Advance Data Visualization

DECAP794

Edited by
Ajay Kumar Bansal
Advance Data Visualization
Edited By:
Ajay Kumar Bansal
 Title: ADVANCE DATA VISUALIZATION

Author’s Name: Dr. Pritpal Singh

Published By : Lovely Professional University

Publisher Address: Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar Delhi GT road, Phagwara - 144411

Printer Detail: Lovely Professional University

Edition Detail: (I)

ISBN: 978-81-19334-44-5

Copyrights@ Lovely Professional University

 Content

Unit 1: Introduction to Data Visualization 1

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 2: Introduction to Tableau 14
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 3: Tableau Data Sources 30
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 4: Basic Visualizations 49
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 5: Creation of Hierarchies 70
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph 83
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 7: Building View Advance Map Option 102
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 8: Tableau Calculations & Filters 124
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 9: Managing, Organizing and Enhancing Data in Tableau 142
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation 155
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 11: Advance Calculation 171
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability 192
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 13: Interactive Dashboard Tableau 213
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard 232
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 01: Introduction to Data Visualization

Unit 01: Introduction to Data Visualization

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
1.1 Data Visualization
1.2 Keys Factors of Data Visualization
1.3 Data Visualization Tools and type of data
Summary
Keywords
Self-Assessment
Answers for Self-Assessment
Review Questions
Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:

 Understand data visualization

 Analyze tools of data visualization
 Analyze data using tablue

Introduction
In our increasingly data-driven world, it’s more important than ever to have accessible ways to
view and understand data. After all, the demand for data skills in employees is steadily increasing
each year. Employees and business owners at every level need to have an understanding of data
and of its impact.

That’s where data visualization comes in handy. With the goal of making data more accessible and
understandable, data visualization in the form of dashboards is the go-to tool for many businesses
to analyze and share information.

1.1 Data Visualization

Data visualization is the graphical representation of information and data. By using visual elements
like charts, graphs, and maps, data visualization tools provide an accessible way to see and
understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data. Additionally, it provides an excellent way for
employees or business owners to present data to non-technical audiences without confusion.
Data visualization is the practice of translating information into a visual context, such as a map or
graph, to make data easier for the human brain to understand and pull insights from. The main
goal of data visualization is to make it easier to identify patterns, trends and outliers in large data

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 1

 Advance Data Visualisation

sets. The term is often used interchangeably with others, including information graphics,
information visualization and statistical graphics.

Data visualization is one of the steps of the data science process, which states that after data has
been collected, processed and modeled, it must be visualized for conclusions to be made. Data
visualization is also an element of the broader data presentation architecture (DPA) discipline,
which aims to identify, locate, manipulate, format and deliver data in the most efficient way
possible.

Data visualization is important for almost every career. It can be used by teachers to display
student test results, by computer scientists exploring advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) or
by executives looking to share information with stakeholders. It also plays an important role in big
data projects. As businesses accumulated massive collections of data during the early years of the
big data trend, they needed a way to get an overview of their data quickly and easily. Visualization
tools were a natural fit.

Visualization is central to advanced analytics for similar reasons. When a data scientist is writing
advanced predictive analytics or machine learning (ML) algorithms, it becomes important to
visualize the outputs to monitor results and ensure that models are performing as intended. This is
because visualizations of complex algorithms are generally easier to interpret than numerical
outputs.

Why is data visualization important?

Data visualization provides a quick and effective way to communicate information in a universal
manner using visual information. The practice can also help businesses identify which factors affect
customer behavior; pinpoint areas that need to be improved or need more attention; make data
more memorable for stakeholders; understand when and where to place specific products; and
predict sales volumes.

Other benefits of data visualization include the following:

 the ability to absorb information quickly, improve insights and make faster decisions;
 an increased understanding of the next steps that must be taken to improve the
organization;
 an improved ability to maintain the audience's interest with information they can
understand;
 an easy distribution of information that increases the opportunity to share insights
with everyone involved;
 eliminate the need for data scientists since data is more accessible and
understandable; and
 an increased ability to act on findings quickly and, therefore, achieve success with
greater speed and less mistakes.

1.2 Keys Factors of Data Visualization

Data visualization is a crucial part of data analytics that helps you visualize your data and uncover
significant trends and patterns that would otherwise have been lost. Effective data visualization
depends on your software as nobody has the time to code the visualizations themselves with loads
of data involved in the process.

2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 01: Introduction to Data Visualization

Several data visualization tools, such as Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service (VBCS), Tableau,
Power BI, etc., have comparable features and capabilities, making selecting the right tool for your
needs even more challenging. So, what are the factors to be considered in choosing the right data
visualization solution for your use case?

Let us talk deep on it. Here are the main specifics.

1. Dashboard Design
It is important to check on the right balance between the simplicity and complexity of a dashboard
when it comes to enterprise reporting. While simpler designs may be easy to use, they may not be
able to pack in much helpful information. However, complex dashboards could clutter your screen
and make it difficult to understand the data right in front of your eyes. If you’re not an expert and
don’t know much about dashboard design, know that the dashboard must have balanced colors
naturally appealing to the eye. It is intuitive to have colorful highlights between appropriate white
spaces. Too much white space could over-simplify the design, while too much color could affect
usability. Modern tools like Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service strike a balance between simplicity
and complexity and avoid highly complex designs even if they could deliver much more
information in a compact setting.

2. Use Case
Different use cases demand different types of dashboards. For example, a simple use-case like the
real-time analytics of a store will be very different from a more complex use-case like viewing stock
market reports. It’s a great way to personalize your data visualization, and several modern
Analytics & BI Applications like Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service offer this feature. Not only is
the solution tailored to your needs, but it also provides an enhanced user experience.
3. Data Connectivity
Data is key to your visualization; poor data integration or missing data can have a considerable
impact. Business data is the primary input for a data visualization tool, so ensuring that the right
data sources are connected to the tool is of paramount importance. Data is often pulled from
multiple dynamic sources, so it needs to be up-to-date for your visualizations to stay relevant. The
ability to connect and integrate with other data sources is a critical factor in enabling effective data
visualization.
4. Target Audience
Data visualizations often convey information to users who don’t fully understand the application
or the process. They could include line-of-business users, external users, and other stakeholders.
They only need access to the data relevant to their role in the organization. The ability of data
visualization tools like Oracle VBCS to adapt according to the audience plays a key role. So, ensure
the tool is specific to the target audience and provides role-based user access.

5. Functionality
Keeping the data visualization tool’s functionality aligned with your organization’s needs is crucial.
Business leaders often consider going for the software packed with the most number of features or
with greater functionality, when in reality, they only require a fraction of these capabilities. Not
only does it increase complexity, but it also drives up costs and impacts your ability to use it for its
true purpose. Ultimately, you’re left with too many features you don’t need and will never use.
Focus on acquiring the functionality your organization truly needs instead of fancy features, and
you can keep adding more functionality as your business grows. Oracle VBCS allows you to add
features based on your evolving needs.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 3

 Advance Data Visualisation

1.3 Data Visualization Tools and type of data

Data visualization tools are cloud-based applications that help you to represent raw data in easy to
understand graphical formats. You can use these programs to produce customizable bar charts, pie
charts, column charts, and more.

Following is a handpicked list of Top Data Visualization Tool with their popular features and
website links. The list contains both open-source(free) and commercial(paid) software.

Followings are some popular data visualization tools

1) Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is a robust and versatile data visualization tool. It allows users to create insightful
reports and dashboards, and visually analyze any data in minutes. It features an AI powered
assistant that enables users to ask questions and get intelligent answers in the form of meaningful
reports.

2) Power BI
Power BI is a Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tool which helps you to convert data
from various data sources into interactive dashboards and reports. It provides multiple software
connectors and services.

3) Whatagraph
Whatagraph is a data visualization tool that enables you to monitor and compare the performance
of multiple campaigns. This application allows you to transfer custom data from Google sheet and
API.

4) Tableau
Tableau is a robust tool for visualizing data in a better way. You can connect any database to create
understandable visuals. It is one of the best visualization tools that enables you to share
visualization with other people.

4 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 01: Introduction to Data Visualization

5) Qlik
Qlik is a data visualization software which is used for converting raw data into knowledge. This
software acts like a human brain which works on “association” and can go into any direction to
search the answers.

6) Adaptive Insights
Adaptive Insights is a data visualization tool built to boost your business. It is one of the best data
visualisation tools that helps you to plan, budget, as well as forecast to make better decisions.

7) Dundas BI
Dundas BI is an enterprise-ready Business Intelligence platform. You can deploy it as the central
data portal for your company or integrate into any website.

8) Domo
Domo is a cloud platform that helps you to conduct analysis and create interactive visualization. It
enables you to examine important data using graphs and pie charts. This app helps you to simplify
administration data.

9) Cluvio
Cluvio is a platform that enables you to run SQL queries for your database. It allows you to
visualize the result in a better and understandable way.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 5

 Advance Data Visualisation

10) Datawrapper
Datawrapper is an open-source tool that enables you to create interactive charts. You can load CSV
(Comma-separated Values data files into this app and embed maps onto your website.

Types of data
The data is classified into majorly four categories:

1. Nominal data
2. Ordinal data
3. Discrete data
4. Continuous data
Further, we can classify these data as follows:

Qualitative or Categorical Data

Qualitative data, also known as the categorical data, describes the data that fits into the categories.
Qualitative data are not numerical. The categorical information involves categorical variables that
describe the features such as a person’s gender, home town etc. Categorical measures are defined in
terms of natural language specifications, but not in terms of numbers.

Sometimes categorical data can hold numerical values (quantitative value), but those values do not
have a mathematical sense. Examples of the categorical data are birthdate, favourite sport, school

6 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 01: Introduction to Data Visualization

postcode. Here, the birthdate and school postcode hold the quantitative value, but it does not give
numerical meaning.

Nominal Data
Nominal data is one of the types of qualitative information which helps to label the variables
without providing the numerical value. Nominal data is also called the nominal scale. It cannot be
ordered and measured. But sometimes, the data can be qualitative and quantitative. Examples of
nominal data are letters, symbols, words, gender etc.

The nominal data are examined using the grouping method. In this method, the data are grouped
into categories, and then the frequency or the percentage of the data can be calculated. These data
are visually represented using the pie charts.

Ordinal Data
Ordinal data/variable is a type of data that follows a natural order. The significant feature of the
nominal data is that the difference between the data values is not determined. This variable is
mostly found in surveys, finance, economics, questionnaires, and so on.

The ordinal data is commonly represented using a bar chart. These data are investigated and
interpreted through many visualisation tools. The information may be expressed using tables in
which each row in the table shows a distinct category.

Quantitative or Numerical Data

Quantitative data is also known as numerical data which represents the numerical value (i.e., how
much, how often, how many). Numerical data gives information about the quantities of a specific
thing. Some examples of numerical data are height, length, size, weight, and so on. Quantitative
data can be classified into two different types based on the data sets. The two different
classifications of numerical data are discrete data and continuous data.

Discrete Data
Discrete data can take only discrete values. Discrete information contains only a finite number of
possible values. Those values cannot be subdivided meaningfully. Here, things can be counted in
whole numbers.

Example: Number of students in the class

Continuous Data
Continuous data is data that can be calculated. It has an infinite number of probable values that can
be selected within a given specific range.

Example: Temperature range

Summary
 Data visualization is the representation of data through use of common graphics, such as
charts, plots, infographics, and even animations. These visual displays of information

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 7

 Advance Data Visualisation

communicate complex data relationships and data-driven insights in a way that is easy to
understand.
 Data visualizations are used to discover unknown facts and trends. You can see
visualizations in the form of line charts to display change over time. Bar and column
charts are useful for observing relationships and making comparisons. A pie chart is a
great way to show parts of a whole. And maps are the best way to share geographical data
visually.
 To craft an effective data visualization, you need to start with clean data that is well-
sourced and complete. After the data is ready to visualize, you need to pick the right chart.

Keywords
Data: In computing, data is information that has been translated into a form that is efficient for
movement or processing.
Data Visualization: Data and information visualization is an interdisciplinary field that deals with
the graphic representation of data and information.
Charts: A data chart is a type of diagram or graph, that organizes and represents a set of numerical
or qualitative data. Maps that are adorned with extra information (map surround) for a specific
purpose are often known as charts, such as a nautical chart or aeronautical chart, typically spread
over several map sheets.
Data analysis: Data Analysis. Data Analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical
and/or logical techniques to describe and illustrate, condense and recap, and evaluate data.

Self-Assessment

1. What is true about Data Visualization?

A. Data Visualization is used to communicate information clearly and efficiently to users by the
usage of information graphics such as tables and charts.
B. Data Visualization helps users in analyzing a large amount of data in a simpler way.
C. Data Visualization makes complex data more accessible, understandable, and usable.
D. All of the above

2. Which are pros of data visualization?

A. It can be accessed quickly by a wider audience.

B. It can misrepresent information
C. It can be distracting
D. None Of the above

3. Data can be visualized using?

A. graphs
B. charts
C. maps
D. All of the above

8 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 01: Introduction to Data Visualization

4. Which are cons of data visualization?

A. It conveys a lot of information in a small space.

B. It makes your report more visually appealing.
C. visual data is distorted or excessively used.
D. None Of the above

5. Which of the following is not a data visualization tool?

A. Tablue
B. Cluvio
C. Microsoft Word
D. Domo

6. Data visualization is also an element of the broader _____________.

A. deliver presentation architecture

B. data presentation architecture
C. dataset presentation architecture
D. data process architecture

7. Which of the intricate techniques is not used for data visualization?

A. Bullet Graphs
B. Bubble Clouds
C. Fever Maps
D. Heat Maps

8. Which method shows hierarchical data in a nested format?

A. Treemaps
B. Scatter plots
C. Population pyramids
D. Area charts

9. Which one of the following is most basic and commonly used techniques?

A. Line charts
B. Scatter plots
C. Population pyramids
D. Area charts

10. The best feature Tableau are except_____________-

A. Collaboration of data
B. Data Blending
C. Real time analysis
D. Data is more small and fit

11. Where can we apply global filters?

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 9

 Advance Data Visualisation

A. Dashboards
B. Stories
C. Sheets
D. All of the above

12. __________ is the representation of data through use of common graphics, such as charts,
plots, infographics, and even animations.

A. Data visualization
B. Data
C. Tablue
D. None of above

13. Who is the parent company of Tableau?

A. Salesforce
B. Workday
C. Microsoft
D. Google

14. What are the file extensions in Tableau ?

A. Tableau Packaged Workbook (.twbx)
B. Tableau Data Source(.tds)
C. Tableau Workbook (.twb)
D. All of the above

15. Power BI is a product of_______________

A. Facebook
B. Oracle
C. Microsoft
D. SAP

Answers for Self-Assessment

l. D 2. A 3. D 4. C 5. A

6. B 7. C 8. A 9. A 10. D

11. D 12. A 13. A 14. D 15. C

Review Questions

1. What do you mean by data visualization?

2. Explain the need for data visualization tools in now’s industry.

10 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 01: Introduction to Data Visualization

3. What is the difference between data and data visualization?

4. Explain Types of Data Visualizations Elements.
5. What do you mean by data visualization tools? Explain with an example.

Further Readings

1. Communication Data With Tablue, Ben Jones, O’ Reilly Publications

Web Links

https://www.tableau.com/
https://www.datacamp.com/tutorial/data-visualisation-tableau

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 11

 Advance Data Visualisation

12 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 01: Introduction to Data Visualization

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 13

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 02: Introduction to TABLEAU

Unit 02: Introduction to Tableau

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
2.1 Usage of Tableau software:
2.2 Why Tableau?
2.3 Features of Tableau:
2.4 Tableau Product Suite
2.5 Installation steps
2.6 Configure Tableau Server for a forward proxy
Summary
Keywords
Self-assessment questions
Answers for Self Assessment
Review Question
Further Readings

Objectives
• After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand concept of data visualization.
• install software for data visualization.
• Understand real time analysis.
• Collaboration with data.

Introduction
Tableau is an excellent data visualization and business intelligence tool used for reporting and
analyzing vast volumes of data. It is an American company that started in 2003—in June 2019,
Salesforce acquired Tableau. It helps users create different charts, graphs, maps, dashboards, and
stories for visualizing and analyzing data, to help in making business decisions. Tableau has a lot of
unique, exciting features that make it one of the most popular tools in business intelligence (BI).
Let’s learn more about some of the essential Tableau Desktop features. Now that we know what is
tableau exactly, let us understand some of its salient features.
Tableau is capable of connecting with a wide range of data sources. It can connect to files present in
your system, such as Microsoft Excel, text files, JSON, PDF, etc. It can also work on data present on
a database server, such as Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, Teradata, etc. There are other
saved data sources that Tableau can connect with. It also can connect and fetch data from cloud
sources, like AWS, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, and Google Cloud SQL.
Tableau Uses:

2.1 Usage of Tableau software:

The best features of Tableau software are

14 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Data Blending
Real time analysis
Collaboration of data
The great thing about Tableau software is that it doesn’t require any technical or any kind of
programming skills to operate. The tool has garnered interest among the people from all sectors
such as business, research.
Tableau is a powerful and fastest growing data visualization tool used in the Business Intelligence
Industry. It helps in simplifying raw data in a very easily understandable format. Tableau helps
create the data that can be understood by professionals at any level in an organization. It also
allows non-technical users to create customized dashboards.
Data analysis is very fast with Tableau tool and the visualizations created are in the form of
dashboards archers, different industries, etc.

Business Intelligence
Data Visualization
Data Blending
Data Collaboration
Query translation into visualization
To create no-code data queries
Real-time data analysis
To manage large size metadata
To import large size of data

2.2 Why Tableau?

Why use Tableau software when there are a whole lot of tools available to perform data
visualization?

Tableau is greatly used because data can be analyzed very quickly with it. Also, visualizations are
generated as dashboards and worksheets. Tableau allows one to create dashboards that provide
actionable insights and drive the business forward. Tableau products always operate in virtualized
environments when they are configured with the proper underlying operating system and
hardware. Tableau is used by data scientists to explore data with limitless visual analytics.

