Introduction

to
Tableau
Tableau: a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history
Tableau Components
Connect to the data
Worksheets:
◦ Contains individual visualizations
Dashboards:
◦ Contains one or more worksheets
Stories:
◦ Combination of worksheets and dashboards
◦ Presentation environment
Create a worksheet
Name a worksheet Integer: Any whole number (i.e. no decimals)
Float: Any number including decimals
Undo/Redo/Clear  Sheet
Tableau Workspace
Data pane: • Cards & Shelves:
◦ Data source
• Columns and Rows shelves
◦ Dimensions
◦ Categorical variables
• Filtering data: Data is excluded
◦ Slicing variables from calculations and other
◦ Measures computations performed on the
◦ Continuous variables summarized data in the table.
◦ Sets • Hiding data: Doesn't display in the
◦ Subset of records view, but it is still included in
◦ Parameters calculations.
Marks card – Key element
Gives visualization detail and context
◦ Allow to modify a view’s design, visualization type, user experience, and
granularity of analysis all in one place
◦ Adding more dimensions/measures  Increased Granularity
Marks Cards: Color, Size, Label, Detail, Tooltip, and Shape.
◦ Allows to “encode” the marks on a view
◦ Encoding marks adds depth to analysis by mapping marks to colors, sizes, and / or
shapes to add context to a view.
◦ Encodings will be carried on to other views as they are created.
Label and Tooltip Marks Cards
Dataset: Hospital visits
1. BAR CHART: Compare the revenue between various departments in the
hospital
1. Arrange it in descending order (SORT)
2. Show only the top 10 departments. (FILTER)  Dept Filter
3. Add Hospital Goal.csv
1. Drag Goal to columns Select Bullet chart
4. Group and highlight some departments
1. Create calculated value: sum(revenue)>= sum(goal)
2. STACKED BAR CHART: Compare the revenue for the year 2019 to the year
2018 for different Department Types
1. Edit colors
2. Group ICU & Natal Together
1. Right-click each bar -- select Mark label-- Always show.
 Dataset: Hospital visits
4. CIRCLE CHARTS : Compare doctors within same department in terms of
average minutes to service
Dept Type (rows)- AVERAGE Mins to Serve (Col)
Change x-axis scale – Right clk- Edit axis- Custom -- Fixed start
Slice by Doctors Drop Doctors in Detail card
Drop Department type to color card – Change circle size
Introduce average line for easier comparison
Box-plot
5. HISTOGRAM
◦ Minutes to Service Histogram
◦ Select Minutes to Service -> Select histogram
◦ Creates dimension ‘Minutes to Service (bins)’
◦ Change Bin Size
Dates
Row: Revenue
Column: Year (date of admit)
Built in date hierarchy
Date part: Represents a specific part of the date
Date value: Represent a date value with ref to year
Compare 2018 & 2019 revenue
◦ Use Date Part and slice by year color
◦ Create year lable
Dual Axis chart- Revenue vs No. of patients
Heatmap
Rows: Days
Columns: Month
Detail by Count of patients
Change color
TREE MAPS
◦ Department Type and Department – Rows
◦ Revenue – Column
◦ Click Tree map.
◦ Change color card of Department Type

SCATTER PLOT
Revenue vs No. of patients visit
◦ Slice by Department
◦ Slice with months – Date part & Date Value
Introduction to calculations
Results:
 Per row of data (Row-level calculation)
 At aggregate level
 Level of detail calculations:
 Aggregations that are performed at a specified level of detail, with the results available at the
row level

 Table calculations:
Calculations are performed on the table of aggregate data that has been returned by the data
source to Tableau.
Introduction to calculations
 Calculations will show up as either a new measure or dimension/field
 made up of functions, operations, and references to other fields,
parameters, constants, groups, or sets
Dataset: Vacation Rentals
 Concatenating strings  ‘+’
 Create Full name from First and last name

 Split strings  SPLIT ()

 Create building names and room numbers as separate variables
 Alternate: Transform  custom split

