Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification E-Book

Adam Mico

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 277

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

The Tableau Desktop Specialist certification is fundamental for any data visualization professional who works in the field with Tableau.
This book gets you started by covering the exam format, Tableau basics, and best practices for preparing data for analysis and visualization. It also builds on your knowledge of advanced Tableau topics to get you up to speed with the essential domains and domain objectives. Although the guide provides an outline and starting point to key in on what needs to be understood before the examination, it also delivers in context to give you a strong understanding of each piece before taking the exam. Instructions on how to get hands on with examples, a common data source, and suggested elements are also included. Understanding the concepts will not only assist you in passing the examination, but will also help you work effectively with the tool in your workspace.
By the end of this book, you'll be able to efficiently prepare for the certification exam with the help of mock tests, detailed explanations, and expert advice from the author.

Leseprobe

Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification

A prep guide with multiple learning styles to help you gain Tableau Desktop Specialist certification

Adam Mico

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification

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To the #DataFam, which includes the Tableau community and supportive people of Team Tableau, who have inspired me to find my voice and to bet on myself. You have changed my life immeasurably. To my original mentor, Amy Banicki, who enabled me to change courses in my career and helped expose me to Tableau. To my patient wife, Kristina, who has always encouraged and supported me with stability. To my son, Addisson, who has become his own incredible man, husband, and father. And finally, my granddaughter, Madeline, who came into the world on February 22, 2022.

– Adam Mico

Contributors

About the author

Adam Mico is the principal, data visualization and enablement at Moderna. Before that, he worked as a Tableau evangelist for Keyrus US. He is a two-time Michael W. Cristiani Community Leadership Award winner (Tableau Conference). He is also a Tableau visionary, mentor, Tableau Speaker Bureau member, and a Tableau ambassador. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, finding the next great bite, and spending time with his family and dog.

About the reviewers

Maulik Vyas is currently a BI analyst at TD Bank, one of the leading banks in North America, working in a data visualization and advanced analytics team. He holds a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Windsor. He has several years of experience working on projects involving Tableau. He passed the Tableau Desktop Specialist test with a 95% score. In his free time, he enjoys exploring new developments in Tableau.

Allison Wright is a 2021 Tableau Public featured author, a member of the 2022 Tableau’s Next cohort, and a co-moderator for the Women in Dataviz Slack. She has a passion for the data community, enjoys the journey of learning, and has helped clients “see and understand data” through data visualization using Tableau. She has been working in the analytics field since 2019 and is a business intelligence developer at JLL.

This would not be possible without the #DataFam! Thank you all so much for your ongoing encouragement and support.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1: Introduction to Tableau

1

Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification Overview

How will a Tableau Desktop Specialist certification help me?

United States

United Kingdom

Learning Tableau Desktop basics

Application basics (as of April 2022)

Connecting to data

Worksheets

Worksheets, dashboards, and stories

Worksheet Data pane basics

Show Me charts

Summary

Knowledge check

2

Data Ingestion

Technical requirements

Data structure basics

Format

Basic data categorization and data types

Pivoted versus unpivoted data

Data cleanliness basics

Connecting to data

Overview of the Data Source pane

Formatting fields in the Data Source pane

Core cleaning functions of the Data Source pane

Summary

Knowledge check

3

How to Interpret Data in a Tableau Visualization

Technical requirements

Simple one-chart data visualization

Formatting a chart in Tableau

Filters and actions

Tooltips

Summary

Knowledge check

4

Working with Dimensions, Measures, and Marks (Oh My)

Technical requirements

Grasping data dimensions

Data measures

Discrete versus continuous (blue versus green fields – otherwise known as pills)

The Tableau Marks section

Tableau mark types

Managing marks' appearance

Summary

Knowledge check

5

Calculations and Functions Syntax

Technical requirements

Tableau functions

Number functions

String functions

Date functions

Logical functions

Basic aggregate functions

Other functions

Creating basic calculations in Tableau

Creating a (blank) calculated field

Building a calculation

Introduction to LOD expressions and parameters

LOD expressions

Parameters

Order of operations

Summary

Knowledge check

Part 2: Mastering the Exam

6

Connecting to and Preparing Data

Technical requirements

Creating live data connections and extracts

Live versus extracted connections

Creating a live data connection

Creating an extracted data connection and local data source

Creating and managing the data model

Managing data properties

Unions in Tableau Desktop and join basics

Unions

Join basics

Summary

Knowledge check

7

Understanding and Creating Fundamental Charts in Tableau

Technical requirements

Creating fundamental charts

Bar chart

Crosstab (text table)