2.3 Features of Tableau:

 Tableau Dashboard

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 15

 Unit 02: Introduction to TABLEAU

 Collaboration and Sharing

 Live and In-memory Data

 Data Sources in Tableau

 Advanced Visualizations

 Mobile View

 Revision History

 Licensing Views

 Subscribe others

 ETL Refresh and many more make Tableau one of the most famous Data Visualization tools.

What is Data Visualization in Tableau?

Data Visualization is a pictorial representation of a dataset or information using maps, graphs,
charts, and other visual elements. Data Visualization helps in easy understanding of the trend,
insights, patterns, and other connections in a Dataset. Tableau is one of the most popular Data
Visualization tools used by many enterprises and businesses to gain better insights into their data
to offer the best customer experience.

How does Tableau work?

The major work of Tableau software is to connect and extract the data stored in various places. It
can pull data from any platform. Tableau can extract data from any database, be it Excel, PDF,
Oracle, or even Amazon Web Services.

Once Tableau is launched, ready data connectors are available which allow you to connect to any
database.

The data extracted can be connected live to the Tableau data engine, Tableau Desktop. This is
where a Data Analyst or a Data Engineer works with the data that was pulled up and develop
visualization. The created dashboards are shared with users in the form of static files. The users
receiving dashboards view the files using Tableau Reader.

The data extracted from Tableau Desktop can be published to Tableau Server, which is an
enterprise platform where collaboration, distribution, governance, security model, and automation
features are supported. Using Tableau Server, end users can access the files from all locations, be it
a desktop or a mobile phone.

How Does Tableau Work How Does Tableau Work

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms

Following are the two ways in which Data Analytics of Tableau can be described:

Developer Tools: Tools used in development, like designing charts, dashboards, reports, and
visualizations, come under this category. The major Tableau products in this category are Tableau
Public and Tableau Desktop.

16 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Sharing Tools: By the name, you would have understood what these tools do. Well, they are used
for sharing reports, visualizations, and dashboards which are created using the developer tools.
The main products that fall in this category are Tableau Online, Tableau Reader, and Tableau
Server.

2.4 Tableau Product Suite

What is Tableau Desktop?

This product allows one to code and modifies the reports. Starting from creating reports and charts
to combining them to form a dashboard, all this work is done in Tableau Desktop.

Tableau Desktop is classified into the following according to connectivity and data sources:

Tableau Desktop Personal

The development features of the Tableau Desktop Personal version are close enough to that of the
Tableau Desktop. In this particular version, the workbook is in private mode and the access is
limited. That means, these workbooks can’t be posted and are for personal use only. Therefore, they
have to be divided either on Tableau Public or Offline.

Tableau Desktop Professional

This version is very much like Tableau Desktop, only that the work generated or created in Tableau
Desktop is published on the Tableau Server. In this version, there would be full access to all sorts of
data types. It is great for people who wish to publish their work on the Tableau Server.

What is Tableau Reader?

It is a tool that allows one to view visualizations and workbooks generated using Tableau Public or
Tableau Desktop. This data can easily be filtered, yet modifications are limited. Since anyone
getting the workbook can view it using Tableau Reader, there is no security.
What is Tableau Server?
This is mainly used to share visualizations and workbooks which get generated in the Tableau
Desktop application throughout the organization. The work will become accessible once it is
uploaded to the respective servers.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 17

 Unit 02: Introduction to TABLEAU

To increase sharing of dashboards in Tableau Server, you should publish your work beforehand in
Tableau Desktop. Though, it’s not completely mandatory for licensed users to have an installed
Tableau Server. They just need the login credentials using which they can verify these reports.
Tableau Online
As the term ‘online’ suggests, Tableau Online is a sharing tool. It has a similar usage as Tableau
Server, but the data is saved on servers that are provided in the cloud maintained by the Tableau
group.

The data that can be published on Tableau Online has no storage limit. Tableau Online and Server,
both need workbooks that are created by Tableau Desktop to broadcast the data. Data streamed
from web applications, be it Salesforce or Google Analytics, are supported by both, Tableau Online
and Tableau Server.

Tableau Public
Tableau Public is specially built for money-saving users. As the word ‘public’ suggests, the created
workbooks can’t be locally saved, rather it is sent to Tableau’s public cloud which can be accessed
by the general public. This is an economical version which is very good for people wanting to learn
and share their data with people.

Tableau vs Excel

Excel and Tableau, are data analysis tools, but both of them have a unique approach to data

exploration. Where Excel works with columns and rows in spreadsheets, Tableau explores the Excel

data using its drag-and-drop feature. It formats the data in graphs and pictures that are easy to

understand.
Tableau MS Excel
Tableau is basically a data visualization tool which Excel is basically a spreadsheet for
provides pictorial and graphical representations of data. working with data in rows and columns.
You need to first represent your data into
a tabular format and then you can apply
visualizations on top of it.
In Tableau, you can gain insights that you never When it comes to Excel, you need to have
thought possible. You can play with interactive a prior knowledge of the insight that you

18 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

visualizations, deploy data drilling tools, and explore want and then work with various
various data that is available, and you don’t need to formulae in order to get there, along with
have any specific knowledge of the insight you are that tabulation is also needed.
looking for.
With Tableau, it is all about an easy and interactive In Excel, you need to have some
approach. programming in order to come up with
real-time data visualization.

Advantages of Tableau
Fantastic Visualizations
You can now work with a lot of data that doesn’t have any order to it and create a range of
visualizations. Well, thanks to the in-built features of Tableau which help you create visualizations
that surely stand out of the crowd. You also have the option of switching between different
visualizations to bring about a greater context, ways of drilling down data, and exploring the data
at a minute level.

In-depth Insights
Tableau can help enterprises futuristically to analyze data without any specific goals in mind. You
can explore visualizations and have a look at the same data from different angles. You can frame
‘what if’ queries and work with data by hypothetically visualizing it in a different manner and
dynamically adding components for comparison and analysis. When you are working with real-
time data, then these capabilities are highlighted in a huge manner.

User-friendly Approach
This is the greatest strength of Tableau. It is built from the ground level for people who don’t have
any technical skills or coding experience. So, everything can be done with this tool by anybody
without any prior set of skills. Since most of the features are in a drag-and-drop format, each
visualization is so intuitive and self-depicting

.Working with Disparate Data Sources

Tableau has a powerful reason to be included by various organizations in today’s data-driven
world where data can come from any point and any disparate sources. Tableau has an edge over
other Business Intelligence and Analytics tools as it lets you work by connecting to various Tableau
data sources, data warehouses, and files that exist in the cloud, big data that exists in spreadsheets,
and non-relational data, among other types of data. Tableau effortlessly blends all different types of
data to help organizations come up with compelling visualizations.

Adding Datasets

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 19

 Unit 02: Introduction to TABLEAU

Be it a database or an Excel workbook, with Tableau, one can easily add new datasets which get
automatically blended with Tableau using common fields.

Switching Between Visualizations

You also have the option of switching between different visualizations to bring about a greater
context, with ways of drilling down data and exploring it at a minute level.

Tableau is one of the top Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tools available today. It is
being used by most of the Fortune Global 500 list of companies in order to derive valuable insights
from their data.

2.5 Installation steps

Running Setup

After you download the Tableau Server installation file, follow the instructions below to install the
server.

Important: Do not install a beta version of Tableau Server in your production environment. You
should also never restore a production Tableau Server installation using a backup of a beta version.

1. Sign in as a user with administrator access to the computer where you want to install
Tableau Server and double-click the installation file.

2. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete Setup and install the application.

20 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

The default installation path is C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\<version>. The

Setup program displays the install path without the version, like this: C:\Program
Files\Tableau\Tableau Server. You can choose a different location, including a different
drive, either by browsing to or typing in a new path. Be aware that if you browse to a
location, the Setup program appends \Tableau Server to the end of the path. You can
remove this if it is not the location you want.

If you are upgrading from Tableau Server version 2018.1 or earlier and Tableau was
installed to a non-default location, you need to specify the location of your existing
version. Upgrade steps vary depending on your target version and install location.
See Upgrade Tableau Server Overview for information on how to choose your upgrade
steps.

Note: If you are prompted by Windows Defender Firewall, click Allow access. You may
need to do this multiple times for the installation to complete.

3. Click Next.

On the Server installation type page, you can specify whether you are installing the first
node of a Server installation, or additional nodes in a multi-node installation. You do not
need to change this from the default (Create new Tableau Server installation.) unless you
are installing a multi-node Tableau Server. If you are installing a multi-node Tableau
Server, see Install and Configure Additional Nodes.

4. Click Next.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 21

 Unit 02: Introduction to TABLEAU

On the Product activation type page, select whether you want to use the Tableau
authorization-to-run (ATR) service to activate Tableau Server (the default), and then
click Install. For more information about the Tableau authorization-to-run (ATR) service,
see Activate Tableau Server using the authorization-to-run (ATR) service(Link opens in a
new window).

5. After the installation completes, click Finish. Setup will then open the TSM configuration
web page on the computer where you are installing Tableau Server.

If you need to support characters that are not the Latin-1 set, install the Windows
Language Packs via Control Panel > Regional and Language Options. The language
packs will need to be installed on the initial server as well as any additional nodes.

2.6 Configure Tableau Server for a forward proxy

If your organization uses a forward proxy solution to access the internet, then configure Tableau
Server to use the proxy server. Tableau Server must access the internet for map data and for default
licensing functionality.

We recommend configuring Tableau Server for a forward proxy solution at this point of the
installation process. See Configuring Tableau Server on Windows to work with a forward proxy

Activate and Register Tableau Server

Tableau Server requires at least one product key that both activates the server and specifies the
number of license levels you can assign to users. You can access your product keys from the
Customer Portal.

If you need to activate Tableau Server on a computer that is offline, see Activate Tableau Server
Offline - Adding a License. If you need to activate additional product keys to add capacity to an
existing Tableau Server installation, see Add Capacity to Tableau Server.

22 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Prerequisite
Prerequisite
Before proceeding with the procedures in this topic, complete the following prerequisites as
outlined in Install and Configure Tableau Server:

Install TSM

TSM uses port 8850. If you are running a local firewall, open port 8850.

Configure Product Key Operations with Forward Proxy

1. If the computer where you are installing Tableau Server has been configured to connect to
the internet through a forward proxy, follow the procedure in the topic, Configure
Product Key Operations with Forward Proxy, before continuing.

2. Sign in to Tableau Services Manager Web UI.

The account you use must have administrative privileges on the computer where TSM is
installed.

3. On the Activate page, Enter or paste your product key and click Activate Product Key.

After your product key is activated, it appears under Activated Product Keys.

4. To activate another product key, type over they key you just entered to add the new
product key, and then click Activate Product Key. After your product key is activated, it
appears under Activated Product Keys. Continue adding product keys in this manner
until you're done.

5. When you’re finished activating product keys, click Next.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 23

 Unit 02: Introduction to TABLEAU

Note: If the product keys you have activated don’t have the necessary capacity, such as
not enough cores or only a Viewer role product key, Tableau Services Manager displays
the Insufficient licenses applied dialog box. Click Activate Another Product Key to add
another product key and increase capacity on your Tableau Server installation.

6. On the Register page, enter your information into the fields and click Register.

24 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

If you have a product key for Data Management or Advanced Management, you must activate that
key to use the additional functionality. Product keys for these licenses should only be activated
after at least one capacity product key has been activated on the server.

 For license information on Tableau Data Management, see License Data Management.

 For license information on Tableau Advanced Management, see About Tableau Advanced
Management on Tableau Server.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 25

 Unit 02: Introduction to TABLEAU

Summary

 Tableau Desktop has a rich feature set and allows you to code and customize reports.
Right from creating the charts, reports, to blending them all together to form a dashboard,
all the necessary work is created in Tableau Desktop.
 For live data analysis, Tableau Desktop provides connectivity to Data Warehouse, as well
as other various types of files. The workbooks and the dashboards created here can be
either shared locally or publicly.
 Based on the connectivity to the data sources and publishing option, Tableau Desktop is
classified into
 Tableau Desktop Personal: The development features are similar to Tableau Desktop.
Personal version keeps the workbook private, and the access is limited. The workbooks
cannot be published online. Therefore, it should be distributed either Offline or in Tableau
Public.
 Tableau Desktop Professional: It is pretty much similar to Tableau Desktop. The difference
is that the work created in the Tableau Desktop can be published online or in Tableau
Server. Also, in Professional version, there is full access to all sorts of the datatype. It is
best suitable for those who wish to publish their work in Tableau Server.

Keywords

 Tableau connects and extracts the data stored in various places. It can pull data from any
platform imaginable. A simple database such as an excel, pdf, to a complex database like
Oracle, a database in the cloud such as Amazon webs services, Microsoft Azure SQL
database, Google Cloud SQL and various other data sources can be extracted by Tableau.

 When Tableau is launched, ready data connectors are available which allows you to
connect to any database.
 Depending on the version of Tableau that you have purchased the number of data
connectors supported by Tableau will vary.

 The pulled data can be either connected live or extracted to the Tableau’s data engine,
Tableau Desktop. This is where the Data analyst, data engineer work with the data that
was pulled up and develop visualizations.
 The created dashboards are shared with the users as a static file. The users who receive the
dashboards views the file using Tableau Reader.
 The data from the Tableau Desktop can be published to the Tableau server. This is an
enterprise platform where collaboration, distribution, governance, security model,
automation features are supported.
 With the Tableau server, the end users have a better experience in accessing the files from
all locations be it a desktop, mobile or email.

26 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Self-assessment questions

1. Default aggregation used for tree map__________

a. Avg
b. Count
c. Sum

2. The best feature Tableau are except_____________-

a. Collaboration of data
b. Data Blending
c. Real time analysis
d. Data is smaller and more fit

3. How do you find the field is discrete in Tableau ?

a. Green color
b. # symbol
c. Blue color
d. None

4. What percent of total profits do the top 10 customer by Sales represent in sample superstore
dataset ?

a. 5.03%
b. 17.54%
c. 16.26%
d. 3.50%

5. Which of the following is not a Trend Line model ?

a. Linear Trend Line

b. Binomial Trend Line
c. Exponential Trend Line
d. Logarithmic Trend Line

6. Where can we apply global filters?

a. Dashboards
b. Stories
c. Sheets
d. All of the above

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 27

 Unit 02: Introduction to TABLEAU

7. The Tableau Product Suite consists of____________-

a. Tableau Desktop ,Tableau Public, Tableau Online, Tableau Server, Tableau Measure
b. Tableau Desktop, Tableau Public ,Tableau Online ,Tableau Server ,Tableau Reader
c. Tableau Desktop ,Tableau Public ,Tableau Dimension ,Tableau Server, Tableau Reader
d. Tableau Desktop ,Tableau Public ,Tableau Online, Tableau Server ,Tableau Organic

8. Tableau File Extension is_______________

a. twbx
b. twby
c. twbw
d. twbz

9. What is the possible cause of the data not being updated?

a. Data Extrac needs an update

b. The data source configuration of Data Extract needs to be refreshed
c. Services on Data Extrac are not running
d. The workers of Data Extrac are taking a timeout

10. What type of join is used in blending?

a. Left join
b. Full join
c. Right join
d. Inner join

11. A justifiable reason to utilize a projectile chart.

a. Looking at the genuine against the objective deals

b. Examining the pattern for an era
c. Showing the business development for a specific year
d. Adding information and ascertaining tally measure

12. What insight will the Link Utilization Hourly Trend give you?

a. This will allow us to identify the specific times during the day the bandwidth utilization is
the highest
b. This will allow us to identify the critical links that don’t need attention
c. This will allow us to correlate bandwidth usage to user traffic
d. This will allow us to identify and set the optimum bandwidth thresholds in Tableau

13. Data Values available for the visualization_______________

a. Basic Expression
b. Table Calculation
c. None of the above
d. LoD Expression

28 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

14. In which Region do all Product Categories fall beneath the overall average profit in sample
superstore dataset?

a. East
b. West
c. Central
d. South

15. Which of these is not a datatype in Tableau?

a. Integer
b. Character
c. Float
d. String

Answers for Self Assessment

1 c 2 d 3 c 4 a 5 b 6 d 7b 8 a

9 c 10 a 11 a 12 a 13 b 14 d 15 b

Review Question
1. What Are the Data Types Supported in Tableau?
2. How Will You Understand Dimensions and Measures?
3. What is Meant by ‘discrete’ and ‘continuous’ in Tableau?
4. What Are the Filters? Name the Different Filters in Tableau.
5. What Are the Different Joins in Tableau?

Further Readings
"Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring” by Stephen Few
"Beautiful Visualization, Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts by Julie Steele, Noah
Iliinsky"

Web Links
https://www.tableau.com/
https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 29

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
3.1 Data Sources in Tableau
3.2 Combining Data Sources
3.3 Tableau Sets & Parameters
Summary
Keywords
Self-Assessment
Answers for Self-Assessment
Review Questions
Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:

 Understand sets and parameters

 Analyze data using the tableau parameter
 Understand data sources

Introduction
In order to master any Business Intelligence tool, the most basic operation we need to learn is to
connect to a data source. Once we establish a successful connection with a data source, we can
access all its data, bring some part of it in Tableau’s repository (extract) and use it for our analysis.
Tableau offers a myriad of data sources such as local text files, MS Excel, PDFs, JSON or databases
and servers like Tableau Server, MySQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server, etc.
A data source is made up of fields and groups. In the same way that folders on your hard disk
contain and organize your files, fields contain the data that users enter into forms that are based on
your form template, and groups contain and organize those fields.

3.1 Data Sources in Tableau

Tableau can connect to all the popular data sources which are widely used. Tableau’s native
connectors can connect to the following types of data sources.

 File Systems such as CSV, Excel, etc.

 Relational Systems such as Oracle, Sql Server, DB2, etc.
 Cloud Systems such as Windows Azure, Google BigQuery, etc.
 Other Sources using ODBC

The following picture shows most of the data sources available through Tableau’s native data
connectors.

30 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Connect Live
The Connect Live feature is used for real-time data analysis. In this case, Tableau connects to real-
time data source and keeps reading the data. Thus, the result of the analysis is up to the second,
and the latest changes are reflected in the result. However, on the downside, it burdens the source
system as it has to keep sending the data to Tableau.

In-Memory
Tableau can also process data in-memory by caching them in memory and not being connected to
the source anymore while analyzing the data. Of course, there will be a limit to the amount of data
cached depending on the availability of memory.

