Mastering Tableau 2021: Implement advanced business intelligence techniques and analytics with Tableau (3rd Edition)

Build, design, and improve advanced business intelligence solutions using Tableau's latest features, including Tableau Prep Builder, Tableau Hyper, and Tableau Server Key Features Master new features in Tableau 2021 to solve real-world analytics challenges Perform geo-spatial, time series, and self-service analytics using real-life examples Build and publish dashboards and explore storytelling using Python and R integration support Book Description Tableau is one of the leading business intelligence (BI) tools used to solve data analysis challenges. With this book, you will master Tableau's features and offerings in various paradigms of the BI domain. Updated with fresh topics including Quick Level of Detail expressions, the newest Tableau Server features, Einstein Discovery, and more, this book covers essential Tableau concepts and advanced functionalities. Leveraging Tableau Hyper files and using Prep Builder, you'll be able to perform data preparation and handling easily. You'll gear up to perform complex joins, spatial joins, unions, and data blending tasks using practical examples. Following this, you'll learn how to execute data densification and further explore expert-level examples to help you with calculations, mapping, and visual design using Tableau extensions. You'll also learn 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, and geo-spatial analysis, and connect Tableau to Python and R to implement programming functionalities within Tableau. By the end of this Tableau book, you'll have mastered the advanced offerings of Tableau 2021 and be able to tackle common and advanced challenges in the BI domain. What you will learn Get up to speed with various Tableau components Master data preparation techniques using Tableau Prep Builder Discover how to use Tableau to create a PowerPoint-like presentation Understand different Tableau visualization techniques and dashboard designs Interact with the Tableau server to understand its architecture and functionalities Study advanced visualizations and dashboard creation techniques Brush up on powerful self-service analytics, time series analytics, and geo-spatial analytics 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. The book is ideal if you have a good understanding of Tableau and want to take your skills to the next level. Table of Contents Getting Up to Speed – A Review of the Basics All About Data – Getting Your Data Ready Tableau Prep Builder All About Data – Joins, Blends, and Data Structures Table Calculations All About Data – Data Densification, Cubes, and Big Data Level of Detail Calculations Beyond the Basic Chart Types Mapping Tableau for Presentations Visualization Best Practices and Dashboard Design Advanced Analytics Improving Performance Interacting with Tableau Server/Online Programming Tool Integration Cover Copyright Foreword Contributors Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1: Getting Up to Speed – A Review of the Basics Creating worksheets and dashboards Creating worksheets Creating a visualization Beyond the default behavior Show Me Creating dashboards Building a dashboard Adding interactivity to a dashboard Connecting Tableau to your data Connecting to a file Connecting to Tableau Server Connecting to saved data sources Measure Names and Measure Values Measure Names and Measure Values shortcuts Three essential Tableau concepts Dimensions and measures Row-level, aggregate-level, and table-level calculations Continuous and discrete Exporting data to other devices Exporting data to a mobile phone Tableau Mobile Summary Chapter 2: All About Data – Getting Your Data Ready Understanding Hyper The Tableau data-handling engine Changing field attribution Table calculation Hyper takeaways Data mining and knowledge discovery process models Survey of the process models CRISP-DM CRISP-DM phases Focusing on data preparation Surveying data Establishing null values Extrapolating data Cleaning messy data Cleaning the data Extracting data Summary Chapter 3: Tableau Prep Builder Connecting to data The Tableau Prep Builder GUI Getting to know Tableau Prep Builder Prepping data Cleaning data Unions and joins Adding unions Adding joins Aggregating Pivoting Scripting Additional options with Tableau Prep Builder Insert flow Incremental refresh Tableau Prep Conductor Exporting data Summary Chapter 4: All About Data – Joins, Blends, and Data Structures Relationships Joins Join culling Snowflaking Join calculations Spatial joins Unions Blends Exploring the order of operations Adding secondary dimensions