Highlight table (also known as a heat map)

Stacked bar chart

Line chart

Area chart

Scatter plot

Dual-axis chart

Filled map

Point maps

Density maps

Summary

Knowledge check

8

Data Organization and Worksheet Analytics

Technical requirements

Organizing data

Grouping data

Creating hierarchies

Working with sets

Applying analytics at the worksheet level

Managing manual/computed sorting

Dynamic sorting

Adding reference lines

Reference line instructions

Working with basic table calculations

Basic table calculation instructions

Understanding the basics of parameters

Creating bins and histograms

Instructions for creating a bin and a histogram

Summary

Knowledge check

9

Sharing Insights

Technical requirements

Formatting a visualization for presentation

Using colors from the Marks card

Configuring fonts

Formatting marks as shapes

Configuring visualization animations

Changing the size of marks

Showing and hiding legends

Creating and modifying a simple dashboard

Dashboard pre-work

Viewing and sharing workbook data

Sharing a workbook as a file or on a server

View and export underlying data

Summary

Knowledge check

Part 3: The Final Prep

10

Exam Preparation

Technical requirements

Preparation through examination scheduling

Examination basics

Preparing for the online examination before the day of the exam

Scheduling the examination and additional preparation

Final examination preparation

Post-scheduling preparation

Exam day preparation

Once the examination is done

Summary

11

Mock Test

Technical requirements

Mock exam

Start the exam

Exam answers

Exam scoring

Basic scoring

Domain scoring

What’s next?

Summary

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

Data visualization is a common career path, or a necessary skill needed in the data analyst and data science space. A premium business intelligence (BI) tool used by millions is Tableau.

Globally, data visualization has taken off and changed the lives of many who are enthusiastic about it. Regardless of where you live, whether you are a new graduate or a person looking to change their career, there’s space to thrive with Tableau. A Desktop Specialist verifiable certification can be your stepping stone to finding work much quicker in this space. This book is designed to give you 6 working months of knowledge needed to ace the examination within 2 weeks by focusing on specific areas of what you will be scored on while providing many practical examples you are strongly encouraged to work on and master.

By the end of this book, you will have the knowledge to not only pass the examination but also begin working in the field of data visualization. You will be able to build charts and dashboards, understand the terminology, create calculations, provide analytics, and learn formatting in Tableau. This book is also helpful for those that are required to upskill quickly for data analytics or consulting roles. Besides that, if questioned in an interview for a job requiring fundamental knowledge of Tableau, you will have the tools to confidently respond to those questions.

Who this book is for

This book is for people who are learning how to work with Tableau and require certification to establish foundational knowledge of the tool. The book assumes no knowledge of Tableau and minimal mathematical prowess. It is extensive as it is intended for those who have never opened the application to help them master all the fundamentals to pass the exam and begin to use it professionally.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification Overview, is all about orienting you to the recent job market for those who possess a Tableau skillset, the Tableau tool, and some very basic applications of Tableau.

Chapter 2, Data Ingestion, begins your exploration into the data layer of Tableau. To begin creating data visualizations, you need to work with data and know how to add it to Tableau. You will learn key information about how Tableau Desktop works with data and how to perform basic preparation in the tool.

Chapter 3, How to Interpret Data in a Tableau Visualization, provides an introduction to working with a Tableau sheet after ingesting data. It also teaches you how to create a basic chart and about formatting in a based-in-real life iteration process for a team.

Chapter 4, Working with Dimensions, Measures, and Marks (Oh My), going beyond the basics covered in Chapters 1 and 3, this chapter goes into detail with examples of applying data dimensions, data measures, and discrete versus continuous fields, and provides an introduction to the Tableau Marks section.

Chapter 5, Calculations and Functions Syntax, covers calculations and functions syntax. The examination does not go very deep into this topic, but expects a working knowledge of the types of calculations and functions and how to work with them. This chapter is more technical than the previous one but focuses on the essential and commonly applied functions and calculation basics.

Chapter 6, Connecting to and Preparing Data, extending the basic knowledge of working with data from Chapter 2, provides more technical applications of data elements, including working with the Tableau Data Model, managing data properties, and working with live data versus extracts.