Combine Data Sources

Tableau can connect to different data sources at the same time. For example, in a single workbook
you can connect to a flat file and a relational source by defining multiple connections. This is used
in data blending, which is a very unique feature in Tableau.

How to Establish a Connection?

Moving on, let us see how do we connect to a data source from Tableau Desktop. We will show you
how to establish a connection to an MS Excel file and use its data for analysis in Tableau.
Open Tableau Desktop in your system. As soon as it opens, you will get the Tableau welcome page.
On this page, you will find a blue pane on the left with the heading Connect. In this pane, you will
find a list of data connectors for file-based and server-based sources. You can click on the data
connector name, select a file or establish a connection.

To fetch a Microsoft Excel file, we click on

the option Microsoft Excel from the list.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 31

 Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

It will open a new dialog box from where you can access files from your system. We have a sample
Excel file which we are going to select and click Open.

This will open the contents of the Excel file in a Data Source tab in a Tableau workbook.

32 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

This tab has a Connections pane at its left which shows the name of the data source and its
contents; that is, the number of sheets in the case of an Excel file.

We can manage and view the contents of a data source by dragging and dropping sheets to the
central pane. It will display the entire table with proper rows and columns of the respective sheet.

In addition to this, you can also add a new data source here by clicking on the Add option and then
selecting the data file or connector of your choice.

33
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
 Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

Or, by clicking on the Data tab present on the top-left bar and then selecting New Data
Source option from there.

From here, we can sort fields and manage metadata where you can see the names of all the columns
present in their concerning tables. In this way, we can also manage multiple linked data sources.

34 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Once we load our data source, we can move on to create a worksheet in Tableau. Open the tab
called Sheet1 just next to the Data Source tab and you will find a list of available data sources and
fields within it. On the left, there is an organized list of available dimensions and measures from
where you can select and use them to create charts and graphs. Just drag and drop dimensions and
measures to the Columns and Rows section to start making visualizations.

Every data source, especially server-based sources have different steps to follow in order to
establish a connection with. Follow the steps, provide the necessary information and start working
with your data in Tableau to carry out the analysis.

3.2 Combining Data Sources

There are several ways to combine data, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Relationships are the default method and can be used in most instances, including across tables
with different levels of detail. Relationships are flexible and adapt to the structure of the analysis on
a sheet by sheet basis. However, you can't create relationships between tables from published data
sources.

35
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
 Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

Joins combine tables by adding more columns of data across similar row structures. This can cause
data loss or duplication if tables are at different levels of detail, and joins must be established before
analysis can begin. You can't use a published data source in a join.

Blends, unlike relationships or joins, never combine the data directly. Instead, blends query each
data source independently, aggregate the results to the appropriate level, then present the results
together visually in the view. Because of this, blends can handle different levels of detail and also
work with published data sources. Blends don't create a new, blended data source (and therefore
can't be published as a "blended data source"). Instead, they are simply blended results visualized
per sheet.

3.3 Tableau Sets & Parameters

Sets

You can use sets to compare and ask questions about a subset of data. Sets are custom fields that
define a subset of data based on some conditions.

You can make sets more dynamic and interactive by using them in Set Actions. Set actions let your
audience interact directly with a viz or dashboard to control aspects of their analysis. When
someone selects marks in the view, set actions can change the values in a set.

Create a dynamic set

There are two types of sets: dynamic sets and fixed sets. The members of a dynamic set change
when the underlying data changes. Dynamic sets can only be based on a single dimension.

To create a dynamic set:

1. In the Data pane, right-click a dimension and select Create > Set.

2. In the Create Set dialog box, configure your set. You can configure your set using the
following tabs:

o General: Use the General tab to select one or more values that will be considered
when computing the set.

You can alternatively select the Use all option to always consider all members
even when new members are added or removed.

36 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

o Condition: Use the Condition tab to define rules that determine which members
to include in the set.

For example, you might specify a condition that is based on total sales that only
includes products with sales over $100,000.

37
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
 Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

o Top: Use the Top tab to define limits on what members to include in the set.

For example, you might specify a limit that is based on total sales that only
includes the top 5 products based on their sales.

38 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY 9
Advance Data Visualisation

3. When finished, click OK.

The new set is added to the bottom of the Data pane, under the Sets section. A set icon
indicates the field is a set.

39
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
 Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

Parameters
A parameter is a workbook variable such as a number, date, or string that can replace a constant
value in a calculation, filter, or reference line.

Example you may create a calculated field that returns True if Sales is greater than
$500,000 and otherwise returns False. You can replace the constant value of “500000” in the formula
with a parameter. Then, using the parameter control, you can dynamically change the threshold in
your calculation.

You can even create a dynamic parameter that’s set to automatically refresh its current value (to the
result of a single-value, view-independent calculation), list of values (based on a data source
column), or range of values. This will happen each time the workbook is opened and Tableau
connects to the data source referenced by the parameter, or whenever you select Refresh from the
data source’s context menu..

You can make your parameters more dynamic and interactive by using them in Parameter Actions.
Parameter actions let your audience change a parameter value through direct interaction with a viz,
such as clicking or selecting a mark.

Create a parameter
Follow the instructions below to create a new parameter from the Data pane.

1. In the Data pane, click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner and select Create
Parameter.

2. In the Create Parameter dialog box, give the field a Name.

40 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY 11
Advance Data Visualisation

3. Specify the data type for the values it will accept:

4. Specify a current value. This is the default value for the parameter. In this case, let’s leave
the field as is because we’ll be using the latest data, which we’ll configure in the next step.

5. Specify a value when the workbook opens. In this case, let’s create a dynamic parameter
by setting the parameter’s default value to the result of a single-value, view-independent
calculation.

Notes

If there is more than one value, the workbook would not be able to choose a
default value. The calculation must also be view-independent so that the value won’t
change as the viz changes. To do this, you can use a FIXED level of detail (LOD)
expression that is not dependent on the structure of the viz. All parts of the calculation
must be inside the FIXED LOD expression. If you use a FIXED LOD expression as the
default value and are using context filters, the dynamic parameter will not reflect any
context filters. For more information on LOD expressions, see Create Level of Detail
Expressions in Tableau.

For this dynamic parameter, let's use Latest Month. This means that if the connected data
source is updated and the workbook is opened, the parameter will automatically update
when the workbook is opened.

6. Specify the display format to use in the parameter control (Tableau Desktop only).

41
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
 Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

7. Specify how the parameter will accept values. You can select from the following options:

o All - The parameter control is a simple text field.

o List - The parameter control provides a list of possible values for you to select
from.

o Range - The parameter control lets you select values within a specified range.

The availability of these options is determined by the data type. For example, a string
parameter can only accept all values or a list. It does not support a range.

If you select List, you must specify the list of values. Click in the left column to type your
list of values, or you can add members of a field by selecting Add values from.

If you select Range, you must specify a minimum, maximum, and step size. For example,
you can define a date range between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019, with the step
size set to 1 month to create a parameter control that lets you select each month in 2019.

42 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY 13
Advance Data Visualisation

In this case, to refresh the parameter’s list of values (or domain) whenever the workbook
opens, select List, and then select When workbook opens. Notice that the list of values on
the left is grayed out because the workbook is dynamically pulling values from the data
source.

8. When finished, click OK.

The parameter is now listed in the Parameters section at the bottom of the Data pane.

The parameter is also available everywhere else you can use a parameter—for example, on
the Top tab in the Filter dialog box, or in the Reference Line dialog box. Parameters are
global across the workbook and can be used in any worksheet.

43
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
 Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

Summary
 Tableau is a popular Business Intelligence tool used by thousands of companies around
the world. It helps businesses generate valuable insights by connecting and analyzing the
raw data from different sources. It offers various tools and techniques that a business can
use to establish relationships between different data sources.
 Parameters in Tableau are the container of values used to calculate and dynamically enter
the values that are otherwise not present in the original dataset. You can add conditions
and select the range of the values for which you want to create a parameter. After that,
you can incorporate these values into reports and dashboards and see their effect on
different visualizations.
 Parameters are a method that transfers the control on datasets from the author of the
report to the user.
 Parameters or container values in Tableau are mainly used to dynamically enter the values
in the dataset that would otherwise not be present in it. With tableau parameters, you can
set the range for any dataset and only focus on specific data variables/dimensions for
performing data analysis.

Keywords
Parameters: Parameters are useful when you want to add interactivity and flexibility to a report, or
to experiment with what-if scenarios. Suppose you are unsure which fields to include in your view
or which layout would work best for your viewers.
Data Source: DataSource is a name given to the connection set up to a database from a server. The
name is commonly used when creating a query to the database. The data source name need not be
the same as the filename for the database.
Sets: Sets are custom fields that define a subset of data based on some conditions. A set can be
based on a computed condition, for example, a set may contain customers with sales over a certain
threshold. Computed sets update as your data changes. Alternatively, a set can be based on specific
data point in your view.

Self-Assessment

1. What are the different Tableau files?

A. Workbooks

B. Bookmarks

C. Packaged Workbooks

D. All of these

2. What are the characteristics to distinguish data source?

A. Icon/Name

B. Connection Type

44 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

C. Connects to

D. All of these

3. Tableau was founded by

A. Chris Stoltecorrect

B. Chris Jordan

C. Alexander Fleming

D. None

4. How do you identify a continuous field in Tableau?

A. It is identified by a blue pill in the visualizationwrong

B.It is identified by a green pill in a visualizationcorrect

C. It is preceded by a # symbol in the data window

D. When added to the visualization, it produces distinct values

5. The icon associated with the field that has been grouped is a _____________

A. Paper Clipcorrect

B. Set

C. Hashwrong

D. Equal To

6. What are the file extensions in Tableau?

A. Tableau Bookmark (.tdm)

B. Tableau Map Source (.tms)

C. Tableau Preferences (.tps)

45
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
 Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

D. All of the abovecorrect

7. How do you identify a discrete field in Tableau?

A. It is identified by a blue pill in the visualization
B. It is identified by a green pill in a visualization
C. It is preceded by a # symbol in the data window
D. When added to the visualization, it produces distinct values

8. It contains qualitative values…………….

A. Dimensions
B. Measures
C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

9. It contains quantitative values…………….

A. Dimensions
B. Measures
C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

10. It contains options to create graphs

A. Dimensions
B. Measures
C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

11. It contains option to apply all formulas

A. Dimensions
B. Measures
C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

12. It can be used to define the level of detail to perform an aggregation on

A. Dimensions
B. Measures
C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

46 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

13. In which type of graph geographical role is defined

A. Bar graph
B. Map charts
C. Scatter plot
D. Dimensions

14. In which type of graph spatial data is required

A. Bar graph
B. Map charts
C. Scatter plot
D. Dimensions

15. Tableau takes at least one measure in the Rows shelf and one measure in the Columns shelf
to create a _____________
A. Bar graph
B. Map charts
C. Scatter plot
D. Dimensions

Answers for Self-Assessment

l. D 2. D 3. A 4. A 5. C

6. D 7. A 8. A 9. B 10. C

11. D 12. A 13. B 14. B 15. C

Review Questions
1. Why Tableau is preferred by the business community?
2. What do you mean by data source? How it is important for tableau.
3. What is a parameter? Write the steps to implement parameters using tableau.
4. What are the different responsibilities of a Tableau professional?
5. What are sets?

Further Readings

1. Communication Data With Tablue, Ben Jones, O’ Reilly Publications

47
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
 Unit 03: Tableau Data Sources

Web Links

https://www.tableau.com/
https://www.datacamp.com/tutorial/data-visualisation-tableau

48 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY 19
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
4.1 What is Tableau?
4.2 Installation:
4.3 Data Visualizations
4.4 Various Graphs and Charts
4.5 Filters
Summary
Keywords
Self Assessment
Answers for Self Assessment
Review Questions
Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand concept of different graphs.
• install software for data visualization.
• Understand dimensions and measures.
• Understand continuous and discrete data.

Introduction
Data Visualization with tableau is the process of presenting information through visual rendering.
From centuries back, people have used to visualizations such as charts and maps to understand
information more quickly and easily. As far as the human brain is concerned, it recognizes visual
data more quickly than text data.

4.1 What is Tableau?

Tableau is a Data Visualisation tool that is widely used for Business Intelligence but is not limited
to it. It helps create interactive graphs and charts in the form of dashboards and worksheets to gain
business insights. And all of this is made possible with gestures as simple as drag and drop!
What Products does Tableau offer?

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 49

 Advance Data Visualisation

4.2 Installation:
To work on Tableau, you need Tableau, right?

Out of the five above mentioned products, Tableau Desktop, Public and Online offer Data Visual
Creation.

Tableau Desktop

It is available in the following three formats:

1. Free trial for 14 days

2. If you are a student or a teacher, you get free access to the Desktop for a full year.
3. Purchase Tableau

Tableau Public

Tableau Public is purely free of all costs and does not require any license. But it comes with a
limitation that all of your data and workbooks are made public to all Tableau users.

Tableau Online

Tableau Online is the best option for you, if you wish to make your Workbooks on the Cloud and
be able to access them from anywhere.

Connect to the Data

50 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

You should see a screen similar to the one above. This is where you import your data. As is visible,
there are multiple formats that your data can be in. It can be in a flat-file such as Excel, CSV or you
can directly load it from data servers too.

You can see that Tableau itself offers some Sample Workbooks, with pre-drawn charts, graphs, and
other visuals. I would suggest going through these later for further exploration.

The best way to learn is to get your hands dirty. Let us start with our Data, which can be
found here. The data is that of a United States’ Superstore which is deliberating over its expansion.
It wishes to know the prospective regions of the country where it could and hence requires your
help.

The first thing that you will obviously need to do is import the data onto Tableau. So quickly follow
the below steps:

1. Since the data is in an Excel File, click on Excel and choose the Sample – Superstore.xls file
to get :

2. You can see three sheets on the screen, but we are only going to be dealing with Orders
here, so go ahead and drag the same on Drag sheets here :

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 51

 Advance Data Visualisation

Uh oh, the imported data looks a bit different for the first few rows. Don’t worry, the solution lies
right ahead.

Data Interpreter

3. You see the option of Use Data Interpreter? Click on it to get the following clean view :

All that messy data magically disappeared!

If you open the Excel data file, you will see some metadata in it, i.e. information about data :

Tableau imports the entire data file as is, but anticipating such discrepancies, explicitly provides a
solution in the form of a Data Interpreter. If you wish to view the exact changes that it made, click
on Review the results, and choose the Orders tab in the opened Excel sheet.

As it will show, it simply removed the erroneous data.

52 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

4.3 Data Visualizations

As soon as you had imported your dataset, next to the Data Source tab near the bottom of the
screen, you immediately must have seen Go to Worksheet. A Worksheet is where you make all of
your graphs, so click on that tab to reach the following screen:

Don’t get overwhelmed by the various elements that you see here, we will cover them all one by
one.

Dimensions and Measures:

Moving onto Shelves :

Visualization in Tableau is possible through dragging and dropping Measures and Dimensions
onto these different Shelves.

Rows and Columns : Represent the x and y-axis of your graphs / charts.
Filter: Filters help you view a strained version of your data. For example, instead of seeing the
combined Sales of all the Categories, you can look at a specific one, such as just Furniture.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 53

 Advance Data Visualisation

Pages: Pages work on the same principle as Filters, with the difference that you can actually see the
changes as you shift between the Paged values. Remember that Rosling chart? You can easily make
one of your own using Pages.
Marks: The Marks property is used to control the mark types of your data. You may choose to
represent your data using different shapes, sizes or text.

And finally, there is Show Me, the brain of Tableau!

When you drag and drop fields onto the visualization area, Tableau makes default graphs for you,
as we shall see soon, but you can change these by referring to the Show Me option.

Note: Not every graph can be made with any combination of Dimensions or Measures. Each graph
has its own conditions for the number and types of fields that can be used, which we shall discuss
next.

4.4 Various Graphs and Charts

Using Superstore Sales and Profit Statistics. That would include the Net Sales, the Net Profit and
the growth of the two measures, to name a few. Here is a gist of what we will be making:

54 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

From what can be observed, the net sales are on the rise, but the Profit is creeping up slowly. We
can also quite clearly see the peak Sales Months, which could be attributed to various reasons. We
can only know more as we explore more.

Before we start, there is one thing that I would like to recommend and that is you name
your Worksheets as being done here.

Let’s begin with the simplest visualization, and that is displaying the Net
Statistics numbers. Tableau, being as smart as it is, automatically computes such
values under Measure Names and Measure Values. Follow these steps to make what is called
a Text Table :

1. Drag Measure Names from Dimensions onto the central empty area so that you see a Text
Table.
2. Measure Names will be displayed automatically onto Rows, so drag it from Rows to
Columns.
3. Since we don’t really need Measures like the Row ID, Discount, etc, you can drag them off
from below the Marks Pane, to get something like this :

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 55

 Advance Data Visualisation

Note: Don’t get confused by the different colors of the fields that you see. Just remember one small
trick: Blue means Discrete and Green, Continuous.

So we have the net Sales and Profit values, let’s delve a little deeper by getting the Sales and Profit
Values over the years. Let’s make another, but a more detailed, Text Table :

1. Drag Order Date from Dimensions and Sales from Measures to Rows.
2. Right-click on the green Sales Pill, and select Discrete, in place of Continuous, since we
want the explicit values and not the bar graphs.
3. Finally, drag Profit on the ‘abc’ column to get :

4. Do the same thing for Monthly Sales and Profit Values, but this time changes the format
of Order Date, from Year to Month, by right-clicking on Order Date in the Rows, and
choosing Month, to get something like this :

We have just covered the numeric part of the Dashboard, but that is not its selling point. It’s
the Line Charts. Lets quickly learn how to make one :

1. To create the chart of Sales and Profit Growth, drag Order Date over
the Columns, Sales over Rows and then Profit over the formed Sales axis – so that you

56 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

see an equals sign – to get the following :

2. Repeat the same to find the Peak Sales and Profit Months, but again change the format
of Order Date, from Year to Month, and get :

If you were to click on Show Me, you will see the different types of Line Charts that you can make,
and if you were to hover over each of them, you will get to see their Dimension and Measure
requirements too. In case you ever feel lost, I recommend referring to Show Me.

