Mastering Tableau 2023 - Fourth Edition

Mastering Tableau 2023 - Fourth Edition

by Marleen Meier, Christina Stathopoulos, David Sigerson
Released August 2023
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781803233765

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Build, design, and improve advanced business intelligence solutions using Tableau’s newest updates, including new Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep, and Tableau Server features Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Key Features

  • Master new Tableau 2023 features to solve real-world analytics challenges
  • Learn how to use both pre-defined and your own Machine Learning models in Tableau
  • How to manage Data Governance and secure high data quality

Book Description

This edition of the bestselling Tableau guide will teach you how to leverage Tableau's newest features and offerings in various paradigms of the BI domain. Updated with fresh topics, including the newest features in Tableau Server, Prep, and Desktop, as well as up-to-date examples, this book will take you from mastering essential Tableau concepts to advance functionalities. A chapter on data governance has also been added.

Throughout this book, you'll learn how to use Tableau Hyper files and Prep Builder to easily perform data preparation and handling, as well as complex joins, spatial joins, unions, and data blending tasks using practical examples. You'll also get to grips with executing data densification and explore other expert-level examples to help you with calculations, mapping, and visual design using Tableau extensions.

Later chapters will teach you all about improving dashboard performance, connecting to Tableau Server, and understanding data visualization with examples. Finally, you'll cover advanced use cases, such as self-service analysis, time series analysis, geo-spatial analysis, and how to connect Tableau to Python and R to implement programming functionalities within Tableau.

By the end of this book, you'll have mastered Tableau 2023 and be able to tackle common and advanced challenges in the BI domain.

What you will learn

  • Learn about various Tableau components, such as calculated fields, table calculations, and LOD expressions
  • Master ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) techniques using Tableau Prep Builder
  • Explore and implement data storytelling with Python and R
  • Understand Tableau Exchange by using accelerators, extensions, and connectors
  • Interact with Tableau Server to understand its functionalities
  • Study advanced visualizations and dashboard creation techniques
  • Brush up on powerful self-service analytics, time series analytics, and geo-spatial analytics
  • Find out why data governance matters and how to implement it

Who this book is for

This book is designed for business analysts, business intelligence professionals, and data analysts who want to master Tableau to solve a range of data science and business intelligence problems. Prior exposure to Tableau will help you get to grips with the features more quickly, but it’s not a prerequisite.

Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Get in touch
  2. Reviewing the Basics
    1. Creating worksheets and dashboards
      1. Creating worksheets
        1. Creating a visualization
        2. Beyond the default behavior
        3. Show Me
      2. Creating dashboards
        1. Building a dashboard
        2. Adding interactivity to a dashboard
    2. Connecting Tableau to your data
      1. Connecting to a file
      2. Connecting to Tableau Server
      3. Connecting to saved data sources
    3. Measure Names and Measure Values
      1. Measure Names and Measure Values shortcuts
    4. Three essential Tableau concepts
      1. Dimensions and measures
      2. Row-level, aggregate-level, and table-level calculations
      3. Continuous and discrete
    5. Exporting data to other devices
      1. Exporting data to a mobile phone
      2. Tableau Mobile
    6. Summary
  3. Getting Your Data Ready
    1. Understanding Hyper
      1. The Tableau data-handling engine
      2. Hyper takeaways
    2. Focusing on data preparation
      1. Surveying data
        1. Establishing null values
        2. Extrapolating data
      2. Cleaning messy data
        1. Cleaning the data
        2. Extracting data
    3. Summary
  4. Using Tableau Prep Builder
    1. Connecting to data
    2. The Prep GUI
      1. Getting to know Prep
    3. Data quality
      1. Cleaning data
      2. Unions and joins
        1. Adding unions
        2. Wildcard unions
        3. Adding joins
      3. Aggregating
      4. Pivoting
      5. Scripting
    4. Additional options with Prep
      1. Insert Flow
      2. Incremental refresh
      3. Bulk rename
      4. Tableau Prep Conductor
    5. Exporting data
    6. Summary
  5. Learning about Joins, Blends, and Data Structures
    1. Relationships
    2. Joins
      1. Join queries
      2. Join calculations
      3. Spatial joins
    3. Unions
    4. Blends
      1. Exploring the order of operations
      2. Adding secondary dimensions
      3. Introducing scaffolding
    5. Understanding data structures
    6. Summary
  6. Introducing Table Calculations
    1. Partition and direction of addressing
    2. Directional and non-directional addressing
      1. Exploring each unique table calculation function
        1. Lookup and Total
        2. Previous Value
        3. Running
        4. Window
        5. First and Last
        6. Index
        7. Rank
        8. Size
    3. Application of functions
      1. Building a playground
      2. Partitioning and addressing with one dimension
      3. Partitioning and addressing with two dimensions
      4. Partitioning and addressing with three dimensions
    4. Guidelines: a reminder
    5. Summary
  7. Utilizing OData, Data Densification, Big Data, and Google BigQuery
    1. Using the OData connector
    2. Introducing data densification
      1. Domain completion
        1. Deploying domain completion
        2. The usefulness of domain completion
        3. Removing unwanted domain completion
      2. Domain padding
        1. Deploying domain padding
        2. The usefulness of domain padding
        3. Problems of domain padding
      3. Data densification in predictive modeling
    3. Tableau and big data
      1. Building a visualization with Google BigQuery
    4. Summary
  8. Practicing Level of Detail Calculations
    1. Introducing LODs
    2. FIXED and EXCLUDE
      1. Setting up the workbook
      2. Understanding FIXED
        1. Table-scoped expressions
        2. Quick LODs
      3. Understanding EXCLUDE
      4. Understanding Tableau’s order of operations
    3. INCLUDE
      1. Setting up the workbook
      2. Understanding INCLUDE
    4. Building practical applications with LODs
      1. Using the LOD FIXED calculation
      2. Using the LOD INCLUDE calculation
      3. Using the LOD EXCLUDE calculation
    5. Summary
  9. Going Beyond the Basics
    1. Improving popular visualizations
      1. Bullet graphs
        1. Using bullet graphs
        2. Bullet graphs – beyond the basics
      2. Pies and donuts
        1. Pies and donuts on maps
        2. Pies and donuts – beyond the basics
      3. Pareto charts
        1. Using Pareto charts
        2. Pareto charts – beyond the basics
    2. Custom background images
      1. Creating custom polygons
        1. Drawing a square around Null Island
        2. Creating an interactive bookshelf using polygons
      2. Analyzing a game of chess in Tableau
        1. Creating an SVG file in Tableau
        2. Creating a grid
        3. Using a grid to generate a dataset
        4. Visualizing a chess game
      3. Creating polygons on a background image
    3. Tableau Exchange
      1. Tableau extensions
      2. Using an extension
        1. Accelerators
        2. Connectors
    4. Einstein Discovery
    5. Summary
  10. Working with Maps
    1. Extending Tableau’s mapping capabilities without leaving Tableau
    2. Creating custom polygons
      1. Polygons for Texas
    3. Heatmaps
    4. Dual axes and layering maps
      1. Using dual axes
      2. Adding map layers
    5. Extending Tableau mapping with other technology
      1. Using custom maps with a WMS
      2. Exploring Mapbox
    6. Swapping maps
    7. Custom geocoding
    8. Summary
  11. Presenting with Tableau
    1. Getting the best images out of Tableau
      1. Tableau’s native export capabilities
    2. From Tableau to PowerPoint
      1. Creating a template
      2. Creating a dashboard for print
      3. Semi-automating a PowerPoint presentation
    3. Embedding Tableau into PowerPoint
    4. Embedding Tableau into Google Slides
    5. Animating Tableau
      1. Using an animation to export many images