Chapter 7, Understanding and Creating Fundamental Charts in Tableau, teaches you about 11 common Tableau charts covered in the examination, with step-by-step instructions to build each one, while providing details of when to use them and insights that can be explored. It’s a very hands-on chapter and will help you feel like a Tableau developer.

Chapter 8, Data Organization and Worksheet Analytics, going beyond creating charts, illustrates the additional analytics and data organization a developer would apply to a worksheet to provide additional functionality and insights. The organization portion of the chapter includes the hands-on management of sets, groups, bins, and hierarchies; the analytics portion includes creating a histogram, applying reference lines, and the basics of table calculations, with an introduction to parameters.

Chapter 9, Sharing Insights, concluding the instructional section of the book, is a substantial chapter that dives into the real magic of Tableau. It details additional and more advanced, but necessary, formatting options, creating a basic dashboard and the additional actions and functionality dashboards provide, and finally, how a dashboard or its data can be shared with others.

Chapter 10, Exam Preparation, as many people are not experienced with taking proctored examinations, covers what to expect from the exam and how to make sure you are ready to take the examination, and is filled with tips to make sure you are successful.

Chapter 11, Mock Test, now that you have learned the fundamentals of Tableau and taking a proctored examination, puts those skills to the test with a mock exam. It follows a similar weighting and methodology to the actual Tableau Desktop Specialist certification.

To get the most out of this book

This book is aimed at those who are new to Tableau or have never opened the application. It assumes no knowledge of Tableau. Although all exercises come with step-by-step instructions and prior knowledge is not required, having a background in Excel formulas, SQL, and/or using data visualizations in another tool will reduce the learning curve and help you pick things up quicker. You will need to set aside 25-40 hours over 2 weeks to read, practice, take the mock exam, and review the additional study materials.

Software/hardware covered in the book

Operating system requirements

Tableau Desktop (2022.1)

Windows and macOS

Tableau Public (optional)

Windows and macOS

Throughout the book, you will be working with examples utilizing Tableau Desktop. To get the most from the book, please download the Tableau Desktop application, which offers a free trial for 2 weeks every time a new version is released. However, downloading the free Tableau Public application will give you most of the features and a playground to publish exercises for absolutely no cost.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “Mount the downloaded WebStorm-10*.dmg disk image file as another disk in your system.”

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Select System info from the Administration panel.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

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Part 1: Introduction to Tableau

A Tableau developer requires basic knowledge of Tableau desktop and data ingestion to begin to master the fundamentals of the tool and start to absorb the knowledge required for the Tableau Desktop Specialist Examination.

The first part includes five chapters, which will cover an introduction to the examination; related work; how to ingest data and work with the data pane in Tableau; how to begin to understand the data with iterative hands-on work; dimensions, measures, and marks; and, finally, digging deeper into the basics of Tableau functions and calculation.

By the end of this part, you will have learned about the examination and how to begin working with the tool, understood the basics of functions and calculation, worked iteratively in Tableau, and understood some of the elementary formatting work that can be done. This section will set you up to dig deeper in the next section to really begin to master Tableau’s fundamentals to help you with the examination, as well as provide some direct applications.

This part comprises the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification OverviewChapter 2, Data IngestionChapter 3, How to Interpret the Data in a Data VisualizationChapter 4, Working with Dimensions, Measures, and MarksChapter 5, Calculations and Functions Syntax

1

Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification Overview

Tableau is a premium data visualization tool used for BI that has an impact on a wide variety of stakeholders. This chapter focuses on the Tableau Desktop Specialist certification’s purpose, relevant careers, and the tool with a basic look at default charting. Understanding these fundamentals will provide you with the necessary background before your certification journey begins.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

How will a Tableau Desktop certification help me?Top careers and their relationship to learning TableauTableau Desktop basicsTableau basic Show Me charts

Let’s begin by covering what a Tableau Desktop Specialist certification is and what it can mean to you.

How will a Tableau Desktop Specialist certification help me?

