Learn Tableau
Outline
Build Visualizations
Group Your Data
Why? for correcting data errors (e.g. combining CA, Cali, and California) and answering what if type questions (e.g. ‘what if we combined the east and west regions’)
How? multiple ways to create a group. 1. create a group from a field in the data pane; 2. select data points in the view and click the group icon. [video tutorial]
Include an Other Group. This is useful for highlighting certain groups or comparing specific groups against everything.
Additional ways to group. use calculation fields and parameters to create group with if&then functions to group members under certain conditions. [video tutorial]
Create Sets
Sets are custom fields that define a subset of data based on some conditions. There are two types of sets: dynamic sets and fixed set.
sets actions
set control
dynamic set
The members of a dynamic set change when underlying data changes.
Dynamic sets can only be based on a single dimension.
fixed set
The members of a fixed set do not change even if the underlying data changes. A fixed set can be based on a single dimension or multiple dimensions.
Combine sets
Sets for Top N and Others
Create Parameters
A parameter is a workbook variable such as a number, date, or string that can replace a constant value in a calculation, filter, or reference line. [video tutorial]
Filter and Sort Data
Choose the right chart type for your data
Understanding what you want will help determine how you want to show your visualizations. Therefore, it is important to know what different charts can show.
Change Over time
Line chart, slope chart, highlight tables.
Correlation
Scatter plot, highlight tables, heat maps.
Magnitude
Bar chart, packed bubble chart, line chart.
Deviation
Deviation chart show how far a value is from some baseline, such as average, median.
Bullet chart, bar chart, and combination chart.
Distribution
Histogram, population pyramids, Pareto chart, box chart.
Ranking
Bar chart that integrate rank calculations, top n sets, or key progress indicators.
Part to whole
Pie chart, area chart, stacked bar chart, treemaps.
Spatial
filled maps, point distribution maps, symbol maps, density maps.
Flow
Sankey diagrams