Introducing scaffolding Understanding data structures Summary Chapter 5: Table Calculations A definition and two questions Introducing functions Directional and non-directional table calculations Exploring each unique table calculation function Lookup and Total Previous Value Running Window First and Last Index Rank Size Application of functions Building a playground Partitioning and addressing with one dimension Partitioning and addressing with two dimensions Partitioning and addressing with three dimensions Summary Chapter 6: All About Data – Data Densification, Cubes, and Big Data Using the OData connector Introducing data densification Domain completion Deploying domain completion The usefulness of domain completion Removing unwanted domain completion Domain padding Deploying domain padding The usefulness of domain padding Problems of domain padding Working with cubes Data blending for continuous months Data blending for hierarchies, aliasing, and grouping Tableau and big data Addressing Excel's row limitation Massively parallel processing Building a visualization with Google BigQuery Summary Chapter 7: Level of Detail Calculations Introducing LOD calculations Playground I: FIXED and EXCLUDE Setting up the workbook Understanding FIXED Table-scoped expressions Quick LOD calculations Understanding EXCLUDE Understanding Tableau's order of operations Playground II: INCLUDE Setting up the workbook Understanding INCLUDE Building practical applications with LODs Using the LOD calculation FIXED Using the LOD calculation INCLUDE Using the LOD calculation EXCLUDE Summary Chapter 8: Beyond the Basic Chart Types Improving popular visualizations Bullet graphs Using bullet graphs Bullet graphs – beyond the basics Pies and donuts Pies and donuts on maps Pies and donuts – beyond the basics Pareto charts Using Pareto charts Pareto charts – beyond the basics Custom background images Creating custom polygons Drawing a square around Null Island Creating an interactive bookshelf using polygons Analyzing a game of chess in Tableau Creating an SVG file in Tableau Creating a grid Using a grid to generate a dataset Visualizing a chess game Creating polygons on a background image Tableau extensions Using Show me More Einstein Discovery Summary Chapter 9: Mapping Extending Tableau's mapping capabilities without leaving Tableau Creating custom polygons Polygons for Texas Heatmaps Dual axes and layering maps Using dual axes Adding map layers Extending Tableau mapping with other technology Using custom maps with a Web Map Service Exploring Mapbox Swapping maps Summary Chapter 10: Tableau for Presentations Getting the best images out of Tableau Tableau's native export capabilities From Tableau to PowerPoint Creating a template Creating a dashboard for print Semi-automating a PowerPoint presentation Embedding Tableau in PowerPoint Animating Tableau Using an animation to export many images Using an animation in Tableau to create an animation in PowerPoint Story points and dashboards for presentations Presentation resources Summary Chapter 11: Visualization Best Practices and Dashboard Design Visualization design theory Formatting rules Keep the font choice simple Use lines in order of visibility Use bands in groups of three to five Color rules Keep colors simple and limited Respect the psychological implications of colors Be colorblind-friendly Use pure colors sparingly Choose color variations over symbol variation Visualization type rules Keep shapes simple Use pie charts sparingly Compromises Making the dashboard simple and robust Presenting dense information Telling a story Maximizing documentation on a dashboard Keeping visualizations simple Dashboard design Dashboard layout The golden ratio layout The quad layout The small multiple layout Utilizing sheet swapping Creating a collapsible menu Dashboard best practices for user experience Actions Filter actions Highlight actions URL actions Navigation actions Parameter actions Set actions Export Dashboard Button Item hierarchy Used In Summary Chapter 12: Advanced Analytics Visualizing world indices correlations Plotting a scattergraph Adding axis distributions Adding a correlation matrix Finalizing the dashboard Geo-spatial analytics with Chicago traffic violations Preparing the data Building a map of intersections Adding a corresponding heatmap worksheet Finalizing the dashboard Extending geo-spatial analytics with distance measures Adding measure points to the map Adding the distance line Summary Chapter 13: Improving Performance Understanding the performance-recording dashboard Hardware and on-the-fly techniques Configuring auto updates The Run Update feature Small