With the previous visualizations, we had gotten a brief overview of the Superstore. Let’s dig a little
deeper now. The next thing that I can think of exploring is the demographic of the Sales and Profit.
What are the States that have the highest Sales Revenue, which ones are generating the maximum
Profits:

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 57

 Advance Data Visualisation

Before discussing the inferences, let’s first create the Pie Chart of Region Sales :

1. Drag Regions onto Rows and Sales onto Columns.

2. Go to Show Me, and select the Pie Chart.
3. And finally, drag Sales over the Label in the Marks Pane to get :

From the visual, it’s pretty evident that the two opposite ends, East and West are leading in the
Sales game. Let’s dissect this a bit more.

Note : Whenever you have some geographical data, it is always advisable to plot and see it on a
Map to gain better insights.

So, we are now going to make the Map Chart of State Sales Distribution :

1. Since its the States that we wish to analyze, drag States onto the empty area, so that you
automatically see a Map, with small Circles. Follow this step by dragging Profits next. You
will notice the size of these circles changing to represent the varying values of Profits. This
is called a Symbol Map. But we are going to convert this into a Filled one, by going to
Show Me, and selecting the Filled Map.

58 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

2. Drag Profits again, but this time onto Label in the Marks Pane, to view the Profit Values
mapped as well, like so :

California and New York are the top most sellers from the West and East region, but unfortunately,
there are other states such as Texas, Colorado which even after having good Sales, have negative
Profits! This is certainly not good news for the Superstore. You can perceive a good analysis for the
other States as well.

And lastly, here are the steps for making the Scatter Plot of Sales and Profit Analysis :

1. Drag Sales onto Rows, and Profit onto Columns. You will see one tiny circle, which
actually represents the Total Sales and Profit Values.
2. To get more information, drag States onto the graph created, so that these circles/bubbles
scatter to represent the individual States.
3. To better understand the central tendency of the data, we have also added a Median
axis as Reference Line. This can be easily done by right-clicking on the Sales / Profit Axis –
> Adding Reference Line and choosing Median over the default Average Reference.
4. Finally, for some more insight, drag States again, but this time onto Label in the Marks
Pane, and get:

The findings from the Map chart become more prominent with the following Scatter
plot inferences :

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 59

 Advance Data Visualisation

 The states in the top right, with high Sales and high Profits, mean good business for the
organization.
 States with positive Sales and Profits, but near the two respective axis are the ones where
there is some scope of improvement.
 Whereas the states that belong to the 2nd or 3rd quarter are the ones which are not
generating much revenue.

One of the great things about Tableau is that it lets you interact with the visuals. Have a look at an
example :

When we clicked on the Central Region, it highlighted and showed the Central States of the US,
along with their respective Sales and Profit scatter. Here we used the chart as a Filter itself which is
a feature of a Dashboard. We shall learn how to make one at a later stage.

There is one pretty important analysis that we have yet to touch, and that is Product Statistics. High
Sales could be easily attributed to the high cost of the products being sold. Also, when you are
considering expansion, you will want to know the Sales distribution of the Products too:

Here we have visualized not just the Sales but also the Profits.

60 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

Its quite surprising to see Categories that have high Sales, generating negative profits, like
Technology in November 2015, or Furniture in October 2016 and this is inferred from the first chart,
which is also called a Highlight Table. As the name suggests, it highlights the relative proportion
of the Measure Values of our data. So let’s learn how to make one :

1. Drag Category and Order Date ( Year ) in Rows.

2. Drag Order Date (Month ) over Columns, and Sales over the empty ‘abc’ fields
3. Select Highlight Table from Show Me, and drag Order Date ( Year ) back to Rows, in case
it got re-shuffled.
4. Finally drag Profits over Colour in the Marks Pane, to get :

The Product Sub Category Sales is a Bar Chart, which is also quite easy to make :

1. Just drag Sub – Category over to the Rows

2. Drag Profit onto the Columns.
3. Go to Show Me and choose the Horizontal Bars
4. For some customization, drag Sales over Colour in the Marks Pane to attain this final
visualization:

From the above graph, we are getting a good idea of the Net Sales and Profit margins of the various
products. Notice that even though Tables’ Sales are quite high on the scale, it’s the only product
with the least profit.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 61

 Advance Data Visualisation

Now, just like before, consider interaction with the visualization:

We are now able to view each Category’s Products’ Sales and Profits, at a low-level granularity of
Year and Month!

4.5 Filters
Till now we have only made simple charts, that actually provide cumulative data, which is
combined data over the lifetime of the Superstore. To look at Sales of a particular Year, a Month, for
a certain Product, or to basically view the distinct aspects of the data, Filters are the way to go.

Let’s head back to the first-ever Chart that we had made, of Peak Sales and Profit Months :

62 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

The visual here is an accumulation of all 4 years of data, for all Regions, States, Categories and Sub
Categories.

The steps of turning any Dimension into a Filter are the same. Let’s first experiment with the Order
Date ( formatted to Year ) :

1. Drag the Dimension to the Filters’ Shelf, to see the following pop up. Here we will be
choosing Years :

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 63

 Advance Data Visualisation

2. Choose the values that you want to be a part of your Filter :

3. Right-click on the newly generated Filter, and then choose Show Filter :

64 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

4. You can also change the format of your Filter, for example, whether you wish for a
Dropdown list, a Slider, a Single Value List, etc :

5. If you feel that some of your filters can be applied to other sheets as well, then rather
than repeating the steps, you can simply Apply the Filter to all other relevant Worksheets
:

Summary

 Tableau Public Server. Tableau Public server is a free server in the internet. ...
 Tableau Public Desktop. Tableau Public Desktop is a free desktop application. ...
 Tableau Mobile. Tableau mobile is a mobile application.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 65

 Advance Data Visualisation

 Tableau can handle millions of rows of data with ease. Different types of visualization can
be created with a large amount of data without impacting the performance of the
dashboards.
 Also, there is an option in Tableau where the user can make “live” to connections to
different data sources like SQL etc.

Keywords

 Visualization helps people to understand things clearly and have a better insight into the
topic.
 Visualization helps to predict the future easily and take better decisions
 Data of large volumes can also be spotted easily and quickly
 Data visualization conveys the information in a universal manner
 It makes it simple to share ideas with others

Self Assessment
1. How do you identify a continuous field in Tableau?
A. It is identified by a blue pill in the visualization
B. It is identified by a green pill in a visualization
C. It is preceded by a # symbol in the data window
D. When added to the visualization, it produces distinct values

2. How do you identify a discrete field in Tableau?

A. It is identified by a blue pill in the visualization
B. It is identified by a green pill in a visualization
C. It is preceded by a # symbol in the data window
D. When added to the visualization, it produces distinct values

3.The icon associated with the field that has been grouped is a _____________
A. Paper Clip
B. Set
C. Hash
D. Equal To

4. What are the file extensions in Tableau?

A. Tableau Bookmark (.tdm)
B. Tableau Map Source (.tms)
C. Tableau Preferences (.tps)
D. All of the above

5. How to view underlying SQL Queries in Tableau?

A. Create a Performance Recording

66 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

B. Reviewing the Tableau Desktop Logs

C. Both A and B
D. None

6. Tableau was introduced in the year of

A. 2000
B. 2002
C. 2003
D. 2005

7. What different products Tableau provide?

A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

8. ____________is an online platform that allows you to host and manage Tableau data sources.
A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

9. ________________helps to create reports, dashboards, and stories using different charts and
graphs.

A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

10. ______________does not need to connect to any source, but it can read reports built on top of
any and all of the listed data sources that Tableau Supports.

A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

11. Your data is out in the public once your report is published on to the ___________.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 67

 Advance Data Visualisation

A. Tableau Public Server

B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

12. ___________is for somebody that only needs to monitor the analytics

A. Tableau Public Server

B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

13. For creating variable size bins we use ____________

A. Sets
B. Groups
C. Calculated fields
D. Table Calculations

14. For writing own calculation we use________

A. Sets
B. Groups
C. Calculated fields
D. Table Calculations

15. For writing separation of two categories we use________

A. Sets
B. Dimensions
C. Show me
D. Table Calculations

Answers for Self Assessment

1 b 2 a 3 a 4 d 5 c 6 c 7 d 8a

68 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 04: Basic Visualizations

9 b 10 c 11 a 12 c 13 c 14 c 15 a

Review Questions
 What makes data visualization good?
 How can you visualize more than three dimensions in a single chart?
 Is Tableau good for data visualization?
 What are the strengths and limitations of Tableau when it comes to data visualization?
 What Are the Data Types Supported in Tableau?
 How Will You Understand Dimensions and Measures?
 What is Meant by 'discrete' and 'continuous' in Tableau?

Further Readings
"Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring” by Stephen Few
"Beautiful Visualization, Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts by Julie Steele, Noah
Iliinsky"

Web Links
https://www.tableau.com/
https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 69

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 05: Creation of Hierarchies

Unit 05: Creation of Hierarchies

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
5.1 Data Visualization
5.2 Keys Factors of Data Visualization
5.3 Data Visualization Tools and type of data
Summary
Keywords
Self-Assessment
Answers for Self-Assessment
Review Questions
Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:

 Understand data visualization

 Analyze tools of data visualization
 Analyze data using tablue

Introduction
In our increasingly data-driven world, it’s more important than ever to have accessible ways to
view and understand data. After all, the demand for data skills in employees is steadily increasing
each year. Employees and business owners at every level need to have an understanding of data
and of its impact.

That’s where data visualization comes in handy. With the goal of making data more accessible and
understandable, data visualization in the form of dashboards is the go-to tool for many businesses
to analyze and share information.

5.1 Data Visualization

Data visualization is the graphical representation of information and data. By using visual elements
like charts, graphs, and maps, data visualization tools provide an accessible way to see and
understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data. Additionally, it provides an excellent way for
employees or business owners to present data to non-technical audiences without confusion.
Data visualization is the practice of translating information into a visual context, such as a map or
graph, to make data easier for the human brain to understand and pull insights from. The main
goal of data visualization is to make it easier to identify patterns, trends and outliers in large data

70 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

sets. The term is often used interchangeably with others, including information graphics,
information visualization and statistical graphics.

Data visualization is one of the steps of the data science process, which states that after data has
been collected, processed and modeled, it must be visualized for conclusions to be made. Data
visualization is also an element of the broader data presentation architecture (DPA) discipline,
which aims to identify, locate, manipulate, format and deliver data in the most efficient way
possible.

Data visualization is important for almost every career. It can be used by teachers to display
student test results, by computer scientists exploring advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) or
by executives looking to share information with stakeholders. It also plays an important role in big
data projects. As businesses accumulated massive collections of data during the early years of the
big data trend, they needed a way to get an overview of their data quickly and easily. Visualization
tools were a natural fit.

Visualization is central to advanced analytics for similar reasons. When a data scientist is writing
advanced predictive analytics or machine learning (ML) algorithms, it becomes important to
visualize the outputs to monitor results and ensure that models are performing as intended. This is
because visualizations of complex algorithms are generally easier to interpret than numerical
outputs.

Why is data visualization important?

Data visualization provides a quick and effective way to communicate information in a universal
manner using visual information. The practice can also help businesses identify which factors affect
customer behavior; pinpoint areas that need to be improved or need more attention; make data
more memorable for stakeholders; understand when and where to place specific products; and
predict sales volumes.

Other benefits of data visualization include the following:

 the ability to absorb information quickly, improve insights and make faster decisions;
 an increased understanding of the next steps that must be taken to improve the
organization;
 an improved ability to maintain the audience's interest with information they can
understand;
 an easy distribution of information that increases the opportunity to share insights
with everyone involved;
 eliminate the need for data scientists since data is more accessible and
understandable; and
 an increased ability to act on findings quickly and, therefore, achieve success with
greater speed and less mistakes.

5.2 Keys Factors of Data Visualization

Data visualization is a crucial part of data analytics that helps you visualize your data and uncover
significant trends and patterns that would otherwise have been lost. Effective data visualization
depends on your software as nobody has the time to code the visualizations themselves with loads
of data involved in the process.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 71

 Unit 05: Creation of Hierarchies

Several data visualization tools, such as Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service (VBCS), Tableau,
Power BI, etc., have comparable features and capabilities, making selecting the right tool for your
needs even more challenging. So, what are the factors to be considered in choosing the right data
visualization solution for your use case?

Let us talk deep on it. Here are the main specifics.

1. Dashboard Design
It is important to check on the right balance between the simplicity and complexity of a dashboard
when it comes to enterprise reporting. While simpler designs may be easy to use, they may not be
able to pack in much helpful information. However, complex dashboards could clutter your screen
and make it difficult to understand the data right in front of your eyes. If you’re not an expert and
don’t know much about dashboard design, know that the dashboard must have balanced colors
naturally appealing to the eye. It is intuitive to have colorful highlights between appropriate white
spaces. Too much white space could over-simplify the design, while too much color could affect
usability. Modern tools like Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service strike a balance between simplicity
and complexity and avoid highly complex designs even if they could deliver much more
information in a compact setting.

2. Use Case
Different use cases demand different types of dashboards. For example, a simple use-case like the
real-time analytics of a store will be very different from a more complex use-case like viewing stock
market reports. It’s a great way to personalize your data visualization, and several modern
Analytics & BI Applications like Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service offer this feature. Not only is
the solution tailored to your needs, but it also provides an enhanced user experience.
3. Data Connectivity
Data is key to your visualization; poor data integration or missing data can have a considerable
impact. Business data is the primary input for a data visualization tool, so ensuring that the right
data sources are connected to the tool is of paramount importance. Data is often pulled from
multiple dynamic sources, so it needs to be up-to-date for your visualizations to stay relevant. The
ability to connect and integrate with other data sources is a critical factor in enabling effective data
visualization.
4. Target Audience
Data visualizations often convey information to users who don’t fully understand the application
or the process. They could include line-of-business users, external users, and other stakeholders.
They only need access to the data relevant to their role in the organization. The ability of data
visualization tools like Oracle VBCS to adapt according to the audience plays a key role. So, ensure
the tool is specific to the target audience and provides role-based user access.

5. Functionality
Keeping the data visualization tool’s functionality aligned with your organization’s needs is crucial.
Business leaders often consider going for the software packed with the most number of features or
with greater functionality, when in reality, they only require a fraction of these capabilities. Not
only does it increase complexity, but it also drives up costs and impacts your ability to use it for its
true purpose. Ultimately, you’re left with too many features you don’t need and will never use.
Focus on acquiring the functionality your organization truly needs instead of fancy features, and
you can keep adding more functionality as your business grows. Oracle VBCS allows you to add
features based on your evolving needs.

72 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

5.3 Data Visualization Tools and type of data

Data visualization tools are cloud-based applications that help you to represent raw data in easy to
understand graphical formats. You can use these programs to produce customizable bar charts, pie
charts, column charts, and more.

Following is a handpicked list of Top Data Visualization Tool with their popular features and
website links. The list contains both open-source(free) and commercial(paid) software.

Followings are some popular data visualization tools

1) Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is a robust and versatile data visualization tool. It allows users to create insightful
reports and dashboards, and visually analyze any data in minutes. It features an AI powered
assistant that enables users to ask questions and get intelligent answers in the form of meaningful
reports.

2) Power BI
Power BI is a Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tool which helps you to convert data
from various data sources into interactive dashboards and reports. It provides multiple software
connectors and services.

3) Whatagraph
Whatagraph is a data visualization tool that enables you to monitor and compare the performance
of multiple campaigns. This application allows you to transfer custom data from Google sheet and
API.

4) Tableau
Tableau is a robust tool for visualizing data in a better way. You can connect any database to create
understandable visuals. It is one of the best visualization tools that enables you to share
visualization with other people.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 73

 Unit 05: Creation of Hierarchies

5) Qlik
Qlik is a data visualization software which is used for converting raw data into knowledge. This
software acts like a human brain which works on “association” and can go into any direction to
search the answers.

6) Adaptive Insights
Adaptive Insights is a data visualization tool built to boost your business. It is one of the best data
visualisation tools that helps you to plan, budget, as well as forecast to make better decisions.

7) Dundas BI
Dundas BI is an enterprise-ready Business Intelligence platform. You can deploy it as the central
data portal for your company or integrate into any website.

8) Domo
Domo is a cloud platform that helps you to conduct analysis and create interactive visualization. It
enables you to examine important data using graphs and pie charts. This app helps you to simplify
administration data.

9) Cluvio
Cluvio is a platform that enables you to run SQL queries for your database. It allows you to
visualize the result in a better and understandable way.

74 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

10) Datawrapper
Datawrapper is an open-source tool that enables you to create interactive charts. You can load CSV
(Comma-separated Values data files into this app and embed maps onto your website.

Types of data
The data is classified into majorly four categories:

1. Nominal data
2. Ordinal data
3. Discrete data
4. Continuous data
Further, we can classify these data as follows:

Qualitative or Categorical Data

Qualitative data, also known as the categorical data, describes the data that fits into the categories.
Qualitative data are not numerical. The categorical information involves categorical variables that
describe the features such as a person’s gender, home town etc. Categorical measures are defined in
terms of natural language specifications, but not in terms of numbers.

Sometimes categorical data can hold numerical values (quantitative value), but those values do not
have a mathematical sense. Examples of the categorical data are birthdate, favourite sport, school

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 75

 Unit 05: Creation of Hierarchies

postcode. Here, the birthdate and school postcode hold the quantitative value, but it does not give
numerical meaning.

Nominal Data
Nominal data is one of the types of qualitative information which helps to label the variables
without providing the numerical value. Nominal data is also called the nominal scale. It cannot be
ordered and measured. But sometimes, the data can be qualitative and quantitative. Examples of
nominal data are letters, symbols, words, gender etc.

The nominal data are examined using the grouping method. In this method, the data are grouped
into categories, and then the frequency or the percentage of the data can be calculated. These data
are visually represented using the pie charts.

Ordinal Data
Ordinal data/variable is a type of data that follows a natural order. The significant feature of the
nominal data is that the difference between the data values is not determined. This variable is
mostly found in surveys, finance, economics, questionnaires, and so on.

The ordinal data is commonly represented using a bar chart. These data are investigated and
interpreted through many visualisation tools. The information may be expressed using tables in
which each row in the table shows a distinct category.