Many people learn Tableau and never receive a certification. Although they have the skills to pass the certification, many people are passed over by recruiters and employers, who will look for people who passed the certification first. In this section, you will learn how the certification will help you and the relevant careers you can explore through the certification. Many careers include data visualization as a primary or secondary focus. Tableau is considered one of the most popular and widely used data visualization tools. Many employers require verifiable evidence that their prospective employees can use the tool and contribute. Unlike other official Tableau certifications, the Tableau Desktop Specialist certification is permanent and is easily verifiable by sharing a link to the online verification. It can also be verified from LinkedIn and other social sites. It’s important to have a verifiable certification from the software company that’s easy to confirm so that potential technical recruiters and employers seeking talent can immediately confirm your qualifications and reach out to you without leaving the site.

It breaks down your capabilities not only with the tool but also your general abilities to analyze data and data presentation, which is also helpful to support your general functionality as a person who is data-capable.

Last year, I took the test as it just changed from a hands-on to a knowledge-based format. This book will focus on the new format, which has new and more complex challenges compared to the prior version.

Here is the certification I earned last year:

Figure 1.1 – Adam Mico’s Tableau Desktop Specialist verification page

There are many jobs where this certification has significant usefulness, several of which are included in glassdoor.com’s 50 Best Jobs in America and 25 Best Jobs in the UK for 2022. The following is a breakdown of the rankings:

Rank| Job Title | Median Base Salary (US $ | UK £) | Job Satisfaction | Job Openings | Job Requirement Likelihood (Low-Possible-Primary-Principal).

To help streamline and provide a consistent understanding between the US and UK glassdoor.com job rankings, this defined breakdown will be used for both the US and UK sections that follow.

United States

United States glassdoor.com job rankings that can require or provide a benefit with a Tableau Desktop Specialist certification are as follows:

#3 | Data Scientist | $120,000 | 4.1/5 | 10,071 | Possible Requirement (and growing)

The data scientist job is constantly evolving. That evolution is to help create discovered insights that are more approachable for business stakeholders. Those stakeholders need clearer insights in a language they understand. One significant approach is data visualization. This comes into more focus with companies that do not have a dedicated data visualization team.

#7 | Data Engineer | $113,960 | 4.0/5 | 11,821 | Possible Requirement (and growing)

The primary role of many data engineers is not to create data visualizations (especially in larger organizations), but it is often a necessity to create and learn to develop data visualizations to vet the data, provide a proof of concept, or possibly develop visualizations if the company does not have a dedicated data visualization team.

#8 | Software Engineer | $116,638 | 3.9/5 | 64,155 | Principal Requirement (Tableau)

A Tableau Software Engineer or Software Developer’s primary role is to develop data visualizations, though there are other tasks, such as working with business teams, technical teams, and stakeholders. As a current Principal Software Engineer, I can share that having at least a Tableau Desktop Specialist certification was essential for even the basic consideration of my role.

#20 | Consultant | $90,748 | 3.9/5 | 17,728 | Principal Requirement (Data Consultant)

Similar to a Tableau Software Engineer, many consultancies have data consultants. Their responsibilities cover the data gamut from data engineering/modeling/preparation to a deliverable top-class data visualization. I recently worked as a Tableau Evangelist for a data-focused consultancy. Certifications are essential to that role as special Tableau certifications are needed to help partners retain services with Tableau. Having a certification pre-hire helps establish that you can attain those certifications.

#35 | Data Analyst | $74,224 | 4.0/5 | 13,657 | Primary Requirement

From 2017 to 2021, I worked as a data analyst and business automation specialist and as a senior analyst for the final 2 years of my employment. That role was new and only became possible for me because of the internal development I did with Tableau. For the entirety, at least 20% of my job was related to Tableau. In the current data analyst skill stack, data visualization is a necessity.

#36 | Business Analyst | $81,556 | 3.9/5 | 15,238 | Primary-Principal Requirement

In many cases, companies may employ data analysts and business analysts interchangeably, depending on their structure. Although there is some specialization with larger companies, which may restrict some of the data visualization needs of a data analyst, with business analysts, that’s even less likely. Where a data analyst may need to work more on the backend, much of a business analyst’s work is more frontend- and stakeholder-focused.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom’s glassdoor.com job rankings that can require or provide a benefit with a Tableau Desktop Specialist certification are as follows:

#5 | Data Scientist | £49,449| 4.2/5 | 1,011 | Possible (and growing)

For the description, please see #3 for the US.

#9 | Front End Engineer | £43,803 | 4.2/5 | 1,529 | Principal Requirement (Tableau)

In this specialty, the employee’s experience is related to that of a business analyst but is someone who works more closely in Agile (likely) project teams, which would likely include backend developers/engineers and subject matter experts.

