Tableau 2019.x Cookbook: Over 115 recipes to build end-to-end analytical solutions using Tableau

Tableau 2019.x Cookbook

Over 115 recipes to build end-to-end analytical solutions using Tableau

Dmitry Anoshin

Teodora Matic

Slaven Bogdanovic

Tania Lincoln 

Dmitrii Shirokov

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

Tableau 2019.x Cookbook

Copyright © 2019 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Commissioning Editor: Sunith Shetty

Acquisition Editor: Yogesh Deokar

Content Development Editor: Nathanya Dias

Technical Editor: Vibhuti Gawde

Copy Editor: Safis Editing

Project Coordinator: Kirti Pisat

Proofreader: Safis Editing

Indexer: Rekha Nair

Graphics: Jisha Chirayil

Production Coordinator: Deepika Naik

First published: January 2019

Production reference: 1310119

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

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B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78953-338-5

www.packtpub.com

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Foreword

This book is different from most Tableau books. Previuosly, Tableau books tried to cover the default Tableau functionality with simple examples, or covered the principles of data visualization. This book focuses on end-to-end BI solutions based on Tableau. It includes Tableau Server, both on Linux and Windows; a new tool for data preparation, Tableau Prep; complex use cases with the Tableau REST API, and more. Moreover, this book goes beyond Tableau use cases and covers BI solutions in general and explains the concepts of integration between ETL based on Matillion and BI. Finally, you will learn about working with big data and modern data platforms such as Redshift and Snowflake.

Thank you to my beautiful wife, Svetlana, who supports me during my professional journey and always has a positive attitude. In addition, I want to hug my kids, Vasily, Anna, and Michael and hope one day they will be proud of their dad who planted trees in the backyard and wrote a couple of books. PS for sure, we will go on vacation soon and have some fun together!

                                                                                                                    —Dmitry Anoshin

To our baby, with love. We had a great time writing this book and waiting for you! 

                                                                                                                      —Teodora and Slaven

Thank you Justin and Sydney for your support. I owe you some nice dinners and playground time!  Appreciations to my fellow co-authors for giving me this opportunity.

                                                                                                                      —Tania Lincoln

Contributors

About the authors

Dmitry Anoshin is an expert in analytics with 10 years of experience. He started using Tableau as primary BI tool in 2011 as a BI consultant at Teradata. He is certified with both Tableau Desktop and Server. He leads probably the biggest Tableau user community, with more than 2,000 active users. This community has 2-3 Tableau talks every month led by top Tableau experts, Tableau Zen Masters, Viz Champions, and so on. In addition, Dmitry has previously written three books with Packt and reviewed more than seven books. Finally, he is an active speaker at data conferences and helps people to adopt cloud analytics.

Teodora Matic is a data analyst with a strong background in statistics and more than 5 years of experience in data analytics and reporting. She has been using Tableau since 2014. She has been working as a project manager and data analyst for leading market research companies, such as Ipsos and EyeSee Research, levering the power of Tableau to bring business insights to clients. She currently does data analysis and reporting at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Slaven Bogdanovic has more than 10 years of experience in data analysis and reporting within both business and academia. His expertise covers complex statistical analysis and insight communication. He has been using Tableau since 2013. Currently, he works as a BI/big data developer at NCR Corporation. Previously, he was a senior research executive at Ipsos. Also, Slaven is a PhD candidate and a member of the Laboratory for Research of Individual Differences at the University of Belgrade. In addition, Slaven is the author of six articles published in academic and professional journals.

Tania Lincoln has over 12 years of development experience in BI and data analytics domain. She has a strong SQL, visualization, and analytics skill set, and has demonstrated the ability to mentor others on new technologies and process improvements. She is also experienced in taking a product from inception to launch and managing post-launch growth.

Dmitrii Shirokov has over 11 years of design and development of data-driven solutions.  He has been using Tableau since 2011 in the majority of analytics projects. His expertise covers building data warehouses and sophisticated analytical solutions. Currently, he works as a solutions architect at Rock Your Data consulting company. Previously, he was a big data architect at Sberbank and also worked as a professional service consultant at Teradata.

About the reviewers

Shweta Savale is the cofounder and head of client engagements at Syvylyze (pronounced civilize) Analytics. Being one of the leading experts on Tableau, she has translated her expertise to successfully rendering analytics and data visualization services for numerous clients across a wide range of industry verticals. She has successfully trained over 2,200 participants across 150+ companies on Tableau, and is also an empaneled trainer for Tableau APAC and conducts public and private Tableau training across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, and India.

In addition to being an entrepreneur and trainer, she has also authored Tableau Cookbook – Recipes of Data Visualization, published by Packt Publishing, UK.

Lana Anoshina is mom of three kids and she enjoys working with data and solving complex business issues with data visualization. She enjoys driving her Audi on West Coast and spending quality time with her family near the ocean.

Dave Dwyer has a BS in Information Systems from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), MBA from Drexel University, certified Six Sigma Black Belt and PMP. In his 20+ years as an IT professional, he has worked in a wide range of technical and leadership roles, in companies ranging from startups to Fortune 100 enterprises. A chance introduction to reporting and analytics 10 years ago hooked him and he never left. Dave feels the data science landscape of analytics, visualization, big data, and machine learning will drive more real changes in business over the next 10 years than any other area.

Manideep Bhattacharyya is a Tableau enthusiast and Tableau certified professional with more than 16 years of industry experience. He graduated from science college Calcutta in 2003. He started his career at IBM as a Siebel certified professional and worked for 7 years and contributed to many global multinational projects across the world. Later on, he joined an Indian conglomerate and implemented Tableau with a large-scale multi-billion row dataset, and set a new standard for data discovery and visualization for CXOs and top management.