Quantitative or Numerical Data

Quantitative data is also known as numerical data which represents the numerical value (i.e., how
much, how often, how many). Numerical data gives information about the quantities of a specific
thing. Some examples of numerical data are height, length, size, weight, and so on. Quantitative
data can be classified into two different types based on the data sets. The two different
classifications of numerical data are discrete data and continuous data.

Discrete Data
Discrete data can take only discrete values. Discrete information contains only a finite number of
possible values. Those values cannot be subdivided meaningfully. Here, things can be counted in
whole numbers.

Example: Number of students in the class

Continuous Data
Continuous data is data that can be calculated. It has an infinite number of probable values that can
be selected within a given specific range.

Example: Temperature range

Summary
 Data visualization is the representation of data through use of common graphics, such as
charts, plots, infographics, and even animations. These visual displays of information

76 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

communicate complex data relationships and data-driven insights in a way that is easy to
understand.
 Data visualizations are used to discover unknown facts and trends. You can see
visualizations in the form of line charts to display change over time. Bar and column
charts are useful for observing relationships and making comparisons. A pie chart is a
great way to show parts of a whole. And maps are the best way to share geographical data
visually.
 To craft an effective data visualization, you need to start with clean data that is well-
sourced and complete. After the data is ready to visualize, you need to pick the right chart.

Keywords
Data: In computing, data is information that has been translated into a form that is efficient for
movement or processing.
Data Visualization: Data and information visualization is an interdisciplinary field that deals with
the graphic representation of data and information.
Charts: A data chart is a type of diagram or graph, that organizes and represents a set of numerical
or qualitative data. Maps that are adorned with extra information (map surround) for a specific
purpose are often known as charts, such as a nautical chart or aeronautical chart, typically spread
over several map sheets.
Data analysis: Data Analysis. Data Analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical
and/or logical techniques to describe and illustrate, condense and recap, and evaluate data.

Self-Assessment

1. What is true about Data Visualization?

A. Data Visualization is used to communicate information clearly and efficiently to users by the
usage of information graphics such as tables and charts.
B. Data Visualization helps users in analyzing a large amount of data in a simpler way.
C. Data Visualization makes complex data more accessible, understandable, and usable.
D. All of the above

2. Which are pros of data visualization?

A. It can be accessed quickly by a wider audience.

B. It can misrepresent information
C. It can be distracting
D. None Of the above

3. Data can be visualized using?

A. graphs
B. charts
C. maps
D. All of the above

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 77

 Unit 05: Creation of Hierarchies

4. Which are cons of data visualization?

A. It conveys a lot of information in a small space.

B. It makes your report more visually appealing.
C. visual data is distorted or excessively used.
D. None Of the above

5. Which of the following is not a data visualization tool?

A. Tablue
B. Cluvio
C. Microsoft Word
D. Domo

6. Data visualization is also an element of the broader _____________.

A. deliver presentation architecture

B. data presentation architecture
C. dataset presentation architecture
D. data process architecture

7. Which of the intricate techniques is not used for data visualization?

A. Bullet Graphs
B. Bubble Clouds
C. Fever Maps
D. Heat Maps

8. Which method shows hierarchical data in a nested format?

A. Treemaps
B. Scatter plots
C. Population pyramids
D. Area charts

9. Which one of the following is most basic and commonly used techniques?

A. Line charts
B. Scatter plots
C. Population pyramids
D. Area charts

10. The best feature Tableau are except_____________-

A. Collaboration of data
B. Data Blending
C. Real time analysis
D. Data is more small and fit

11. Where can we apply global filters?

78 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

A. Dashboards
B. Stories
C. Sheets
D. All of the above

12. __________ is the representation of data through use of common graphics, such as charts,
plots, infographics, and even animations.

A. Data visualization
B. Data
C. Tablue
D. None of above

13. Who is the parent company of Tableau?

A. Salesforce
B. Workday
C. Microsoft
D. Google

14. What are the file extensions in Tableau ?

A. Tableau Packaged Workbook (.twbx)
B. Tableau Data Source(.tds)
C. Tableau Workbook (.twb)
D. All of the above

15. Power BI is a product of_______________

A. Facebook
B. Oracle
C. Microsoft
D. SAP

Answers for Self-Assessment

l. D 2. A 3. D 4. C 5. A

6. B 7. C 8. A 9. A 10. D

11. D 12. A 13. A 14. D 15. C

Review Questions

1. What do you mean by data visualization?

2. Explain the need for data visualization tools in now’s industry.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 79

 Unit 05: Creation of Hierarchies

3. What is the difference between data and data visualization?

4. Explain Types of Data Visualizations Elements.
5. What do you mean by data visualization tools? Explain with an example.

Further Readings

1. Communication Data With Tablue, Ben Jones, O’ Reilly Publications

Web Links

https://www.tableau.com/
https://www.datacamp.com/tutorial/data-visualisation-tableau

80 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 81

 Unit 05: Creation of Hierarchies

82 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

Unit 05: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand concept of Advance tableau graphs.
• install software for data visualization.
• Understand Show me tab of tableau.
• Understand concept of green and yellow pills (discrete data and continuous data).

Introduction
Tableau Desktop is a part of the tableau suite for Business Intelligence used for data analytics and
visualization. It’s a visual analytics solution that allows the user to explore complex datasets from
varied sources and perform various operations to drive valuable insights out of them.
On Tableau Desktop, even a non-programmer can connect with a myriad of data sources and
transform the data into dashboards. These dashboards can then be shared with multiple users
through Tableau Server to make data-driven decisions.

Advanced Charts in Tableau

Tableau is a powerful Business Intelligence tool and thus, provides a number of visualizations to
represent different business scenarios. It also features the Visualization Query Language or VIZQL
that enables you to run queries and interact with the SQL database
Tableau features more than 25 different types of visualizations in terms of charts, maps, and
graphs. From a simple bar chart to advanced stacked bar and gauge charts, tableau has it all.

6.1 What is Data Visualization?

It uses charts and graphs to visualize large amounts of complex data. Visualization provides a
quick, easy way to convey concepts and summarize and present large data in easy-to-understand
and straightforward displays, which enables readers insightful information. With the help of its
techniques, enterprises are able to see the overview of their unstructured enterprise data in a better
way.
What are its key features?

 Identify areas that need attention or improvement.

 Clarify which factors influence customer behavior.
 Decision-making Ability.
 Integration Capability.
 Predict sales volumes.

What are the best techniques?

For growing companies, it is the essential part of the business to make business strategies. They
follow various visualization techniques listed below:

Understanding the motive of the Visualization

 Know your data.
 Getting to know the structure of your data.
 Which Variables are we trying to plot?

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 83

 Advance Data Visualisation

 How x-axis and y-axis will be used for the representation.

 How different colors symbolize visualization.

6.2 Identify the Purpose of the Visualization

1. Identifying the purpose of creating a chart is necessary as this helps define the
structure of the process.

2. Select the right chart type.

3. Selecting the right type of chart is very crucial as this defines the overall functionality
of the chart.

4. Attention to Detail using colors, shapes, and sizes.

5. Choosing the correct type of color, shape, and size is essential for representing the
chart.

6.3 What are the common challenges?

Big Data is a large volume, complex dataset. So, such data cannot visualize with the traditional
method as the traditional method has many limitations.

 Perceptual Scalability: Human eyes cannot extract all relevant information from a
large volume of data. Even sometimes desktop screen has its limitations if the dataset
is large. Too many visualizations are not always possible to fit on a single screen.
 Real-time Scalability: It is always expected that all information should be real-time
information, but it is hardly possible as processing the dataset needs time.
 Interactive scalability: Interactive help to understand what is inside the datasets, but
as big data volume increases exponentially, visualizing the datasets take a long time.
But the challenge is that sometimes the system may freeze or crash while trying to
visualize the datasets.

What are the Data Visualization techniques and strategies?

It strategy is another on the rundown. You may have the information scrubbed and the bits of
knowledge removed, yet you ought to likewise make sense of how to manage all the fortune.

84 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

Better Preparation and Investigation

Information system guesses numerous means, from examining the business sector and industry,
picking and organizing information streams — constant or heritage, inner or outer, or both, and so
on., to choosing apparatuses and hotspots for information preparing and investigation — manual
information researcher examination, front line AI calculations.

Identify Areas that need Attention.

As indicated by an Experian report, 95% of U.S. associations state that they use the data to control
business openings. Another 84 percent accept information is an essential piece of shaping a
business system. With an exponentially developing volume of data, chiefs might appear wealthy
and ought to get ready to receive liberal rewards from their increasing resources. Nonetheless,
more isn't, in every case, better.

Quick Action

Managing much information can be overpowering and bring about "suffocating" if the
organizations don't settle specific difficulties before venturing into an information-driven period.

6.4 Interactive Representation of Data

The way we presented information significantly impacts information investigation and deciphers a
large amount of information in a continuous structure by using complex arrangements of numerical
or verifiable figures. With the vast surges of information promptly accessible to the present
organizations across ventures, the test lies in information understanding, essential to the individual
association, just as its points, objectives, and long-term targets. Best use of Data The information is
essential for the accompanied performance of your business and to help you get the most
imaginable incentive. From this, I attempted and tried methods for dissecting and introducing
crucial data.

What are the key components?

Its component helps to give more details and alternative views to look after the data. Listed below
are the components of it.

Line Charts
Line Charts involves Creating a graph in which data is represented as a line or a set of data points
joined by a line.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 85

 Advance Data Visualisation

Area chart
Area chart structure is a filled-in area that requires at least two groups of data along an axis.

Pie Charts
Pie charts represent a graph in the shape of a circle. The whole chart is divided into subparts, which
look like a sliced pie.

86 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

Donut Chart
Doughnut Charts are pie charts that do not contain any data inside the circle.

Drill Down Pie charts

Drill down Pie charts are used for representing detailed description for a particular category.

Bar Charts

A bar chart is the type of chart in which data is represented in vertical series and used to compare
trends over time.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 87

 Advance Data Visualisation

Stacked Bar
In a stacked bar chart, parts of the data are adjacent to each bar and display a total amount, broken
down into sub-amounts.

Gauges
The gauge (gauge) component renders graphical representations of data.

88 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

Solid Gauge
Creates a gauge that indicates its metric value along a 180-degree arc.

Activity Gauge
Creates a gauge that shows the development of a task. The inner rectangle shows the current level
of a measure against the ranges marked on an outer rectangle.

Heat and Treemaps

Heatmaps are useful for presenting variation across different variables, revealing any patterns,
displaying whether any variables are related to each other, and identifying if any associations exist
in-between them

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 89

 Advance Data Visualisation

Treemap with Levels

The treemap component displays quantitative hierarchical data across two dimensions, represented
visually by size and color. Treemaps use a shape called a node to reference the data in the

hierarchy.
Scatter and Bubble Charts
Creates a chart in which the position and size of bubbles represent data. Use to show similarities
among types of values, mainly when you have multiple data objects, and you require to see the
general relations.

Combinations
Creates a graph that uses various kinds of data labels (bars, lines, or areas) to represent different
sets of data items.

90 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

3D Charts
Creating a 3D chart helps rotate and view a chart from different angles, which supports in
representing data.

3D Column
A 3D chart of type columns will draw each column as a cuboid and create a 3D effect
.

6.5 What are its major processes?

Each and every data has its particular need to illustrate data. Listed below are the stages and
process flow for it.

Acquire
Obtaining the correct data type is a crucial part as the data can be collected from various sources
and can be unstructured.

Parse
Provide some structure for the data's meaning by restructuring the received data into different
categories, which helps better visualize and understand data.

Filter
Filtering out the data that cannot serve the purpose is essential as filtering out will remove the
unnecessary data, further enhancing the chart visualization.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 91

 Advance Data Visualisation

Mining
Building charts from statistics in a way that scientific context is discrete. It helps viewers seek
insights that cannot be gained from raw data or statistics.

Represent
One of the most significant challenges for users is deciding which chart suites best and represents
the right information. The data exploration capability is necessary to statisticians as this reduces the
need for duplicated sampling to determine which data is relevant for each model.

Refine
Refining and Improving the essential representation helps in user engagement.

Interact

Add methods for handling the data or managing what features are visible.

6.6 What are the best tools?

Nowadays, there are many tools. Some of them are:

 Google Chart: Google Chart is one of the easiest tools for visualization. With the help
of google charts, you can analyze small datasets to complex unstructured datasets.
We can implement simple charts as well as complex tree diagrams. Google Chart is
available cross-platform as well.
 Tableau: The tableau desktop is a very easy-to-use its tool. Two more versions are
available of Tableau. One is "Tableau Server," and the other is cloud-based "Tableau
Online." Here we can perform visualization operations by applying drag and drop
methods for creating visual diagrams. In Tableau, we can create dashboards very
efficiently.
 Microsoft Power BI: This tool is mainly used for business analysis. Microsoft Power
BI can be run from desktops, smartphones, and even tablets. This tool also provides
analysis results very quickly.
 D3: D3 is one of the best tools. D3.js is an open-source visualization tool.
 Datawrapper: Data wrapper is a simple tool. Even non-technical persons can use the
Datawrapper tool. Data representation in a table format or responsive graphs like a
bar chart, line chart, or map draws quickly in the Datawrapper.
 Databox: Databox is another visualization tool. It is an open-source tool. The whole
data set can store in one location in the Databox tool. Then discover the insight data
and perform visualization operations. In dashboard can view or match data from
different datasets.

Many more tools are available per requirements and based on datasets, and visualization tools are
chosen.

6.7 What is the purpose of Big-Data Visualization tools?

Its tools' purpose is to read complex unstructured data with the help of visual diagrams to benefit
our business. One relevant example is the covid 19 affected report. That is a large dataset. Only data
scientists can read and find out the pattern and predict the percentage of affected patients.

92 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

Approach to Visualize Big Data

Big data is unstructured, and such data can be very easily stored on a NoSql database like
MongoDB or relevant information needed to extract from the data and stored on a SQL database.
Then from that dataset, with the help of its tools, some charts like bar charts, pie charts, etc., need to
plot. Then from those visual chart analyses can be performed.

6.8 Top 5 Data Visualization Techniques and Strategies

This section will list 5 basic techniques and strategies you should know to manage and analyze a
large amount of data in a simple manner. So, let's get started!

Design your Visualization keeping the Audience in Mind

When it's all said and done, the World Wide Web and Information Technology as an idea are in
their early stages – and information perception is a significantly more active part of advanced
development. So, the absolute most cultivated business people and officials think that it is hard to
process more than a pie diagram, bar chart, or a neatly introduced visual, nor do they have the
opportunity to dig profound into information. Hence, guaranteeing that your substance is both
moving and custom-fitted to your crowd is one of the most basic information perception methods
possible. A few partners inside your association or customers and accomplices content with a
straightforward pie diagram. However, others are looking to you to dig further into the bits of
knowledge you've assembled, and this is one of the best strategies. For the most significant effect
and achievement, you ought to consistently examine those you're introducing. Before a gathering,
and ordering your report to guarantee your visuals and level of detail address their issues
precisely.

Have Clear Goals for the Visualization Strategy

 Like any business-based interest, from the brand narrating directly through to
computerized selling in the past – with the representation of your information, your
endeavors are convincing as the methodology behind them.
 To structure your perception endeavors, make a legitimate story, and drill down into
the bits of knowledge that issue the most. It's critical to set a distinct arrangement of
points, targets, and objectives preceding the structure of your administration reports,
diagrams, outlines, and extra visuals.
 By building up your focuses on a particular crusade of interest. You ought to plunk
down in a synergistic situation with others. Put resources into the extend and Define
your endpoints regardless of the type of information that helps you reach them.
 One of the advanced Data Visualization techniques to direct your endeavors is by
utilizing a foreordained arrangement of applicable KPIs for your undertaking, efforts,
or continuous business endeavors and utilizing these bits of knowledge to create your
perceptions.

Number charts
 Real-time number diagrams are exceptionally viable when you're looking to
grandstand a quick and intuitive review of a specific key presentation marker,
regardless of whether it's a business KPI, site appearances, commitment levels, or a
level of advancement.
Maps
 Most importantly, maps look incredible, which implies they move commitment in an
executive gathering or introduction. Besides, a guide is a snappy, simple, and

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 93

 Advance Data Visualisation

absorbable approach to introducing vast or complex geological data arrangements for

various purposes.
Pie charts
 While pie graphs have received a terrible rep lately, we feel that they structure a
valuable perception device. That presents essential measurements in a simple-to-
follow group. Pie diagrams are especially useful while showing the relative
arrangement of a specific variable over a static period. What's more, pie diagrams
make an essential thing of your representation.
Gauge Charts
 This model shows the working cost proportion, firmly identified with the benefit and
misfortune territory of your fund division's critical exercises, and this shading-coded
wellbeing measure causes you to access the data you need, even at a quick look.
 Gauge charts can be successfully utilized with a solitary worth or information point.
Regardless of whether they're being used in money-related or official dashboard
reports to show progress against key execution markers. Check outlines are an
astounding guide to feature a quick pattern sign.
Colors Matter
 The clearest of our chose information representation procedures. Selecting the right
shading plan for your presentational resources is one of the best Techniques and
Strategies. That will help improve your endeavors fundamentally.
 The standards of shading hypothesis will notably affect the general accomplishment
of your perception model. You ought to consistently attempt to keep your shading
plan steady through your information perceptions, utilizing clear differentiation. To
recognize components (for example, positive patterns in green and negative trends in
red).
 As a guide, individuals utilize yellow as it can be perceived and deciphered easily.

Keep visualizations dashboards Simple and appropriate

 To assist you with taking care of your enormous information and separate it. For the
most engaged, legitimate, and absorbable representations conceivable, here are some
essential hints:
 Find which information is accessible to you and your association, conclude which is
the most significant, and mark each part of data obviously. To make it simple to
isolate, break down, and interpret.
 Guarantee that the entirety of your partners, staff, and colleagues comprehend where
your information originates from and how to get to it. To guarantee the smooth
treatment of bits of knowledge across offices.
 Keep your information ensured and your information taking care of frameworks
basic, absorbable, and refreshed. To make the representation procedure as direct and
natural as humanly conceivable.
 Guarantee that you use business dashboards that present your most significant bits of
knowledge in a straightforward. To-get to deep space – quickening the perception
procedure while likewise crushing the most considerable incentive from your data.
Tell a Data Story
 Like substance showcasing, when you're introducing your information in a visual
configuration. With the point of conveying an important message or objective,
recounting your story draws. In your crowd and make it simple for individuals to
comprehend with negligible exertion.
 Scientific studies affirm that people, in huge, react better to an all-around recounted
story and by adopting this strategy. To your representation interests, you won't just
astonish your associates, accomplices, and customers with your reports and
introductions. However, you build your odds of passing on your most basic messages,
getting the upfront investment and reaction. As per best techniques and Strategies,
you have to make the sort of changes. That brings about long-haul development,
advancement, and achievement.