 IF and ELSEIF
 Create the floor number of the rooms as a separate variable “Floor”
IF LEFT([RoomNo],1)= "1" THEN "First Floor" ELSE "Second Floor" END
Aggregate calculations
 Create discount percentage at room level, floor level and property level
 SUM([Discount])/SUM([Rent])
Row-wise sum vs column-wise sum
 AGG indicates that aggregation is defined in the calculation.
 Cannot mix aggregate and non-aggregate arguments with this function
 E.g.: [Discount] / SUM([Rent])

 Change into percentage

 right-click the Discount % -- Default Properties -- Number Format – Percentage

 Display table of Bldg Name- Room No – Rent- Discount – Discount %

 Duration of stay per Guest
Fix “Year” of date field
Concatenate strings  +”-”+”2022”
Convert to date type
 Duration: DateDiff()
Calculate Revenue per Guest
 (((1+([Tax per Night]/100))*[Rent])* [Duration])-[Discount]
 Create Total Revenue at room level, floor level and property level
Table Calculations
 Create a table showing different table
calculations for sales

Quick Calculations
 Running Total: Cumulative total
 Difference
 Rank
 Running Total (Sales) -- Edit Table Calculation – Compute using ‘Pane down’ (starts for every
quarter)
 Difference Total (Sales) -- Edit Table Calculation – Calculation Type – ‘Percent Difference from
quarter)
 Convert the difference quarter-wise : Compute using – Pane down
 YoY Growth rate
LOOKUP(expression, [offset]) : Returns the value of the expression in a target row, specified as a
relative offset from the current row.
 Lookup(ATTR([Category]), -1)
Level of detail (LoD) calculations
 Row Level Expressions and View Level Expressions
 Row Level Expressions: Unaggregated expressions computed for each row
 View Level Expressions: Aggregated expressions computed by the dimensions in the view
 Encloses in AGG function

 LoD Calculations – Defined by calculations

 Aggregations at a specified level of details
 Different from the level of detail that is defined in the view

 FIXED , INCLUDE , and EXCLUDE - keywords indicating type of lod calculation

Dim 1 , Dim 2 – dimensions (more thane one dimension can be included)
 AGG  aggregate function Eg: SUM , AVG , MIN , and MAX
 Field  value that will be aggregated
 FIXED
 Independent of Dimensions in the view

 Returns the average orders per state regardless of dimensions in the view

 INCLUDE
 Aggregates at the level of detail by the dimensions in the view & dimensions in syntax

 EXCLUDE
 Aggregates at the level of detail by the dimensions in the view but excluding any listed in syntax
Create Table – Dept, Category and Sales
◦ Display Total Sales across tables -- {FIXED: SUM([Sales])}
◦ Display Dept-wise Total sales -- {FIXED [Department]: SUM([Sales])}
◦ Calculate percent Sales of individual categories wrt Dept -- ([Sales])/[FxdDept]
Compare “Regional level sales” with the sales of each state in that region
◦ { FIXED [Region]: SUM([Sales])}
◦
 INCLUDE
To perform certain calculations at levels of detail that are lower (more detailed)
than the view level of detail
Display Total Sales across categories & Avg sales per customer in that category
 INCLUDE : {INCLUDE [Customer Name] : SUM([Sales])}
 Add Include – Change Agg to AVERGE Display category-wise SUM(Sales)-

 Display Department-wise sales and average regional-profit for each of the product
categories
 Department Sales  average regional-profit
 ({INCLUDE [Region]: AVG([Profit])})

 EXCLUDE
 Compare the average profit of each department with the overall average profit
 {EXCLUDE [Department]:AVG([Profit])}
Loans.csv
 Each record is a monthly snapshot of a loan
 Was a member ever at risk?: Any member with a credit score of less
than 550 (even once during the payment cycle) is considered to be at
risk.
 Which loan type has the highest numbers of at-risk members?
 Latest balance for a member
 Show the latest balance for each member across loan types
 INCLUDE
What is the average number of loans per member on a state-by-state basis?
 EXCLUDE
 How does the average credit score for a given loan type compare to the overall
average for the entire portfolio?
 Show the difference between the average credit score of a loan type and the
overall average of the portfolio as a bar chart
Scatter Plot & Trend Line
 Predict Sales as a function of Order quantity
 Rows  Sales
 Columns  OQ
 Row Id To disaggregate the data
 Add in Marks pane (label)