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright and Credits

Tableau 2019.x Cookbook

About Packt

Why subscribe?

Packt.com

Foreword

Dedication

Contributors

About the authors

About the reviewers

Packt is searching for authors like you

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Download the example code files

Download the color images

Conventions used

Sections

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Get in touch

Reviews

Getting Started with Tableau Software

Technical requirements

Introduction to Tableau

Connecting to the data

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also                    

Building a bar chart using Show Me

Getting ready

How to do it…

Creating a chart using Show Me

Sorting the chart        

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Building a text table

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Adding filters

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Adding color        

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Building a tree map

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Building a map

Getting ready

How to do it…

Creating a map with circles

Creating a map with a color gradient

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Building a dual-axis map

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Customizing tooltips

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Data Manipulation

Technical requirements           

Introduction

Joining data sources

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Adding a secondary data source

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Data blending

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

 See also

Data union

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Using Tableau Pivot

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Preparing data

Getting ready

How to do it…

Splitting fields

Converting measures into dimensions

Renaming fields

Adding aliases

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Tableau Extracts

Introduction

Overview of different file formats in Tableau

How to do it...

Tableau Workbook (TWB)

Tableau Packaged Workbook 

Tableau Bookmark 

Tableau Data Extract

Hyper

How it works...

Tableau Workbook 

Tableau Packaged Workbook (TWBX)

Tableau Bookmark (TBM)

Creating a data source extract

Getting ready

How to do it...

Connecting to data

Creating an extract

Optional settings for extracts

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Configuring an incremental extract

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Upgrading to Hyper

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating extracts using cross-database joins

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Troubleshooting extracts with Tableau Server

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Tableau Desktop Advanced Calculations

Technical requirements

Introduction

Creating calculated fields

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Implementing quick table calculations

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also    

Creating and using groups

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Creating and using sets

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Creating and using parameters

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Implementing the basics of level of detail expressions

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also                                   

Using custom geocoding       

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Using polygons for analytics

Getting ready

How to do it…                                                    

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Tableau Desktop Advanced Filtering

Technical requirements

Introduction

Implementing a top N filter

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Adding filters to context

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Creating a measure filter

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There’s more…

See also

Creating date range filters

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Creating relative dates filters

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Implementing table calculation filters

Getting ready 

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Implementing action filters 

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Building Dashboards

Technical requirements

Introduction

Creating a dashboard

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Formatting a dashboard

Getting ready

How to do it…

Setting and formatting dashboard title

Formatting worksheet titles

Formatting text objects

Formatting the dashboard background

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Setting filters

Getting ready

How to do it…

Setting filters through the dashboard

Setting filters through the worksheet

Filtering by worksheets in the dashboard – action filters

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Setting filters across various data sources

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Adding highlight actions

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Setting layouts

Getting ready

How to do it…

Setting a fixed size

Setting the automatic size

Setting the range size

Adding a device layout

Customizing the device layout

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Building a self-service dashboard

Getting ready

How to do it…

Switching between dimensions with parameters

Adding a hyperlink to an image object

Adding a web page to the dashboard

Adding an action filter

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Telling a Story with Tableau

Technical requirements

Introduction

Creating a Tableau story

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Setting the narrative of the Story

Getting ready

Conflict

How to do it…

How it works...

Development 

How to do it…

How it works...

Climax

How to do it…

How it works...

Resolution

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Choosing the right charts

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works

There’s more…

See also 

Writing effective headlines

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

Recommendation and executive summary

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Formatting the Story

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Tableau Visualization

Technical requirements

Introduction

Dual axis waterfall chart

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Pareto chart

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Bump chart

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Sparklines chart

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Donut chart

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Motion chart

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also 

Tableau Advanced Visualization

Technical requirements

Introduction

Lollipop charts

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Sankey diagrams

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Marimekko charts

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Hex-Tile maps

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Waffle charts

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Tableau for Big Data

Technical requirements

Introduction

Connecting with Amazon Redshift

Getting ready

How to do it…

Creating an AWS account

Creating an IAM role

How it works…

Launching an Amazon Redshift cluster

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Connecting a Redshift cluster

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Loading sample data into the Redshift cluster

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Connecting Redshift with Tableau

How to do it…

How it works…

Creating a Tableau report

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Tuning Redshift for efficient Tableau performance

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Connecting to Amazon Redshift Spectrum

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Connecting to Snowflake

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

Using SnowSQL CLI

How to do it…

How it works…

Connecting Tableau to Snowflake

How to do it…

How it works…

Connecting big data

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Accessing semi–structured data

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Connecting Amazon Elastic MapReduce with Apache Hive

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating sample data

How to do it...

How it works...

There’s more…

See also

Connect Tableau with  Apache Hive

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Forecasting with Tableau

Technical requirements

Introduction

Basic forecasting and statistical inference

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Forecasting on a dataset with outliers

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Using R within Tableau

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Forecasting based on multiple regression

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Regression with random forest

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

 There's more…

See also

Time series forecasting

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

 There's more…

See also

Advanced Analytics with Tableau

Technical requirements

Introduction

Running segmentation analysis

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Discovering the latent structure of the dataset

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Extracting the structure beneath discrete variables

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Data mining with tree-based models

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more

See also

Identifying anomalies in data

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Deploy Tableau Server

Technical requirements

Introduction

Deploying Tableau Server in Windows

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Deploying to Tableau Server

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...