#11 | Software Engineer | £50,060 | 3.9/5 | 3,599 | Principal Requirement (Tableau)

For the description, please see #8 for the US.

#24 | Consultant | £46,215 | 3.9/5 |1,498 | Principal Requirement (Data Consultant)

For the description, please see #20 for the US.

Entry to very lucrative, growing, and impactful careers are possible with a Tableau Desktop Specialist certification. Furthermore, there are many more roles that are transitioning to a generalist approach as businesses are looking for potential ways to better understand their data and be proactive rather than reactive. In recent years, in my professional experience, people are leaving the once-a-week/month/quarter email delivery of static infographics to interact with data visualizations displaying live or more recent data for more effective questions, analysis, and iterations. You may be checking this book out as you have a new job requirement to learn Tableau and validate those learnings with a certification.

Now that you understand the importance and impact a certification can have, we need to explore the fundamentals of the tool itself.

Learning Tableau Desktop basics

You must learn the basics of Tableau before exploring the application. To complete the Tableau Desktop Specialist certification, fundamental knowledge of the correct terminology will provide a strong basis for further development. In future chapters, we will deep dive into each relevant component of the application in more detail.

Application basics (as of April 2022)

Here are the elementary items that will help you understand Tableau’s accessibility, pricing, release cadence, and what data it can support:

A desktop application with a separate application for Windows and Mac.The desktop application includes a 2-week free trial but is $70 per month thereafter.

Pro tip

Download the Tableau Public application at https://public.tableau.com/app/discover. It will have all the features you will need to understand the concepts for the Tableau Desktop certification and is free.

The user interface and supporting documentation are available in the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.The release cadence is quarterly but is backward compatible.Supports many data sources.Capable of handling millions of rows of data.Can support code and scripts, but is mostly utilized with drag-and-drop functionality with the ability to create maps, field hierarchies, dimensional groups and sets, calculations (from simple to very complex), and parameters. It can also utilize extensions that are not part of the out-of-the-box functionality.

To begin developing data visualizations, you need data. The next section will cover the basics of connecting to data.

Connecting to data

To use Tableau, a user needs to connect to data. The number of data sources you can connect to is ever-growing, with a multitude of connectors developed by companies in association with Tableau to ensure scalable connectivity. Here is a screenshot of the data connection page:

Figure 1.2 – Connect to Data from Tableau 2021.4

With Tableau, you can connect from the following services:

Tableau Server (or Tableau Online): Tableau Server data sources are data sources published in the Tableau environment. They can be sourced from any supported file and server but hosted and formatted for usage in Tableau Server.A file: Tableau supports a significant section of files that may potentially be used, from CSV (referred to as a part of a text file) to PDFs to statistical and spatial files.A non-Tableau Server: So long as a user has credentials, many servers have dedicated connectors. Even if your server is not inherently supported through dedicated connectors, there are ad hoc JDBC and ODBC database connectivity options.

Unlike many other data visualization tools, Tableau supports an extensive and ever-growing list of data sources. In every release, it’s very likely to see even more supported and named connection options.

Worksheets

Worksheets are the next order of the application. Once connected to a data source, Tableau highlights Sheet 1 (default name) so that you can explore the data further. The following screenshot shows an example of this:

Figure 1.3 – Worksheet using Tableau’s default Sample – Superstore data

After connecting to a data source, the application will direct you to a sheet, as shown in the preceding screenshot. On the left, there will be a Data pane. This hosts your dimensional fields and measurement fields. To work with those fields, you can drag and drop them onto one of the following areas shown on the right-hand side of Figure 1.3:

Columns: Stacks data dimensions from left to right in a visualizationRows: Displays data dimensions vertically in a visualizationMarks: A section that adds context, dimensions, and context to the visualization

You have learned how to connect to data and the basics of its structure. I will begin sharing more about the visualization application in the next section.