94 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

 To do as such, you ought to order your data, thinking as far as an essayist. Setting up
an obvious start, center, and end, just as contention and goals. Building pressure
during your account to add the most extreme effect on your different representations.
What are the common use cases?

 Sports Analysis: Based on previous datasets with the help of visualization tools, a
winning percentage prediction is possible. Graph plotting for both teams or players is
possible, and analysis can be performed.
 Fraud Detection: Fraud detection is a famous use case of big data. With the help of
visualization tools after analyzing data, a message can be generated to others, and
they will be careful about such fraud incidents.
 Price Optimization: In any business product, price set is a significant issue with
visualizing tools and all the components used; price can be analyzed and finally
compared with market price, and then a relevant price can be set.
 Security Intelligence: Visualizing criminals' records can predict how much threat
they are to society. Each country has its security intelligence, and its task is to
visualize information and inform others about a security threat.

6.9 Tableau Pareto Chart

Named after Vilfredo Pareto, it’s a type of chart that contains both a line graph and a bar chart.
Here, the cumulative total is represented by the line graph and other data values with a bar chart in
descending order.

There is a principle developed in the year 1906 called Pareto or 80-20 rule used to check the
efficiency of your business plans. Below is a step-by-step guide for creating a Pareto chart in
tableau:

Load the Sample_Superstore or any other dataset on the Tableau Desktop software.
Add the Sub-Category and Sales dimension from the Data panels to the Columns and Rows
sections.
Select the sort option from the drop-down menu of the Sub-Category column.
A dialog box will appear where you have to select the sort order to Descending and other options
as mentioned below screenshot.

Tableau Maps

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 95

 Advance Data Visualisation

Maps have a long history and remain a staple in our daily lives—to navigate on road trips or
understand proximity of one location to another. Until recently, maps were static and printed,
which limited the potential for business use cases. With technology advancements, content on maps
and the maps themselves became digital, interactive, and more appealing as they’re incorporated in
data analysis and reporting. Seeing location data mapped and included in visualizations has both
enhanced understanding by more audiences and offered a valuable, new context. Several best-in-
class interactive maps exist, but these ten notable examples cover different topics, span the globe,
and demonstrate the power of location data when paired with business intelligence.
Here in tableau, we have different types of maps, which are:

Tableau Proportional symbol maps

Tableau Choropleth maps (filled maps)
Tableau Point distribution maps
Tableau Heatmaps (density maps)
Tableau Flow maps (path maps)
Tableau Spider maps (origin-destination maps)

6.10 Mapping Concepts in Tableau:

It is very difficult to understand the insights of data even though the data is clearly processed and
arranged in tables. To tackle this issue or to have a clear understanding of data you must use
“Maps” which have occupied an important role in data visualization. We have multiple maps
available in the table which plays a unique role in visualizing the data.

There may be several reasons to use maps or plot your data on the map. Maybe you have some
location data or do you think plotting data on a map could help you in making your data pop?
These two reasons are good enough to create a map visualization. In Tableau each type of map
comes with unique features to cater to the specific needs of data mapping requirements.

Tableau maps answer your spatial questions and need to understand the trends in the data.

But you may have popped up with the question “what is the spatial question”?

The below-mentioned list is some of the spatial questions:

 Which state has the highest literacy rate in India?

 Which regions in the U.S. have the highest obesity rates?

 Where did storms move over a period of time?

 Which metro station is highly crowded with people in my city?

 Which state has more farmer’s markets in the U.S?

These are some of the Spatial questions, and the map is the best possible way to answer all your
questions.

96 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

Circumstances to use maps:

Till now we have come to know that if you have spatial question maps would be the perfect way to
answer your questions but there may be some exceptions in which you can answer the spatial
questions better with other types of charts instead of maps.

Let’s consider one of the spatial questions we have asked above.

Take, for example, the last question from the list above: Which state has more farmers markets in
the U.S?

Let us assume that you have entire data about the number of farmers markets across the U.S and
you wish to know which state has the highest number of farmer markets. The obvious thing that
would come to your mind is “Maps” to visualize this data. If you plot the given data related to the
US farmers market you will get an image like below.

Summary
 While data visualization often conjures thoughts of business intelligence with button-
down analysts, it’s usually a lot more creative and colorful than you might think.
 There are many wide-ranging applications from business dashboards to public health
visualizations to pop culture trend breakdowns.
 Great and beautiful data visualization requires graphic design and storytelling skills in
addition to great analysis skills.
 Data visualization is the graphical representation of different pieces of information or
data, using visual elements such as charts, graphs, or maps

Keywords
 Tableau is a powerful data visualization tool that helps you in simplifying the data
visualization process.
 Tableau uses a different type of charts which includes Bar Chart, Line Chart, Pie Chart,
Maps, Scatter Plot, Gantt Chart, Bubble Chart, etc. Each Chart is unique and preferable for
specific purposes.
 Maps are among the few frequently used charts in Tableau. Let's get to know more about
Maps.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 97

 Advance Data Visualisation

Self-assessment questions

1. 1 dimension and 1 measure required in which type of graph

A. Heat map
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

2. Geo dimension required in which type of graph

A. Heat map
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

3. Geo dimension required in which type of graph

A. Symbol maps
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Both A and C

4. 2 to 4 measures s required in which type of graph

A. Heat map
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

5.Dimensions contain___________ values

A. Qualitative
B. Quantitative
C. Both
D. None of these

98 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

6.Measures contain___________ values

A. Qualitative
B. Quantitative
C. Both
D. None of these

7.Individually separate and distinct is

A. Continuous data
B. Discrete data
C. Random Data
D. None of these
8.___________ data means "forming an unbroken whole, without interruption"

A. Continuous data
B. Discrete data
C. Random Data
D. None of these

9. Green pills in tableau means

A. Continuous data
B. Discrete data
C. Random Data
D. None of these

10. Blue pills in tableau means

A. Continuous data
B. Discrete data
C. Random Data
D. None of these

11.Creating graph options are available in

A. Measures
B. Dimensions
C. Show me
D. All of these

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 99

 Advance Data Visualisation

12. ________________helps to create reports, dashboards, and stories using different charts and
graphs.

A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

13. ______________does not need to connect to any source, but it can read reports built on top of
any and all of the listed data sources that Tableau Supports.

A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

14. Your data is out in the public once your report is published on to the ___________.

A. Tableau Public Server

B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

15. ___________is for somebody that only needs to monitor the analytics

A. Tableau Public Server

B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

1 d 2 c 3 d 4 b 5 a 6 b 7 b 8 a

9 a 10 b 11 c 12 b 13 c 14 a 15 c

Review Questions

 Explain any 5 types of charts available in Tableau?

 What is the difference between dual axis and blended axis in Tableau?
 What is process to create scatter plot in Tableau?

100 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 6: Advance Data Visualization/Graph

 Explain process to create maps in tableau using geographical data?

 Explain difference between green and blue pills description?

Further Readings
"Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring” by Stephen Few
"Beautiful Visualization, Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts by Julie Steele, Noah
Iliinsky"

Web Links
https://www.tableau.com/
https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 101

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
7.1 Different types of maps.
7.2 Building a Simple Tableau Custom Map
7.3 Building Different Types of Tableau Custom Maps
7.4 Point Distribution Tableau Custom Maps
Summary
Keywords
Self-Assessment
Answers for Self Assessment
Review Questions
Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand concept of Tableau Maps.
• define geographical role.
• Understand Show me tab of tableau.
• Understand concept of different symbol maps.

Introduction
Understanding the Key Features of Tableau
Some of the key features of Tableau are as follows:
Data Sources: Tableau offers seamless integration with a large number of widely used platforms for
data storage such as File Systems like Microsoft Excel, CSV, etc., Relational Databases like Microsoft
SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2, etc., Cloud-based Systems such as Google Big Query, Windows
Azure, etc., or other sources such as ODBC/JDBC.
Attractive Visualizations: Tableau gives users the ability to create different types of data
visualizations. For example, users can easily create the simplest visualizations such as a Pie Chart
or Bar Chart or some of the most complex visualizations such as Bullet Chart, Gantt Chart, Boxplot,
etc. Tableau also comes with information on geographical data such as Countries, Cities, Postal
Codes, etc. that allows users to build visualizations using informative maps.
Wildcard Union and Cross-Data Join: Users have the ability to perform Cross-Data Join and Union
in Tableau. This helps in removing the barriers and time-consuming workarounds that were
required due to the massive use of numerous data sources.
Cross-Data Source Filtering: For data with common dimensions, Tableau gives users the ability to
perform the filter operation across multiple data sources at the same time. This also results in all
necessary edits or changes being made to all worksheets with the same data sources using the same
set of filters automatically.

102 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Mobile Dashboards: Tableau allows users to format all their Reports and Dashboards in such a
manner that it is compatible with mobile devices as well. It lets users create custom mobile layouts
for their Reports or Dashboard specific to their device.
Maps are one of the best ways to represent the data in Tableau. Data visualizations using maps look
very attractive and appealing. Map charts suites better when you want to show the demographic
data such as Population census, income, housing, household rates, etc. Maps give an easy-to-infer
advantage over the other charts available in Tableau and are highly interactive when you want to
plot demographic or geographical data on a plot.

7.1 Different types of maps.

Tableau Proportional symbol maps
Tableau Choropleth maps (filled maps)
Tableau Point distribution maps
Tableau Heatmaps (density maps)
Tableau Flow maps (path maps)
Tableau Spider maps (origin-destination maps)

7.2 Building a Simple Tableau Custom Map

To build a Simple Tableau Custom Map, you need a data source, like Sample-Superstore data,
consisting of location data, location names, latitude, longitude coordinates. Without geographical
coordinates, you can’t prepare map visualization in Tableau. A simple Tableau Custom Map can be
created by implementing the following steps:

 Step 1: Open Tableau Desktop, connect to the Sample-Superstore data source, and the
worksheet will open in front of your screen.

 Step 2: Move your cursor to the Location option, select the Country & State parameter
under it, drag both of them to the worksheet.
 Step 3: Right-click over the State and select the Dimension from the drop-down list.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 103

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

 Step 4: Drag the Sales table to the Mark sheet as shown below.

Step 5: Move your cursor to the Maps tab and choose Map Layers from the drop-down list.

 Step 6: On the Map Layers pane, unselect the Country/Region Names and
select Normal from the drop-down list of style.

This is how you can design simple Tableau Custom Maps to perform a basic geographical analysis
of your data.

Creating a Polygon Tableau Custom Map

A simple Polygon or Filled Tableau Custom Map helps you understand the basic mapping concepts
in Tableau. The following steps can be implemented to create a Polygon Tableau Custom Map:

 Step 1: Drag the State parameter from the Data pane to the worksheet.

104 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 2: Move your cursor to the Marks pane, choose the Map option from the drop-down
list.

 Step 3: The worksheet will show the following visualization of the map.

 Step 4: Select the Sales parameter from the Data pane and place it over the map.

You can see the Number of Sales from the polygons in the updated map.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 105

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

7.3 Building Different Types of Tableau Custom Maps

Tableau Desktop enables you to design the following types of maps depending upon your business
needs and visualization requirements. The different kind of custom maps that can be created on
Tableau are as follows:

 Choropleth or Filled Tableau Custom Maps

 Flow or Path Tableau Custom Maps
 Proportional Symbol Tableau Custom Maps
 Point Distribution Tableau Custom Maps
 Heat or Density Tableau Custom Maps
 Spider or Origin-Destination Tableau Custom Maps

1) Choropleth or Filled Tableau Custom Maps

Choropleth Maps, also known as Filled Maps, are perfect to represent ratio and aggregated data.
Users can use ratio or aggregated data for polygons that can be related to locations, such as
countries, regions, states, or any area.

For simplicity, download Tableau Example Workbook and implement the following steps to show
ratio or combined data in Tableau Desktop:

 Step 1: Go to Worksheet Tab and select the New Worksheet from the drop-down list or
press CTRL+M. A New Sheet will open.

 Step 2: Under the State, Country dimension, select the State option and move to the sheet.

106 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 3: Now select the Datapoint of Alaska, United States.

 Step 4: Click over it and choose the Exclude option.
 Step 5: Repeat the same steps for Hawaii.

You’ll see a better version of the map.

 Step 6: Click on the plus symbol of State to get details of all countries, as shown below.

 Step 7: Place your cursor over Percent- 2012 and drop it over the color option.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 107

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

 Step 8: To get the obesity percentage range, select the Edit Colors option from
the Color icon.
 Step 9: Select the Purple color and click Apply.

 Step 10: Open the Effect option from the Color icon.
 Step 11: Select the None option from the Border list.

The output of the Choropleth will appear in front of your screen.

108 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 12: In the above map, Tableau selected the default color distribution. However, if you
want to change it, go to the Edit Color menu again. Mark the Stepped color and enter 8.
Click on the Apply button and close it.

 Step 13: Repeat the same steps, but this time select 5.

 Step 14: The map view for 4 Stepped Color might look like this.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 109

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

By selecting 4 instead of 5, you will understand that obesity rates are higher in the South. However,
prior maps were showing even distribution of colors or obesity rates in the United States (US). All
the maps are great to show aggregate data, yet each is giving you prominent information on obesity
rates in different countries.

Similarly, if you want to plot the map for a State Level detail, remove the County from
the Marks chart. You can analyze that Texas has higher obesity rates, followed by Georgia.

2) Flow or Path Tableau Custom Maps

Tableau Business Intelligence tool allows users to determine the flow of path over time, e.g., the
path of the storm, through Flow or Path Maps. To create Flow Maps in Tableau, download Example
Workbook and implement the following steps:

 Step 1: Open the downloaded example in Tableau Desktop.

 Step 2: Open a New Worksheet.
 Step 3: Move Latitude and Longitude coordinates using the drag-and-drop method.
 Step 4: Choose the Storm Name and place it over the Details icon in the Marks pane.

110 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 5: To apply filters, select the Date from the Data pane and place it over
the Filters area.
 Step 6: Choose Year, such as 2012.
 Step 7: Click on Apply and close the screen.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 111

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

 Step 8: Repeat the same steps for Bhasin and select the West Pacific region.
 Step 9: Select Normal Background from the Map tab. The final map might look like this.

 Step 10: Select a Line from the Marks pane.

Step 11: Drag the Date from the Data pane and place it over the Path icon. This will remove the line
due to the absence of an exact date.

 Step 12: Click on the Date parameter, select an Exact Date option.

112 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 13: Drag the Wind Speed (kt) from the Data pane and place it over the Size icon.
 Step 14: Right-click over the Wind Speed (kt) and choose the Average parameter.

 Step 15: Place Storm Name over the Colors icon to complete the Flow Map.

3) Proportional Symbol Tableau Custom Maps

A Proportional Symbol Map is a great start to acquire quantitative values for individual locations.
Nevertheless, your data source should contain quantitative values, longitude and latitude
coordinates to create Proportional Symbol Maps. Download Example Workbook to learn more in
detail.

 Step 1: Download Example Workbook.

 Step 2: Open the downloaded file on Tableau Desktop.
 Step 3: Open a New Worksheet.
 Step 4: Drag Latitude and Longitude to the sheet.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 113

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

 Step 5: Select the ID from the Data pane and place it over the Details icon.
 Step 6: A dialog box will appear, select Add All Members.

 Step 7: Select Magnitude^10 and place it over Size in Marks.

114 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 8: Grab the Magnitude to Color option.

 Step 9: Click on Edit Colors from the Color icon.

 Step 10: Select your preferred color, opacity (70%), and Border.
 Step 11: Click on Stepped Color and choose 8.
 Step 12: Click the Reversed checkbox.
 Step 13: Click on Advanced, click Center, and enter 7.

 Step 14: Right-click over the ID and select the Sort option.
 Step 15: Choose Descending for Sort Order option.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 115

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

 Step 16: Choose Fields for Sort By option and then choose Magnitude.
 Step 17: Click OK.

Step 18: Select any appropriate background for your map. The final image of the map might look
like this.

7.4 Point Distribution Tableau Custom Maps

Everyone loves to spot visual clusters, and Tableau Desktop makes this process super easy through
Point Distribution Maps. But your data source should have longitude and latitude coordinates to
map visual clusters. Download the Example Workbook right now and implement the following
steps:

 Step 1: Open Tableau Desktop and select a New Worksheet.

 Step 2: Click on the Latitude dimension.
 Step 3: Select the Geographic Role.
 Step 4: Choose the Latitude parameter.

116 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 5: Click on the Longitude dimension.

 Step 6: Select the Geographic role.
 Step 7: Choose the Longitude parameter.
 Step 8: Double-click over both Longitude and Latitude dimensions.

 Step 9: Click on the AVG(Longitude) and select Dimension.

 Step 10: Click on the AVG(Latitude) and select Dimension.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 117

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

The map might look like something as follows:

To make it clearer, move your cursor to the Marks card.

 Step 11: Click on the Size.

 Step 12: Move the bar to the left edge.

 Step 13: Zoom the graph to get the entire picture.

118 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Maps are one of the most inherent and useful features in Tableau. The visualizations that contain
maps in Tableau look very appealing and is interactive as well. Most demographic data like
income, census based population, housing and household rates are in-built. It is also possible to use
custom geocodes to add geographic roles such as zip code, street names, etc.

Maps give an easy-to-infer advantage over the other charts that are available in Tableau. If the
available population data is consumed on the map, we can comprehend which regions are
densely/scarcely populated at a glance.

If your data set contains any kind of spatial data viz. State-wise or Country-wise data, Tableau
auto-generates the respective latitude and longitude for the spatial fields that are available in the
data set. However, the latitude and longitude fields that are auto-generated by Tableau can only be
used for generating the maps and cannot be used in any of the calculation fields or parameters of
the report. Tableau generates a map with the generated longitude and latitude by just a click of that
particular spatial field, which we will be discussing later in the blog.

