Preparing & Cleaning Data in Tableau Desktop

IN THIS COURSE

• 1.  Controlling data types
  4m 22s
  Data type refers to the type of information stored in fields, such as text, dates, integers, and geographic coordinates or values for maps. The data type that you use in Tableau Desktop has an impact on the accuracy of your data. Tableau can analyze your data and assign data types automatically, but you can also change the data type manually, via the Data Source page, if you need to. FREE ACCESS
• 2.  Unioning data
  4m 31s
  If your data is spread across multiple locations, either across Excel worksheets in the same workbook or CSV files in the same location, you can use unioning to bring them together into a single table. Unions can not be created for cross-database data, and can only be created with tables from the same connection. To get the most out of unions, it's best to make sure that the data you are bringing together is stored using an identical or similar table structure. FREE ACCESS
• 3.  Cleaning up data
  3m 51s
  Sometimes the data you intending to work with contains anomalies, inconsistencies, or adjustments and formatting that have been applied to improve readability for users. Before bringing the data into the Tableau Data Engine, you can use the Data Interpreter tool to perform a cleanup operation on it. FREE ACCESS
• 4.  Splitting fields
  4m 25s
  Splitting fields is a great way of preparing or cleaning up data before you start digging into your analysis and creating visualizations. Tableau can analyze the contents of a field and perform automatic splits, but if you need greater control over the data that is calculated, you can use a custom split. FREE ACCESS
• 5.  Pivoting data
  3m
  You can use the pivot tool in Tableau to change the data structure in your table and prepare your data for analysis. The pivot tool allows you to convert your cross-tab data into a columnar structure, which Tableau tends to prefer when working with data. The pivot tool in Tableau Desktop works with Excel, Google Sheets, text files, and PDFs, so if you are intending to work with a different source type, you'll have to pivot your data using a custom SQL query. FREE ACCESS
• 6.  Filtering data at the data source level
  6m 24s
  Data source filtering is useful for restricting data that is used in visualizations, for analysis, user permission, or data security purposes. A Tableau user can set filters at the source level, which once published or shared, will then prevent other users from getting access to or querying any data that doesn't match applied criteria. Extract filters and data source filters work in similar way, with both affecting the data that is brought into the Tableau data engine. However, they are treated separately by Tableau and handled in a specific order of operations. FREE ACCESS
• 7.  Managing data sources
  3m 54s
  Once you have connected and added data sources, there are a number of ways of editing them. You can use the Data Source Page to configure your dataset and connection details, rename existing connections and sources, create data source duplicates, and even close sources that you no longer need. FREE ACCESS
• 8.  Replacing data sources
  4m 31s
  Replacing data sources is useful if you need to change the location of a source without affecting the analysis that you have already done. You can replace sources via the Connection area in the Data Source Page, or change the data source being used in your Tableau worksheets. You should also be aware that default formatting that you've applied in your worksheet will be lost, and that you may need to update references if there is a difference in your field names. FREE ACCESS
• 9.  Refreshing data sources
  5m 13s
  If you want to make sure that you are working with up-to-date data, you are going to need to know what sort of connection you have set up and the data source settings that are active in Tableau. See how to refresh live data sources and data extracts, and append data to existing data extracts. FREE ACCESS
• 10.  Appending data to extracts
  2m 46s
  One way of adding data to a data extract is to use the append tool. This will add the data to the extract in your workbook but will not update the original data source. If you then refresh your data extract, the appended data will be lost. You can also use the Extract History to keep track of the changes being applied to your extract, including refreshes and appended data. FREE ACCESS