 Trendline options – Linear, Logarithmic, polynomial etc…

 Give trend line for each Region
 Describe trend model
 Trend line vs Trend Model
 Interaction Effect: Interaction of Region with Order Qty
 Additional statistical information
 Worksheet  Show summary
 Drop down the menu to show additional details
Trend Lines
 Fields that define X (columns) and Y (rows) coordinates  Independent & Dependent variable
 Row and Column fields to be continuous (green) (Exception: date field)

 Discrete fields  Factors  Can appear on rows/column/shelves

 Used to split trend lines

 Data should be disaggregated at some level for the model

 Predict Sales as a function of Order quantity
Forecasting
 To explore long‐term trends and any potential seasonality
 Data taken over time has random variation
 Smoothing: To cancel the effect due to random variation
 Reveals more clearly the underlying trends.
 Tableau uses exponential smoothing
 Forecast Options
 Forecast Length: Determines how far into the future the forecast extends
 Automatic: Tableau determines the forecast length based on the data.
 Exactly: Extends the forecast for the specified number of units.
 Until: Extends the forecast to the specified point in the future.
Forecasting
 Forecast model:
 Custom:
 No trend & No seasonality - Single Moving Average - straight, flat-line forecast.
 Additive Trend & No Seasonality-
 Multiplicative Trend & No Seasonal
 Integers as periods instead of dates
 Describe Forecast: Summary of forecast
Forecasting
 Additive model: Appropriate if the magnitude of the seasonal fluctuations does not vary with
the level of time series
 Multiplicative model: Used if the seasonal fluctuations increase or decrease proportionally
with increases and decreases in the level of the series.
 Clustering
 Clustering – Grouping of individual data points based on the given dimensions
 Data points of a particular cluster are similar to each other based on the dimensions
 Eg: To determine groups of customers related to each other based on spending amounts, frequency
of purchases, or times and days of orders.

 Tableau uses a standard k-means clustering algorithm

 Appropriate only for continuous variables

 Cluster customers with respect to Sales and Profit

 Options for Variables and No. of Clusters
 Materialize the clusters as groups in the data source
 Drag and drop the ‘CLUSTER’ from view pane to data pane
 Assigns a cluster no. for each customer
 Describe Cluster
 Check “Show scaled centres” for easier interpretation
 ANOVA across clusters

 Use Cluster Id on map to see how segments of customers are spread

 Forecast for selected time periods? -- Display Trend line for 1980 to 1988 period
 Use IF-ELSE to break the periods
 Tableau keeps the full date range in the axis for each period.
 Edit Axis  Independent axis range for each row or column
 Receive ”From year” and “To Year” as parameter.
Distribution
Construct a line chart of profit over months
Drag & drop Distribution band – Change to std deviation– band symmetric
Waterfall charts
A waterfall chart is useful when you want to show how parts
successively build up to a whole
 Chart to show how ‘profit’ builds up to a grand total across
‘Departments’ and ‘Categories’ of products
 Rows: Profit
 Quick Table Calculation  Running total (Cumulative total)
 To get a waterfall effect