extracts Connecting to data sources Working efficiently with large data sources Defining primary and foreign keys Defining columns as NOT NULL Indexing Working with extracts Constructing an extract Aggregation Optimizing extracts Using filters wisely Extract filters Data source filters Context filters Dimension and measure filters Table calculation filters Using actions instead of filters Efficient calculations Prioritizing code values Level-of-detail calculation or table calculations Other ways to improve performance Avoid overcrowding a dashboard Fixing dashboard sizing Setting expectations Summary Chapter 14: Interacting with Tableau Server/Online Publishing a data source to Tableau Server Tableau file types Tableau data source Tableau packaged data source Tableau workbook Tableau packaged workbook Other file types Tableau Server architecture Approaches to avoid Approaches to adopt Web authoring Editing an existing workbook with web authoring Understanding the Tableau Server web authoring environment Comparing Tableau Desktop and web authoring Maintaining workbooks on Tableau Server Revision history User filters Performance-recording dashboard More Tableau Server settings and features Features on the worksheet level Features on the view level Summary Chapter 15: Programming Tool Integration Integrating programming languages R installation and integration Implementing R functionality Reproducing native Tableau functionality in R Using R for regression calculations Clustering in Tableau using R Introducing quantiles Performance challenges Python installation and integration Implementing Python functionality Random and random normal Generating random numbers Random normal Calculating sentiment analysis Deploying models with TabPy Predeployed TabPy functions Summary Why subscribe? Other Books You May Enjoy Index **Build, design, and improve advanced business intelligence solutions using Tableau's latest features, including Tableau Prep Builder, Tableau Hyper, and Tableau Server** * Master new features in Tableau 2021 to solve real-world analytics challenges * Perform geo-spatial, time series, and self-service analytics using real-life examples * Build and publish dashboards and explore storytelling using Python and R integration support Tableau is one of the leading business intelligence (BI) tools used to solve data analysis challenges. With this book, you will master Tableau's features and offerings in various paradigms of the BI domain. Updated with fresh topics including Quick Level of Detail expressions, the newest Tableau Server features, Einstein Discovery, and more, this book covers essential Tableau concepts and advanced functionalities. Leveraging Tableau Hyper files and using Prep Builder, you'll be able to perform data preparation and handling easily. You'll gear up to perform complex joins, spatial joins, unions, and data blending tasks using practical examples. Following this, you'll learn how to execute data densification and further explore expert-level examples to help you with calculations, mapping, and visual design using Tableau extensions. You'll also learn 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, and geo-spatial analysis, and connect Tableau to Python and R to implement programming functionalities within Tableau. By the end of this Tableau book, you'll have mastered the advanced offerings of Tableau 2021 and be able to tackle common and advanced challenges in the BI domain. * Get up to speed with various Tableau components * Master data preparation techniques using Tableau Prep Builder * Discover how to use Tableau to create a PowerPoint-like presentation * Understand different Tableau visualization techniques and dashboard designs * Interact with the Tableau server to understand its architecture and functionalities * Study advanced visualizations and dashboard creation techniques * Brush up on powerful self-service analytics, time series analytics, and geo-spatial analytics 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. The book is ideal if you have a good understanding of Tableau and want to take your skills to the next level. 1. Getting Up to Speed – A Review of the Basics 2. All About Data – Getting Your Data Ready 3. Tableau Prep Builder 4. All About Data – Joins, Blends, and Data Structures 5. Table Calculations 6. All About Data – Data Densification, Cubes, and Big Data 7. Level of Detail Calculations 8. Beyond the Basic Chart Types 9. Mapping 10. Tableau for Presentations 11. Visualization Best Practices and Dashboard Design 12. Advanced Analytics 13. Improving Performance 14. Interacting with Tableau Server/Online 15. Programming Tool Integration