Tableau provides two types of maps by default:

Symbol map
Filled map
Some of the basic scenarios that we might come across is just to view the spatial distribution of
data. Here, the coordinates of the geographic location do not play a significant role. In such cases, a
map may not even be the right choice of visualization of the data.

Summary
 Geographic Analysis of business and customer data is essential for revenue growth.
 By visualizing data on a map, businesses can answer numerous questions such as which
regions bring more sales, which countries are more profitable, which countries require
more Marketing efforts, etc.
 All in all, the mapping features of Tableau Desktop gives business the ability to get all the
answers to spatial questions.
 Tableau is a popular Business Intelligence and Data Analytics tool that was developed to
help organizational decision-makers visualize, analyze and understand complex business
data and make data-driven decisions.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 119

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

Keywords
 There are many reasons to put your data on a map. Perhaps you have some location data
in your data source? Or maybe you think a map could really make your data pop? Both of
those are good enough reasons to create a map visualization, but it’s important to keep in
mind that maps, like any other type of visualization, serve a particular purpose: they
answer spatial questions.
 You make a map in Tableau because you have a spatial question, and you need to use a
map to understand the trends or patterns in your data.
 But what is a spatial question? Some examples might be:
 Which state has the most farmers markets?
 Where are the regions in the U.S. with the high obesity rates?

Self-Assessment
1. Default Aggregation Used for Tree Map
A. Sum
B. Avg
C. Count
D. Countd

2. What Are the File Extensions In Tableau?

A. Tableau Workbook (.twb)
B. Tableau Packaged Workbook (.twbx)
C. Tableau Data Source(.tds)
D. All of the above

3. What Type of Join Is Used in Blending?

A. Right join
B. Left join
C. Full join
D. Inner join

4.The _________keyword returns all records from the right table (table2), and the matching records
from the left table (table1).

A. Right join
B. Left join
C. Full join
D. Inner join

5.The ______keyword returns all records from the left table (table1), and the matching records from
the right table (table2).

A. Right join
B. Left join
C. Full join

120 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

D. Inner join

6.____________returns all the rows from both joined tables, whether they have a matching row or
not.

A. Right join
B. Left join
C. Full join
D. Inner join

7. The INNER JOIN keyword selects records that have matching values in both tables.

A. Right join
B. Left join
C. Full join
D. Inner join

8.Power BI Is A Product Of

A. Oracle
B. Facebook
C. Microsoft
D. SAP

9.What Are The Components Of A Dashboard?

A. Horizontal
B. Vertical
C. Image Extract
D. All of the above

10. How Many Maximum Tables Can You Join In Tableau?

A. 2
B. 8
C. 16
D. 32

11. For creating variable size bins we use ______

A. Sets
B. Groups
C. Calculated fields
D. Table

12. For differentiating two dimensions we use

A. Sets
B. Measures

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 121

 Unit 07: Building View Advance Map Option

C. Fields
D. Table

13. Geo dimension required in which type of graph

A. Heat
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

14. Geo dimension required in which type of graph

A. Symbol maps
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Both A and C

15. 2 to 4 measures s required in which type of graph

A. Heat map
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

Answers for Self Assessment

1 A 2 D 3 B 4 A 5 B 6 C 7 D 8 C

9D 10 D 11 C 12 A 13 C 14 D 15 B

Review Questions
 What are the map types in Tableau?
 Which is the easiest way to create a map on Tableau?
 What are the options for maps in Tableau?
 How to define geographical role in Tableau maps?
 What are advantages of Tableau maps?

Further Readings
"Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring” by Stephen Few
"Beautiful Visualization, Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts by Julie Steele, Noah
Iliinsky"

Web Links

122 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

https://www.tableau.com/
https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 123

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 08: Tableau Calculations and Filters

Unit 08: Tableau Calculations & Filters

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
8.1 What are Tableau Filters?
8.2 Types of Tableau Filters
8.3 Data Source Filter
8.4 Context Filter
8.5 Dimension Filter
8.6 Measure Filter
8.7 User Filter
8.8 How to Implement Filters in Tableau?
Summary
Keywords
Self-Assessment
Answers for Self Assessment
Review Question
Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• understand concept of tableau filters.
• apply filters on dataset in tableau.
• understand real time analysis.
• collaboration with data.

Introduction
Tableau is a software tool that is used for data visualization and helps with data analysis and
business intelligence. Its technology allows you to perform complex computations, data blending,
and dashboarding to create visualizations that deliver insights that can’t be obtained from a
spreadsheet. Tableau has tools for organizing and simplifying data like Tableau filters. Tableau
filters help in minimizing the size of the data for efficiency purposes, cleaning up underlying data,
removing irrelevant dimension members, and setting measure or date ranges for what you want to
analyze. Tableau can assist anyone in seeing and comprehending their data. It uses Tableau Filters
to make the data more readable and organized. You can connect to any database, create
visualizations by dragging and dropping, and share them with a single click. The main objective of
Tableau is to help people visualize and understand their data.

Tableau’s self-service analytics platform enables anyone to work with data, regardless of their skill
level. It was aimed to help users create visuals and graphics without requiring the assistance of a
programmer or any prior programming knowledge. It is a highly scalable and easily deployable
platform.

124 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Filtering is the process of removing certain information from the available data by putting different
filters. Tableau is the most widely used data visualization tool with plenty of features to simplify
the process. Tableau provides both basic filters to deal with simple scenarios and advanced context-
based filters for performing complex calculations. The three types of basic filters available in
Tableau are: Filter Dates – This filter is applied on the date fields to remove specific date entries that
are not required. Filter Measures – This filter is applied to the measure fields to remove specific
measures based on the requirements. Filter Dimensions – This filter is applied on the dimension
fields for removing certain measures that are not required for the calculation
In Tableau, there are three types of basic filters as follows:

 Filters Dimensions: Filter dimensions are the filters applied to the dimension fields.
 Filters Measures: Filter measures are the filters applied to the measure fields.
 Filter Dates: Filter dates are the filters applied on the date fields.

8.1 What are Tableau Filters?

Tableau lets you filter individual views or entire data sources based on dimensions, measures, or
sets. In databases, filtering is a useful way to see only the data you want to see. When the data is
visualized in a readable, actionable format, Tableau filters are required to highlight any underlying
insights that can be derived from it.
Tableau filters are based on a condition that can be used to limit the number of records in the
database. Tableau filters support both simple cases based on field values and advanced calculations
or context-based filters. The Tableau filter you choose, or a combination of Tableau filters, is largely
determined by what you want to limit your data set to.

8.2 Types of Tableau Filters

Tableau filters can be used to organize and visualize data based on predefined criteria in several
ways. Tableau has a total of six different types of filters:

 Extract Filter
 Data Source Filter
 Context Filter
 Dimension Filter
 Measure Filter
 User Filter

Extract Filter

As understood by its name, the extract filters are used to extract data from the various sources, by
saving a screengrab of the way it gets added on your file. Such methods can help in lowering the
tableau queries to the data source. As soon as you are done extracting data into your dashboard,
you can create the extract and execute Hide All Unused Files to clear the columns unused in the
datasheet of your panel.

The Tableau filter that extracts a small subset of data from the original data source is the extract
filter. If the user extracts data from the data source, this Tableau filter is used.

After connecting the text file to Tableau, you’ll see two options in the top right corner of the data
source tab: Live and Extract. A direct connection to a data source is referred to as a live connection.
And the extract connection takes the data from the data source and saves it to the Tableau
repository as a local copy.

The following is a step-by-step procedure for creating a Tableau extract filter:

 Step 1: Connect the text file to Tableau.

 Step 2: Click on the Extract button as shown below:

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 125

 Unit 08: Tableau Calculations and Filters

This creates a local copy in the Tableau repository.

 Step 3: Select Edit from the drop-down menu near the Extract button in the top right
corner. The Extract Data window is opened. Select the Add option in the Window.

 Step 4: Select a Tableau filter condition from the Add Filter window. Any of the fields can
be added as an Extract filter. Choose the category from the list and click OK.

126 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

After clicking on OK, a filtered window will appear which shows data that was extracted using the
Extract Tableau filter.

You can also customize the list or use all values in the list.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 127

 Unit 08: Tableau Calculations and Filters

There are different options other than the general category from which you can extract data using
Extract filter:

 The Wildcard option is used to filter fields using a Wildcard match. Users can type the
character and the field will be filtered according to the match. The different types of
matches are:

Contains Select the members if the member name contains typed characters.

Starts with Select the members if the member name starts with typed characters.

Ends with Select the members if the member name ends with typed characters.

Exactly matches Select the members if the member name exactly matches with typed characters.

You can customize your data using these matches and you will get the filtered data.

 The Tableau filter on condition option is used to filter the data set by giving several
conditions.
o You can filter data using multiple Byfield conditions following the steps below:
 Step 1: In the Filter, the window selects the Condition tab.
 Step 2: Click on the Byfield button.
 Step 3: Select the name of the field to be filtered.
 Step 4: Choose the aggregation type like Sum, average, and median
from the drop-down list.
 Step 5: Select the operator from the drop-down list.
 Step 6: Filter the selected field by entering the value.
 Step 7: Click Ok.

128 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 You can also filter by condition using a formula. Follow the steps below to filter using
conditions:
o Step 1: Click on the By formula.
o Step 2: Enter the formula in the box.
o Step 3: Click on the Ok button.

You can also filter data using Top or Bottom filters, which are used to select the top or bottom n
number of records. You can select filters Byfield or by the formula in this option too by following
the steps from the previous option or referring to the steps from here.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 129

 Unit 08: Tableau Calculations and Filters

8.3 Data Source Filter

The Tableau Filter that applies the filter directly to the data source, allowing for quick uploads of
data is the Data Source Filter. It can limit the number of records in the data set. Both live and
extracted connections are supported by the Data Source Filter.

The process to select data filter is done by following the steps given:

 Step 1: On the data source tab, click the Add button in the top right corner.

 Step 2: The Edit Data Source Filters window appears. In the window, select the Add
option.

130 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 3: Follow the remaining steps from the topic Extract Filters -> Step 3 after clicking the
Add button.

8.4 Context Filter

A context filter is a discrete filter on its own, creating datasets based on the original datasheet and
the presets chosen for compiling the data. Since all the types of filters in tableau get applied to all
rows in the datasheet, irrespective of any other filters, the context filter would ensure that it is first
to get processed

Despite being constrained to view all data rows, it can be implemented to choose sheets as and
when required to optimize its performance by minimizing the data efficiently. ntext Filter is a
standalone Tableau filter that can create a new dataset from the original data set and compute the
worksheet selections. Context Filters are used to boost the performance of data source views, filters,
and queries. You could run a context filter before any other Tableau Filters, and then apply the
remaining filters on top of the data returned after context filtering.

To make a Context Filter, go to the context menu of an existing categorical filter and select Add to
Context. Once the view is created, the context is calculated. The context is then used to calculate all
other filters. Consider using a data source like Sample-superstore to find the top 10 subcategories of
products in the Furniture category. The following are the steps to take to create a context filter:

 Step 1: Drag the Sales field to the Columns shelf and the Sub-Category field to the Rows
shelf.
 Step 2: From the Show Me tab, select the horizontal bar chart.
 Step 3: Drag the Sub-Category to the Filters shelf once more. The chart below is what
you’ll get.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 131

 Unit 08: Tableau Calculations and Filters

 Step 4: In the filter shelf, right-click on the Sub-Category field and select Edit Filter, then
select the Top tab in the pop-up window.
 Step 5: Select the set fields set from the drop-down menu. Select Top 10 by Sales Sum from
the next drop-down menu, as shown below:

 Step 6: Select the Category field and drag it to the filter shelf. To edit the Category field,
right-click on it and select Furniture from the drop-down menu. As a result, three product
subcategories are displayed below.

 Step 7: Right-click on the Category: Furniture filter and select Add to Context to add the
context filter.

132 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 8: All of the preceding steps combine to produce a final result that displays a
subcategory of products from the Furniture category.

Context filter is created because:

 Improve Performance: Queries will take a long time to run if you want to use a lot of
filters or if your data source is large. In this case, you can improve performance by using
one or more context filters.
 Create a Dependent Numerical or Top N Filter: You can arrange a numerical or top N
filter after setting a context filter to include only the data of interest.

8.5 Dimension Filter

In Tableau, dimensions are independent fields, typically any field that contains categorical or
qualitative data. Dimension Filters are those Tableau Filters that are applied to dimensional data.
It’s a non-aggregated filter that allows you to add a dimension, group, sets, and bins. The top or
bottom conditions, wildcard match, and formula can all be used to apply a Dimension Filter. This
Tableau filter can be used to include or exclude members from a dimension from the list. The
following is the procedure for adding a dimension as a filter:

 Step 1: Choose a dimension from the drop-down menu.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 133

 Unit 08: Tableau Calculations and Filters

 Step 2: The Tableau Filter Window appears. Choose a member from the drop-down menu.
 Step 3: Click on the Ok button.

The procedure above filters the data set to only show records for the category Furniture.

8.6 Measure Filter

The Tableau Filter that can be used to filter data based on the values in a measure is called the
Measure Filter. Fields containing quantitative data are commonly referred to as measures. The data
can be modified using the aggregated measure values in a Measure Filter. A Measure Filter can be
applied by following the procedure:

 Step 1: You can gain access to Worksheet

o Choose a measure from the Measures tab. Drag the value into the Tableau Filter
field.
o The Measures tab allows you to select a metric. In the Tableau Filter field, drag
the value.
o Select Next.

134 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 It brings up a window where you must choose a value range. The following are the other
types of options available in the window.

Range of values The minimum and maximum range of measure values can be given and filtered.

At least A minimum value of a measure is given to filter the data.

At most A maximum value of a measure is given to filter the data.

Special An option to select null or non-null values and filter the data.

 Step 1: Choose a range of values. The upper and lower limits for the range of values can
be changed.
 Step 2: Click on the Ok button.

8.7 User Filter

The Tableau filter that protects the row-level data in a dataset is the User Filter. When the
workbook is published on a server, it can be used. For different users, different filtering conditions

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 135

 Unit 08: Tableau Calculations and Filters

can be used. It’s the process of limiting what data a user can see depending on who’s looking at the
dashboard.

To apply the User Filter follow the steps:

 Step 1: In the Menu bar, select Server from the drop-down menu. Select the Create User
Filter option by moving the cursor over it. To create a user filter, select the field.

 Step 2: The Tableau Server Sign-in window appears. In the window, choose the Tableau
Online option.

 Step 3 A Tableau Online Sign-in Window appears. Fill in your email address and
password. Select the Sign In option.
 Step 4: It brings up a window labeled ‘User Filter.’ Add a User Filter by following the
steps below.
o Give your user filter a name.
o Choose a user from the list of users.
o Check in the members who are required to appear for the selected member.
 Choose Ok.

136 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

It establishes a Tableau user filter. As shown below, you can find the user filter in the sets pane.

The user sees only the filtered data when the workbook is published on the server. To secure data,
multiple users can have their User Filters.

8.8 How to Implement Filters in Tableau?

1. Keep or exclude data points by Selecting in your view
You can filter individual data points (marks), or a selection of data points from your view. For
example, if you have a scatter plot with outliers, you can exclude them from the view so you can
better focus on the rest of the data.

To filter marks from the view, select a single mark (data point) or click and drag in the view to
select several marks. On the tooltip that appears, you can:

Select Keep Only to keep only the selected marks in the view.
Select Exclude to remove the selected marks from the view.
♠ These filtering options are not available if a Wildcard Match filter is already specified for the same
field.

2. Filter data using headers

You can also select headers to filter them from your view. To filter entire rows or columns of data
from your view, select the header in the view. On the tooltip that appears, select to Exclude or Keep
Only the selected data.

When you select a table header that is part of a hierarchy, all of the next level headers are also
selected.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 137

 Unit 08: Tableau Calculations and Filters

3. Filter by dragging a field directly onto the Filters shelf

Another way to create a filter is to drag a field directly from the Data pane to the Filters shelf.

In Tableau Desktop, when you add a field to the Filters shelf, the Filter dialog box opens so you can
define the filter. The Filter dialog box differs depending on whether you are filtering categorical
data (dimensions), quantitative data (measures), or date fields.

4. Quick Filters/Filter Cards

You can control the appearance and interaction of your filter card in the view by selecting a filter
card mode. To select a filter card mode, in the view, click the drop-down menu on the filter card
and then select a mode from the list.

Summary
 Filtering is the way of expelling certain esteems or scope of qualities from an outcome set.
 The filtering capability in a BI tool can serve a variety of purposes including minimizing
the size of the data for efficiency purposes, cleaning up underlying data, removing
irrelevant dimension members, and setting measure or date ranges for what you want to
analyze.
 Data can also be organized and simplified before actual drill downs and aggregation
functions through these filters.
 Tableau treats the date field in three different ways while applying the date field. It can
apply filter by taking a relative date as compared to today, an absolute date, or range of
dates.

Keywords
 Filtering is the process of removing certain values or range of values from a result set.
Tableau filtering feature allows both simple scenarios using field values as well as
advanced calculation or context-based filters.
 Filter Dimensions are the filters applied on the dimension fields.
 Filter Measures are the filters applied on the measure fields.
 Filter Dates are the filters applied on the date fields.

Self-Assessment
1. Default aggregation used for tree map__________

A. Avg
B. Count
C. Sum
D. Countd
2. The best feature Tableau are except_____________-

A. Collaboration of data
B. Data Blending
C. Real time analysis

138 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

D. Data is more small and fit

3. How do you find the field is discrete in Tableau ?

A. Green color
B. # symbol
C. Blue color
D. None

4. Where can we apply global filters?

A. Dashboards
B. Stories
C. Sheets
D. All of the above

5. Which of the following is not a Trend Line model ?

A. Linear Trend Line

B. Binomial Trend Line
C. Exponential Trend Line
D. Logarithmic Trend Line

6. Where can we apply global filters?

A. Dashboards
B. Stories
C. Sheets
D. All of the above
7. Tableau File Extension is_______________

A. twbx
B. twby
C. twbw
D. twbz
8. What type of join is used in blending?

A. Left join
B. Full join
C. Right join
D. Inner join

9. Which is type of filter in tableau

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 139

 Unit 08: Tableau Calculations and Filters

A. Context Filter
B. Extract Filter
C. Data Source Filter
D. All of the above

10. _________in Tableau are used to extract a small subset of data from the original data source

A. Context Filter
B. Extract Filter
C. Data Source Filter
D. All of the above

11._________allow the direct application to source data.