 Columns: Department & Category

Waterfall charts
 Mark-- Gantt Bar (Change running total back to normal and see)
 Give size to the bars based on Profit
Sort ‘Category’ based on  Profit in ascending order
 Right click x-axis Format Header  Alignment
 Duplicate the sheet
 Step lines and jump lines
 Change Gantt chart to Line
 Change Color of Profit– Path -- Step
 Sparklines
 Sparklines are visualizations that use
multiple small line graphs that are
designed to be read and compared quickly
 Give audience the ability to quickly
understand trends – Not exact values
 Category-wise Sales Trend
 Rows – Sales
 Columns – Order Date by Quarter
 Rows- Category
Sparklines
 Add Min Sales, Max Sales values
 Use Calculated field –> Min Sales & Max Sales
Sales Trend- Use Windows_Min/Max
 Change to Discrete
 Identify the last point in the trend
 IF LAST() == 0
 THEN
 SUM([Sales])
 END
 Row: Last Sales
 Dual Axis & Synchronize
 In Marks Enlarge Size of Last Sales
 Remove headers: Right click Y-axis (Sales) – Unclick Show header  Fit Height to view all
Unit/symbol charts
 To show individual items  using shapes or symbols to represent each individual
 Appropriate for discrete/categorical
 Show number of people with “Late Shipping” – Greater than 14 days – Across Region
 Create Calculated field for ‘Late Shipping”
 DATEDIFF("day", [Order Date],[Ship Date]) >14
 Rows: Region
 LOD: Customer Id in Marks
 Move Late Shipping to Filters – Select TRUE
 Marks: Change Automatic – Shape
 Click Shape  Change Shapes
 Do not touch Customer Id
 Increase Size
Unit/symbol charts
 Scatter Plot
 Rows: Sales
 Column: Profit
 Marks: Category

 Pick top 4 categories by Sale

 Filter: Category – Edit filter

 Change Marks: Category -- Shapes

My Tableau Repository\Shapes
 Add figures
Parameters (Parameter values are GLOBAL)
 Placeholder for showing controls
 Steps in creating parameter
 Step 1: Create or define a parameter
 Step 2: Show the parameter as a control option in the view (optional- can
also be used for background calculations)
 Step 3: Create calculated field  How we intend to use the parameter
(optional)
 Parameters by themselves do not do anything.
 Needs to be connected to some other variable/fields/filters etc.
 Step 4: Use
 Ex 1: Create parameter: ‘factor’ that can change values from 0.1 to 1.1 in 0.1 steps
 Create Parameter FACTOR
 Float Current Value
 Range
 0.1 to 1.1 in step size of .1
 Show parameter in View
 Create new variable AdjSales = SUM([Sales]) * [Factor]
 Display across “Categories”

 Ex 2: Create a parameter to search “Customer Name” and display corresponding customers “Sales”
 Parameter: “Enter Cust Name” (string)
 Calculated Field: “Match Cust Name”  CONTAINS(LOWER([Customer Name]),LOWER([Enter Customer
name]))
 Rows: ‘Customer Name’ ; Order Qty
 Move “Match Customer” to Rows  Select Filter ‘TRUE’
Ex 3: Show top ‘N’ customers by ‘Sales’ by getting ‘N’ as user input
 Parameter Creation through “Filter”
 Create Parameter  Enter N & & Show in View
 Drop Customer name (Rows) & Sales (col)
 Connect Parameter to Customer Name filter
 Filter  Top  By Field --.> Select ‘Parameter’

 Ex 4: Construct dynamic Moving Average graph for ‘Sales’:

 Compare sales with different number of moving averages
 moving average 3 units by default (2+current value included)
 Dual Axis -> Synchronize Axis  Helps to make a scaled and correct comparison
Display Moving Average graph for ‘Sales across regions

 Create parameter “Enter MA period”

Drag down SUM (MA SALES) in Rows to “field pane”
 Create new calculated field drag & drop SUM (MA SALES) & replace period with parameter
Plot Date vs New calculated field
Parameters
Ex 5: Show Category-wise sales for each Region – with ‘Region as user input
 Create parameter: Region  List Add values from
 Create Calc Field:”Region-wise sales”
 IF [Region]=[Choose Region] THEN [Sales] END
 Categories (rows) & Region-wise sales (columns)
 Add reference line to show “Avg Sales” across region
 Visualize sales across regions

 Two level bar chart

 Understand sales amounts for departments across various regions
 Create table  Region  Department  Sales
 Color code each department
 Drop Department in Color of Marks