Worksheets, dashboards, and stories

At the bottom of the application, some icons identify access to additional worksheets, dashboards, and stories. The following screenshot shows those icons:

Figure 1.4 – Worksheet, dashboard, and story icons (respectively)

Let’s learn more about the preceding screenshot. Tableau has a hierarchical structure for dashboard building, as follows:

Worksheets are at the lowest level and the one item people will spend the most time using to create visualization elements (charts, tables, and so on)Dashboards can contain one or typically multiple worksheets so that you can create an interactive visualizationStories hold at least one dashboard

Selecting any of these icons will launch that function. Most end users will see a dashboard when they use the tool as stories are not utilized frequently unless they’re used for demonstration purposes (as there are more modern options, which will be covered later). Worksheets can be displayed on their own, but dashboards have more functionality and design applications.

Worksheet Data pane basics

The Data pane is the developer’s working section. Here, they can see the tables and fields associated with the data source and get a preview of what is available to work with. Figure 1.5 provides an example of how that looks:

Figure 1.5 – Worksheet data pane

A lot is going on in Figure 1.5. The following list details some of the basics associated with it:

Tableau displays a faint line between dimensions (or qualitative data) and measures (or quantitative data). This faint line is a visual indicator to help users determine what can be used as a dimension and what can be used as a measure as each has a very different purpose for data visualization. This can be seen in the People table between the Regional Manager and People (Count) fields.Tableau provides various symbols left of the field by table name to show whether it’s a string (abc, as seen in Segment), a number (#, as seen in Discount), geography (a globe, as seen in Latitude (generated)), a date (calendar, as seen in Ship Date), a hierarchy (hierarchy icon, as seen in Product), a bin (bar graph or bin symbol, as seen in Profit (bin)), or sets (overlapping circles, as seen in Top Customers…). These symbols are there to help users quickly scan data to see what they have to work with and how it can be utilized.Any field with an equals sign to the left of it (as seen in Profit Ratio) means it’s a calculation that’s been made in Tableau.Beneath the table fields, the available parameters are displayed. Although parameters can only be created in the same way as a calculated field can, they do not have equals signs in front of them like calculated fields.

Columns and rows

Beyond the Data pane, you can explore Columns and Rows. Adding measures to rows or columns creates a quantitative axis where a dimension to a row or column generates a header:

Figure 1.6 – Columns and Rows (Sample – Superstore)

With just a few drags and drops, you can create a useful chart. For example, as shown in the preceding screenshot, we can drag and drop Order Date to Columns (which displays as a discrete date – that is, Year), and then Segment (dimensional string) and Sales (a measure that defaults to Sum, resulting in a sum of sales) to Rows.

Marks

TheMarks card is used to make updates to the default visualization. It is responsible for showing additional dimensionality and adding color and labels. It can be utilized to update charts, add colors, mark labels, add reference paths, shapes, use window calculations, enhance tooltips, and for sizing (all of which will be covered later), and additional options. The following is a visual representation of the Marks card:

Figure 1.7 – Marks card

In Figure 1.8, I have the same structure in Columns and Rows as in Figure 1.6 but modified the chart using the adjustments I made in Figure 1.7 in the Marks section:

Figure 1.8 – Updated visual

In the chart in Figure 1.8, I wanted to see what sales came from profitable versus unprofitable orders. I colored by whether an item was profitable (top mark with the four dots). This coloring created a separate dimension for whether the order was profitable. In Figure 1.8, I can see that most of my sales came from Profitable orders in the Consumer segment. In the text of the line charts (Figure 1.8), I wanted to show which line represented what was profitable and the most recent sales (or what the sales for each were in 2021).

Note

Calculations will be demonstrated in future chapters, beginning with Chapter 5.

Filters

The following screenshot shows how a basic filter can impact what is displayed to a user:

Figure 1.9 – Filter on Segment

Filters provide a developer or end user more flexibility to see what they need to see and ignore the rest. The preceding visualization only includes the Consumer segment. However, it is simple to show and/or hide a filter to determine whether you want end users to access the filters on a dashboard.

Quick measure adjustments

Tableau provides quick updates to measures. It’s vital to be able to display your data in the way that's intended. Figure 1.10 shows an example of this with additional information:

Figure 1.10 – Quick measure adjustment (Sales)

With a couple of clicks, a user can quickly adjust the chart’s measurements and the text of those measurements by adjusting the measure. In this instance, the end user did not want to see the total sales of what was profitable, but rather the average sales of orders profitable versus not profitable to determine any trends or whether they should consider a cut-off point. What they saw immediately is that there was very little difference when looking at average sales by year when considering profitable orders; in fact, the average sales of profitable orders declined rapidly over the past couple of years.