Here's a comprehensive guide to **Tableau Basics** that covers essential

concepts and tools. You can use this as a reference for learning or preparing
for an interview. You can format it into a PDF by copying this content into a
Word or Google Doc and exporting it as a PDF.

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# **Tableau Basics - A Quick Guide**

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## **1. Introduction to Tableau**

### 1.1. What is Tableau?
- **Tableau** is a leading data visualization tool used for business
intelligence (BI) and data analytics. It allows users to connect to various data
sources, create interactive dashboards, and share insights in real-time.
- It provides powerful data visualization features that make it easy to create
stunning and interactive charts, graphs, and dashboards without needing advanced
coding knowledge.

### 1.2. Key Features of Tableau

- **Drag-and-Drop Interface**: No programming required to create visualizations.
- **Real-Time Data Connection**: Can connect to multiple data sources like
Excel, SQL, Google Analytics, and cloud databases.
- **Interactive Dashboards**: Allows users to interact with the data in
dashboards and reports.
- **Collaboration**: Dashboards can be shared with stakeholders.
- **Mobile-Friendly**: Dashboards can be accessed on mobile devices.

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## **2. Tableau Interface**

### 2.1. Tableau Desktop
- **Tableau Desktop** is the primary authoring tool where users can create
reports and dashboards. It can connect to a variety of data sources, and it
includes all the data visualization features.

### 2.2. Tableau Server and Tableau Online

- **Tableau Server** is used for sharing and collaborating on Tableau reports
and dashboards within an organization.
- **Tableau Online** is the cloud version of Tableau Server, providing similar
functionality.

### 2.3. Tableau Public

- **Tableau Public** is a free version of Tableau, where users can create
visualizations and share them publicly.

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## **3. Tableau Data Sources and Connections**

### 3.1. Connecting to Data
- Tableau allows you to connect to multiple types of data sources:
- **Excel**, **Text Files**, **CSV** files
- **Databases** (e.g., SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle)
- **Cloud Data** (e.g., Google Analytics, Salesforce)
- **Web Data Connectors** for web-based data (APIs)

### 3.2. Data Connection Types

- **Live Connection**: Data is queried in real-time from the source, and any
changes in the source are reflected immediately.
- **Extract Connection**: Tableau creates a snapshot (extract) of the data and
stores it locally for faster performance. Data is refreshed periodically.

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## **4. Tableau Data Prep and Transformation**
### 4.1. Data Pane and Data Types
- The **Data Pane** shows all the data fields available for creating
visualizations. It is divided into:
- **Dimensions**: Qualitative data (e.g., name, date, city, product).
- **Measures**: Quantitative data (e.g., sales, profit, temperature).
- **Calculated Fields**: Custom fields created using formulas.

### 4.2. Data Cleaning and Transformation

- You can clean and transform data directly in Tableau using features like:
- **Pivot**: To reshape data by turning columns into rows.
- **Split and Merge**: To split or combine columns.
- **Data Interpreter**: Automatically cleans up messy Excel files.
- **Filtering**: Removing unnecessary data from the analysis.

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## **5. Tableau Visualizations**

### 5.1. Types of Visualizations in Tableau
- **Bar Chart**: Displays data with rectangular bars, showing comparisons.
- **Line Chart**: Shows trends over time.
- **Pie Chart**: Displays the proportion of categories.
- **Scatter Plot**: Used to show the relationship between two variables.
- **Histogram**: Displays the frequency distribution of a set of continuous
data.
- **Maps**: Used to show data geographically.
- **Heat Maps**: Displays data in a matrix format, where colors represent
values.

### 5.2. Creating Visualizations

- Drag and drop fields from the Data Pane to the **Rows** and **Columns**
shelves.
- Use **Show Me** panel to suggest visualization types based on the selected
fields.

### 5.3. Customizing Visualizations

- You can customize visualizations by changing the color, size, label, and
tooltip.
- Use the **Marks Card** to control the appearance of data points, such as:
- **Color**: Change the color of data points.
- **Size**: Adjust the size of data points.
- **Label**: Add or modify data labels.

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## **6. Tableau Calculations**

### 6.1. Basic Calculations
- **Table Calculations**: Perform calculations on the values of the visual
itself (e.g., SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX).
- **Calculated Fields**: Custom fields that perform calculations at the data
source level.

Example:
```text
IF [Sales] > 100 THEN "High" ELSE "Low" END
```

### 6.2. Aggregations

- Tableau automatically aggregates data (e.g., sums, averages) based on the
level of detail of the visualization.
- You can adjust the aggregation type by right-clicking on the measure field and
selecting the desired aggregation (e.g., SUM, AVG, COUNT).
### 6.3. Level of Detail (LOD) Calculations
- **LOD** expressions allow you to control the granularity of a calculation.
- **Fixed**: Calculates the expression for a fixed level of detail.
- **Include**: Calculates the expression while including additional
dimensions.
- **Exclude**: Excludes dimensions from the calculation.

Example:
```text
{ FIXED [Region]: SUM([Sales]) }
```

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## **7. Filters and Sorting**

### 7.1. Filters
- Filters allow you to limit the data displayed in a visualization.
- **Dimension Filters**: Filter based on categorical data (e.g., City,
Product).
- **Measure Filters**: Filter based on numeric data (e.g., Sales > 100).
- **Date Filters**: Filter based on time periods.

### 7.2. Sorting

- Sorting allows you to order your data in ascending or descending order. You
can sort data based on:
- **Manual Sorting**
- **Sort by Field** (e.g., by Sales value)

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## **8. Dashboards and Stories**

### 8.1. Dashboards
- A **dashboard** is a collection of multiple visualizations combined into one
interface. It provides a complete view of the data for analysis.
- Drag multiple sheets onto a single dashboard.
- You can add interactivity to dashboards with **actions** (e.g., filter,
highlight, URL).

### 8.2. Stories

- A **story** is a sequence of sheets or dashboards used to convey a narrative.
It allows you to combine visualizations and text in a structured way to guide
the user through insights.

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## **9. Tableau Sharing and Collaboration**

### 9.1. Tableau Public
- **Tableau Public** allows you to publish visualizations and share them
publicly online.

### 9.2. Tableau Server/Online

- **Tableau Server** and **Tableau Online** allow you to share, collaborate, and
manage Tableau reports and dashboards securely within an organization or in the
cloud.

### 9.3. Exporting Data

- You can export data and visualizations from Tableau into various formats like:
- **PDF**: To export dashboards or reports as PDF documents.
- **Image**: To export visualizations as image files.
- **Excel**: To export underlying data or aggregated data to Excel.

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## **10. Tableau Best Practices**

### 10.1. Design Tips
- Keep visualizations simple and clean.
- Use color effectively to highlight key insights.
- Avoid clutter by minimizing the use of too many charts on a single dashboard.

### 10.2. Performance Optimization

- Use **extracts** for faster performance with large datasets.
- Limit the number of complex calculations in your dashboards.
- Use **context filters** to improve performance by reducing the dataset size.

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**End of Tableau Basics Guide**

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This guide covers fundamental concepts that will help you get started with
Tableau. You can convert this into a PDF document using any document editor and
export it accordingly.

Let me know if you need further details or examples on any specific topic!