analyzed and viewed with respect to dimensions, as in data warehouses.

Example actions:

• Dimension to Column: 'Product Type' and 'Market Size'.
• Measure to Row: Sales

[3] Enhance data views

E.g. use "text table".

[4] Create worksheets

Each worksheet provides a data view and analytic view.

2. Resources

• Tableau has extensive training materials, including video: https://www.tableau.com/learn/training