      2. Using an animation in Tableau to create an animation in PowerPoint
    6. Story points and dashboards for presentations
    7. Presentation resources
    8. Summary
  12. Designing Dashboards and Best Practices for Visualizations
    1. Visualization design theory
    2. Formatting rules
      1. Keep the font choice simple
      2. Use lines in order of visibility
      3. Use bands in groups of three to five
    3. Color rules
      1. Keep colors simple and limited
      2. Respect the psychological implications of colors
      3. Be colorblind-friendly
      4. Use pure colors sparingly
      5. Choose color variations over symbol variation
    4. Visualization type rules
      1. Keep shapes simple
      2. Use pie charts sparingly
      3. Make the dashboard simple and robust
      4. Present dense information well
      5. Tell a story
      6. Maximize documentation on a dashboard
        1. Visualization types
    5. Keep visualizations simple
    6. Dashboard design
      1. Dashboard layout
        1. The Golden Ratio layout
        2. The quad layout
        3. The small multiple layout
      2. Utilize sheet swapping
      3. Create a collapsible menu
    7. Dashboard best practices
      1. Actions
        1. Filter actions
        2. Highlight actions
        3. URL actions
        4. Navigation actions
        5. Parameter actions
        6. Set actions
      2. Download
      3. Item hierarchy
      4. Used In
        1. Something extra
        2. What works?
        3. Why it works better
        4. What works?
        5. Why it works better
        6. Why it works better
    8. Summary
  13. Leveraging Advanced Analytics
    1. Visualizing world indices correlations
      1. Plotting a scattergraph
      2. Adding axis distributions
      3. Adding a correlation matrix
      4. Finalizing the dashboard
    2. Geo-spatial analytics with Chicago traffic violations
      1. Preparing the data
    3. Building a map of intersections
      1. Adding a corresponding heatmap worksheet
      2. Finalizing the dashboard
    4. Extending geo-spatial analytics with distance measures
      1. Adding measure points to the map
      2. Adding the distance line
    5. Summary
  14. Improving Performance
    1. Understanding the performance-recording dashboard
    2. Hardware and on-the-fly techniques
      1. The Run Update feature
      2. Small extracts
    3. Connecting to data sources
      1. Working efficiently with large data sources
        1. Defining primary and foreign keys
        2. Defining columns as NOT NULL
        3. Indexing
    4. Working with extracts
      1. Constructing an extract
      2. Aggregation
      3. Optimizing extracts
    5. Using filters wisely
      1. Extract filters
      2. Data source filters
      3. Context filters
      4. Dimension and measure filters
      5. Table calculation filters
      6. Using actions instead of filters
    6. Efficient calculations
      1. Prioritizing code values
      2. Level-of-detail calculations or table calculations
    7. Other ways to improve performance
      1. Avoid overcrowding a dashboard
      2. Fixing dashboard sizing
      3. Use Tableau Prep Builder
      4. Setting expectations
      5. Workbook Optimizer
    8. Summary
  15. Exploring Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud
    1. Publishing a data source to Tableau Server
      1. Tableau file types
        1. Tableau data source
        2. Tableau packaged data source
        3. Tableau workbook
        4. Tableau packaged workbook
        5. Other file types
    2. Web authoring
      1. Editing an existing workbook with web authoring
      2. Understanding the Tableau Server web authoring environment
    3. Maintaining workbooks on Tableau Server
      1. Revision history
      2. User filters
    4. More Tableau Server settings and features
      1. Features on the worksheet level
      2. Features on the view level
    5. Summary
  16. Integrating Programming Languages
    1. Integrating programming languages
    2. R installation and integration
    3. Implementing R functionality
      1. Reproducing native Tableau functionality in R
      2. Using R for regression calculations
      3. Clustering in Tableau using R
      4. Introducing quantiles
      5. Performance challenges
    4. Python installation and integration
    5. Implementing Python functionality
      1. Random and random normal
        1. Generating random numbers
        2. Random normal
      2. Calculating sentiment analysis
      3. Deploying models with TabPy
      4. Predeployed TabPy functions
      5. Honing your R and Python skills
      6. Einstein Discovery
    6. Summary
  17. Developing Data Governance Practices
    1. What is data governance?
    2. Data governance principles
      1. Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency
      2. Purpose limitation
      3. Data minimization
      4. Accuracy
      5. Storage limitation
      6. Integrity and confidentiality
      7. Accountability
    3. Data governance in Tableau
      1. Data source connectivity
      2. Data access controls
      3. Data security
      4. Metadata management
      5. Data certification
      6. Version control
      7. Monitoring and auditing
      8. Collaboration and documentation
    4. Follow-along examples
      1. Certifying data sources
      2. Data quality warnings
      3. Tableau Lineage
      4. Data Details
      5. Data Guide
  18. Other Books You May Enjoy
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: Mastering Tableau 2023 - Fourth Edition
  • Author(s): Marleen Meier, Christina Stathopoulos, David Sigerson
  • Release date: August 2023
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781803233765