Mastering Tableau

Book excerpt: Master the intricacies of Tableau to create effective data visualizations About This Book Arm yourself with an arsenal of advanced chart types and geocoding to efficiently and engagingly present information Map a grid over a network node diagram and use that grid to demonstrate loads, processing time, and more in Tableau Integrate R with Tableau by utilizing R functions, libraries, and saved models Who This Book Is For If you are a business analyst without developer-level programming skills, then this book is for you. You are expected to have at least a fundamental understanding of Tableau and basic knowledge of joins, however SQL knowledge is not assumed. You should have basic computer skills, including at least moderate Excel proficiency. What You Will Learn Create a worksheet that can display the current balance for any given period in time Recreate a star schema from in a data warehouse in Tableau Combine level of detail calculations with table calculations, sets, and parameters Create custom polygons to build filled maps for area codes in the USA Visualize data using a set of analytical and advanced charting techniques Know when to use Tableau instead of PowerPoint Build a dashboard and export it to PowerPoint In Detail Tableau has emerged as one of the most popular Business Intelligence solutions in recent times, thanks to its powerful and interactive data visualization capabilities. This book will empower you to become a master in Tableau by exploiting the many new features introduced in Tableau 10.0. You will embark on this exciting journey by getting to know the valuable methods of utilizing advanced calculations to solve complex problems. These techniques include creative use of different types of calculations such as row-level, aggregate-level, and more. You will discover how almost any data visualization challenge can be met in Tableau by getting a proper understanding of the tool's inner workings and creatively exploring possibilities. You'll be armed with an arsenal of advanced chart types and techniques to enable you to efficiently and engagingly present information to a variety of audiences through the use of clear, efficient, and engaging dashboards. Explanations and examples of efficient and inefficient visualization techniques, well-designed and poorly designed dashboards, and compromise options when Tableau consumers will not embrace data visualization will build on your understanding of Tableau and how to use it efficiently. By the end of the book, you will be equipped with all the information you need to create effective dashboards and data visualization solutions using Tableau. Style and approach This book takes a direct approach, to systematically evolve to more involved functionalities such as advanced calculation, parameters & sets, data blending and R integration. This book will help you gain skill in building visualizations previously beyond your capacity.