 Sales over time

 Year  Sales  Line chart
 Click ‘+’ sign to drill across quarters & months
 Slice sales over time across regions
 Drop Region over Color card
 Slice sales over time across regions & department
 Drop Department on to rows
Animated visualizations
 Create correlation of Sales and Profit for each Department
 Rows: Profit
 Column: Sales
 Detail: Department
 Shape Mark : Department
 Add Region to Pages
 Show pages

 Switching between Region shows different movement of sales Vs profit

Animated visualizations
 Animations format pane
 Format – Animation
 Sheet –wise Info
Animation : ON
 Duration 2 Second
Animated visualizations
 Animated charts showing Category-wise sales across “Years/Months”
 Column: Sales
 Detail Mark: Category
 Color Mark: Category
 Create Calculated Field – Ranking
 RANK_UNIQUE(SUM([Sales]))
 Move Ranking to Rows
 Right Click Ranking-- Compute Using – “Categories”
 Convert Ranking to Discrete
 Move State to Pages
 And Play
Animated visualizations
 Show Animated time series of monthly sales across regions
 Edit:
 Show History
 Check ALL
 Show Both
Dashboard Building
 Arrangement of individual visualizations
 Each of these visualizations gives you a snapshot of a story within the data
 Insight into the data answers a question or two.

 Bring the snapshots together to communicate a complete and compelling

story to your intended audience
 Types
 Static – Providing visualization of various aspects of the data
 Interactive - allowing users to dynamically filter, drill down, and interact with the data
visualizations

Objectives:
 Telling a story – communicating a narrative with data
Designing dashboards
 Objects - Worksheets, filters, parameters, legends, texts, layout
containers etc
 Tiled versus floating
 Layers of floating objects can be ordered
 Floating object’s size changes with dynamic dashboards
 Hold shift while dragging containers
 Horizontal Vs Vertical Containers:
 Horizontal- resizes according to the width of the objects it contains
 Vertical - adjusts height.
Find which items are the least profitable
 PROFIT BY CATEGORY - Create a bar chart showing profit by Category
 Filter using Department and show a filter
 Sort categories by Profit

PROFIT BY ITEM - Create a bar chart showing profit by Items

 Limit items to only top 10 least profitable ones --- Use Filter

 PROFIT BY STATE - Display a filled map of profit by state

 Drop State in view
 Drop Profit in Color shelf

 Profit by Order date

 Rows: Profit
 Columns: Order date (Quarters)
 Draw Trend line
Actions
 Check -- Use as Filter button on Profit by Category
 Enables view to be used as an interactive filter for the entire dashboard
 When user selects a bar -- all other views will be filtered based on selection

 Create action to filter everything when the user selects an item from Least Profitable Items

 Main menu-- select Dashboard – Actions

 Add Action -- Select Filter

 Set Source Sheets -- Least Profitable Items

 Target Sheets -- Profit by State and Profit Trend

 Action -- set to run on Select.

A regional scorecard dashboard
 SHEET 1: Compare the Region-wise Profit ratio with ‘Target Ratio”
 Provide an option to change ‘Target Ratio”

 SHEET 2: Also show region-wise performance (discretely) for the latest 6 months

 Create a parameter for ‘Target Ratio’

 Create Calculated Field to derive Region-wise Profit Ratio

 Create Calculated Field to compare Region-wise Profit Ratio with Target (KPI)
 IF [Profit ratio]>=[Profit ratio target]
 THEN "Acceptable"
 ELSE "Poor"
 END
 SHEET1: Create Region-map
 Region has to be converted to map
 Apply KPI on Color Shelf

 SHEET 2: Create month-wise performance

 Rows: region (as discrete category)
 Columns: Order date- Month– Discrete
 Filter to top 6 months

 SHEET 3: Show KPI by State

 SHEET 4: Show Profit Ratio by Quarter

 Rows: Profit ratio
 Columns: Order date
 Change Marks to Bar