A. Context Filter
B. Extract Filter
C. Data Source Filter
D. All of the above

12. ___________in Tableau are non-aggregated filters.

A. Context Filter
B. Extract Filter
C. Dimension Filters
D. All of the above

13. These are Aggregated filters and are always applied after non-aggregated filters

A. Context Filter
B. Measure Filters
C. Dimension Filters
D. All of the above

14. The _________can be applied across multiple worksheets by using the same source data within a
workbook

A. Context Filter
B. Global filters
C. Dimension Filters
D. All of the above

140 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

15. Filter types in Tableau are quickly accessible by using the right-click option

A. Context Filter
B. Quick Filters
C. Dimension Filters
D. All of the above

Answers for Self Assessment

1 C 2 D 3 C 4 D 5 B 6 D 7 A 8 A

9 D 10 B 11 C 12 C 13 B 14 B 15 B

Review Question
What are filters and its types in Tableau?
How many types of filters are there in Tableau?
What is the difference between context filter and regular filter Tableau?
What is the difference between a normal filter and a quick filter in Tableau?
What is data source filters in Tableau?
What is the difference between data source filter and extract filter in Tableau?

Further Readings
"Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring” by Stephen Few
"Beautiful Visualization, Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts by Julie Steele, Noah
Iliinsky"

Web Links
https://www.tableau.com/
https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 141

 Unit 09: Managing, Organizing and Enhancing Data in Tableau
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University

Unit 09: Managing, Organizing and Enhancing Data in Tableau

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
9.1 Data Visualization
9.2 Keys Factors of Data Visualization
9.3 Data Visualization Tools and type of data
Summary
Keywords
Self-Assessment
Answers for Self-Assessment
Review Questions
Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:

 Understand data visualization

 Analyze tools of data visualization
 Analyze data using tablue

Introduction
In our increasingly data-driven world, it’s more important than ever to have accessible ways to
view and understand data. After all, the demand for data skills in employees is steadily increasing
each year. Employees and business owners at every level need to have an understanding of data
and of its impact.

That’s where data visualization comes in handy. With the goal of making data more accessible and
understandable, data visualization in the form of dashboards is the go-to tool for many businesses
to analyze and share information.

9.1 Data Visualization

Data visualization is the graphical representation of information and data. By using visual
elements like charts, graphs, and maps, data visualization tools provide an accessible way to see
and understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data. Additionally, it provides an excellent way for
employees or business owners to present data to non-technical audiences without confusion.
Data visualization is the practice of translating information into a visual context, such as a map or
graph, to make data easier for the human brain to understand and pull insights from. The main
goal of data visualization is to make it easier to identify patterns, trends and outliers in large data
sets. The term is often used interchangeably with others, including information graphics,
information visualization and statistical graphics.

142 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Data visualization is one of the steps of the data science process, which states that after data has
been collected, processed and modeled, it must be visualized for conclusions to be made. Data
visualization is also an element of the broader data presentation architecture (DPA) discipline,
which aims to identify, locate, manipulate, format and deliver data in the most efficient way
possible.

Data visualization is important for almost every career. It can be used by teachers to display
student test results, by computer scientists exploring advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) or
by executives looking to share information with stakeholders. It also plays an important role in big
data projects. As businesses accumulated massive collections of data during the early years of the
big data trend, they needed a way to get an overview of their data quickly and easily. Visualization
tools were a natural fit.

Visualization is central to advanced analytics for similar reasons. When a data scientist is writing
advanced predictive analytics or machine learning (ML) algorithms, it becomes important to
visualize the outputs to monitor results and ensure that models are performing as intended. This is
because visualizations of complex algorithms are generally easier to interpret than numerical
outputs.

Why is data visualization important?

Data visualization provides a quick and effective way to communicate information in a universal
manner using visual information. The practice can also help businesses identify which factors affect
customer behavior; pinpoint areas that need to be improved or need more attention; make data
more memorable for stakeholders; understand when and where to place specific products; and
predict sales volumes.

Other benefits of data visualization include the following:

 the ability to absorb information quickly, improve insights and make faster decisions;
 an increased understanding of the next steps that must be taken to improve the
organization;
 an improved ability to maintain the audience's interest with information they can
understand;
 an easy distribution of information that increases the opportunity to share insights
with everyone involved;
 eliminate the need for data scientists since data is more accessible and
understandable; and
 an increased ability to act on findings quickly and, therefore, achieve success with
greater speed and less mistakes.

9.2 Keys Factors of Data Visualization

Data visualization is a crucial part of data analytics that helps you visualize your data and uncover
significant trends and patterns that would otherwise have been lost. Effective data visualization
depends on your software as nobody has the time to code the visualizations themselves with loads
of data involved in the process.

Several data visualization tools, such as Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service (VBCS), Tableau,
Power BI, etc., have comparable features and capabilities, making selecting the right tool for your

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 143

 Unit 09: Managing, Organizing and Enhancing Data in Tableau

needs even more challenging. So, what are the factors to be considered in choosing the right data
visualization solution for your use case?

Let us talk deep on it. Here are the main specifics.

1. Dashboard Design
It is important to check on the right balance between the simplicity and complexity of a dashboard
when it comes to enterprise reporting. While simpler designs may be easy to use, they may not be
able to pack in much helpful information. However, complex dashboards could clutter your screen
and make it difficult to understand the data right in front of your eyes. If you’re not an expert and
don’t know much about dashboard design, know that the dashboard must have balanced colors
naturally appealing to the eye. It is intuitive to have colorful highlights between appropriate white
spaces. Too much white space could over-simplify the design, while too much color could affect
usability. Modern tools like Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service strike a balance between simplicity
and complexity and avoid highly complex designs even if they could deliver much more
information in a compact setting.

2. Use Case
Different use cases demand different types of dashboards. For example, a simple use-case like the
real-time analytics of a store will be very different from a more complex use-case like viewing stock
market reports. It’s a great way to personalize your data visualization, and several modern
Analytics & BI Applications like Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service offer this feature. Not only is
the solution tailored to your needs, but it also provides an enhanced user experience.
3. Data Connectivity
Data is key to your visualization; poor data integration or missing data can have a considerable
impact. Business data is the primary input for a data visualization tool, so ensuring that the right
data sources are connected to the tool is of paramount importance. Data is often pulled from
multiple dynamic sources, so it needs to be up-to-date for your visualizations to stay relevant. The
ability to connect and integrate with other data sources is a critical factor in enabling effective data
visualization.
4. Target Audience
Data visualizations often convey information to users who don’t fully understand the application
or the process. They could include line-of-business users, external users, and other stakeholders.
They only need access to the data relevant to their role in the organization. The ability of data
visualization tools like Oracle VBCS to adapt according to the audience plays a key role. So, ensure
the tool is specific to the target audience and provides role-based user access.

5. Functionality
Keeping the data visualization tool’s functionality aligned with your organization’s needs is crucial.
Business leaders often consider going for the software packed with the most number of features or
with greater functionality, when in reality, they only require a fraction of these capabilities. Not
only does it increase complexity, but it also drives up costs and impacts your ability to use it for its
true purpose. Ultimately, you’re left with too many features you don’t need and will never use.
Focus on acquiring the functionality your organization truly needs instead of fancy features, and
you can keep adding more functionality as your business grows. Oracle VBCS allows you to add
features based on your evolving needs.

9.3 Data Visualization Tools and type of data

144 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Data visualization tools are cloud-based applications that help you to represent raw data in easy to
understand graphical formats. You can use these programs to produce customizable bar charts, pie
charts, column charts, and more.

Following is a handpicked list of Top Data Visualization Tool with their popular features and
website links. The list contains both open-source(free) and commercial(paid) software.

Followings are some popular data visualization tools

1) Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is a robust and versatile data visualization tool. It allows users to create insightful
reports and dashboards, and visually analyze any data in minutes. It features an AI powered
assistant that enables users to ask questions and get intelligent answers in the form of meaningful
reports.

2) Power BI
Power BI is a Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tool which helps you to convert data
from various data sources into interactive dashboards and reports. It provides multiple software
connectors and services.

3) Whatagraph
Whatagraph is a data visualization tool that enables you to monitor and compare the performance
of multiple campaigns. This application allows you to transfer custom data from Google sheet and
API.

4) Tableau
Tableau is a robust tool for visualizing data in a better way. You can connect any database to create
understandable visuals. It is one of the best visualization tools that enables you to share
visualization with other people.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 145

 Unit 09: Managing, Organizing and Enhancing Data in Tableau

5) Qlik
Qlik is a data visualization software which is used for converting raw data into knowledge. This
software acts like a human brain which works on “association” and can go into any direction to
search the answers.

6) Adaptive Insights
Adaptive Insights is a data visualization tool built to boost your business. It is one of the best data
visualisation tools that helps you to plan, budget, as well as forecast to make better decisions.

7) Dundas BI
Dundas BI is an enterprise-ready Business Intelligence platform. You can deploy it as the central
data portal for your company or integrate into any website.

8) Domo
Domo is a cloud platform that helps you to conduct analysis and create interactive visualization. It
enables you to examine important data using graphs and pie charts. This app helps you to simplify
administration data.

9) Cluvio
Cluvio is a platform that enables you to run SQL queries for your database. It allows you to
visualize the result in a better and understandable way.

146 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

10) Datawrapper
Datawrapper is an open-source tool that enables you to create interactive charts. You can load CSV
(Comma-separated Values data files into this app and embed maps onto your website.

Types of data
The data is classified into majorly four categories:

1. Nominal data
2. Ordinal data
3. Discrete data
4. Continuous data
Further, we can classify these data as follows:

Qualitative or Categorical Data

Qualitative data, also known as the categorical data, describes the data that fits into the categories.
Qualitative data are not numerical. The categorical information involves categorical variables that
describe the features such as a person’s gender, home town etc. Categorical measures are defined in
terms of natural language specifications, but not in terms of numbers.

Sometimes categorical data can hold numerical values (quantitative value), but those values do not
have a mathematical sense. Examples of the categorical data are birthdate, favourite sport, school
postcode. Here, the birthdate and school postcode hold the quantitative value, but it does not give
numerical meaning.

Nominal Data
Nominal data is one of the types of qualitative information which helps to label the variables
without providing the numerical value. Nominal data is also called the nominal scale. It cannot be

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 147

 Unit 09: Managing, Organizing and Enhancing Data in Tableau

ordered and measured. But sometimes, the data can be qualitative and quantitative. Examples of
nominal data are letters, symbols, words, gender etc.

The nominal data are examined using the grouping method. In this method, the data are grouped
into categories, and then the frequency or the percentage of the data can be calculated. These data
are visually represented using the pie charts.

Ordinal Data
Ordinal data/variable is a type of data that follows a natural order. The significant feature of the
nominal data is that the difference between the data values is not determined. This variable is
mostly found in surveys, finance, economics, questionnaires, and so on.

The ordinal data is commonly represented using a bar chart. These data are investigated and
interpreted through many visualisation tools. The information may be expressed using tables in
which each row in the table shows a distinct category.

Quantitative or Numerical Data

Quantitative data is also known as numerical data which represents the numerical value (i.e., how
much, how often, how many). Numerical data gives information about the quantities of a specific
thing. Some examples of numerical data are height, length, size, weight, and so on. Quantitative
data can be classified into two different types based on the data sets. The two different
classifications of numerical data are discrete data and continuous data.

Discrete Data
Discrete data can take only discrete values. Discrete information contains only a finite number of
possible values. Those values cannot be subdivided meaningfully. Here, things can be counted in
whole numbers.

Example: Number of students in the class

Continuous Data
Continuous data is data that can be calculated. It has an infinite number of probable values that can
be selected within a given specific range.

Example: Temperature range

Summary
 Data visualization is the representation of data through use of common graphics, such as
charts, plots, infographics, and even animations. These visual displays of information
communicate complex data relationships and data-driven insights in a way that is easy to
understand.
 Data visualizations are used to discover unknown facts and trends. You can see
visualizations in the form of line charts to display change over time. Bar and column
charts are useful for observing relationships and making comparisons. A pie chart is a
great way to show parts of a whole. And maps are the best way to share geographical data
visually.

148 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 To craft an effective data visualization, you need to start with clean data that is well-
sourced and complete. After the data is ready to visualize, you need to pick the right chart.

Keywords
Data: In computing, data is information that has been translated into a form that is efficient for
movement or processing.
Data Visualization: Data and information visualization is an interdisciplinary field that deals with
the graphic representation of data and information.
Charts: A data chart is a type of diagram or graph, that organizes and represents a set of numerical
or qualitative data. Maps that are adorned with extra information (map surround) for a specific
purpose are often known as charts, such as a nautical chart or aeronautical chart, typically spread
over several map sheets.
Data analysis: Data Analysis. Data Analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical
and/or logical techniques to describe and illustrate, condense and recap, and evaluate data.

Self-Assessment

1. What is true about Data Visualization?

A. Data Visualization is used to communicate information clearly and efficiently to users by the
usage of information graphics such as tables and charts.
B. Data Visualization helps users in analyzing a large amount of data in a simpler way.
C. Data Visualization makes complex data more accessible, understandable, and usable.
D. All of the above

2. Which are pros of data visualization?

A. It can be accessed quickly by a wider audience.

B. It can misrepresent information
C. It can be distracting
D. None Of the above

3. Data can be visualized using?

A. graphs
B. charts
C. maps
D. All of the above

4. Which are cons of data visualization?

A. It conveys a lot of information in a small space.

B. It makes your report more visually appealing.
C. visual data is distorted or excessively used.
D. None Of the above

5. Which of the following is not a data visualization tool?

A. Tablue

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 149

 Unit 09: Managing, Organizing and Enhancing Data in Tableau

B. Cluvio
C. Microsoft Word
D. Domo

6. Data visualization is also an element of the broader _____________.

A. deliver presentation architecture

B. data presentation architecture
C. dataset presentation architecture
D. data process architecture

7. Which of the intricate techniques is not used for data visualization?

A. Bullet Graphs
B. Bubble Clouds
C. Fever Maps
D. Heat Maps

8. Which method shows hierarchical data in a nested format?

A. Treemaps
B. Scatter plots
C. Population pyramids
D. Area charts

9. Which one of the following is most basic and commonly used techniques?

A. Line charts
B. Scatter plots
C. Population pyramids
D. Area charts

10. The best feature Tableau are except_____________-

A. Collaboration of data
B. Data Blending
C. Real time analysis
D. Data is more small and fit

11. Where can we apply global filters?

A. Dashboards
B. Stories
C. Sheets
D. All of the above

12. __________ is the representation of data through use of common graphics, such as charts,
plots, infographics, and even animations.

150 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

A. Data visualization
B. Data
C. Tablue
D. None of above

13. Who is the parent company of Tableau?

A. Salesforce
B. Workday
C. Microsoft
D. Google

14. What are the file extensions in Tableau ?

A. Tableau Packaged Workbook (.twbx)
B. Tableau Data Source(.tds)
C. Tableau Workbook (.twb)
D. All of the above

15. Power BI is a product of_______________

A. Facebook
B. Oracle
C. Microsoft
D. SAP

Answers for Self-Assessment

l. D 2. A 3. D 4. C 5. A

6. B 7. C 8. A 9. A 10. D

11. D 12. A 13. A 14. D 15. C

Review Questions

1. What do you mean by data visualization?

2. Explain the need for data visualization tools in now’s industry.
3. What is the difference between data and data visualization?
4. Explain Types of Data Visualizations Elements.
5. What do you mean by data visualization tools? Explain with an example.

Further Readings

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 151

 Unit 09: Managing, Organizing and Enhancing Data in Tableau

1. Communication Data With Tablue, Ben Jones, O’ Reilly Publications

Web Links

https://www.tableau.com/
https://www.datacamp.com/tutorial/data-visualisation-tableau

152 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 153

 Unit 09: Managing, Organizing and Enhancing Data in Tableau

154 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation
Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University

Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
10.1 Usage of Tableau software:
10.2 Why Tableau?
10.3 Features of Tableau:
10.4 Tableau Product Suite
10.5 Installation steps
10.6 Configure Tableau Server for a forward proxy
Summary
Keywords
Self-assessment questions
Review Question

Objectives
• After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand concept of data visualization.
• install software for data visualization.
• Understand real time analysis.
• Collaboration with data.

Introduction
Tableau is an excellent data visualization and business intelligence tool used for reporting and
analyzing vast volumes of data. It is an American company that started in 2003—in June 2019,
Salesforce acquired Tableau. It helps users create different charts, graphs, maps, dashboards, and
stories for visualizing and analyzing data, to help in making business decisions. Tableau has a lot of
unique, exciting features that make it one of the most popular tools in business intelligence (BI).
Let’s learn more about some of the essential Tableau Desktop features. Now that we know what is
tableau exactly, let us understand some of its salient features.
Tableau is capable of connecting with a wide range of data sources. It can connect to files present in
your system, such as Microsoft Excel, text files, JSON, PDF, etc. It can also work on data present on
a database server, such as Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, Teradata, etc. There are other
saved data sources that Tableau can connect with. It also can connect and fetch data from cloud
sources, like AWS, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, and Google Cloud SQL.
Tableau Uses:

10.1 Usage of Tableau software:

The best features of Tableau software are
Data Blending
Real time analysis

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 155

 Advance Data Visualisation

Collaboration of data
The great thing about Tableau software is that it doesn’t require any technical or any kind of
programming skills to operate. The tool has garnered interest among the people from all sectors
such as business, research.
Tableau is a powerful and fastest growing data visualization tool used in the Business Intelligence
Industry. It helps in simplifying raw data in a very easily understandable format. Tableau helps
create the data that can be understood by professionals at any level in an organization. It also
allows non-technical users to create customized dashboards.
Data analysis is very fast with Tableau tool and the visualizations created are in the form of
dashboards archers, different industries, etc.

Business Intelligence
Data Visualization
Data Blending
Data Collaboration
Query translation into visualization
To create no-code data queries
Real-time data analysis
To manage large size metadata
To import large size of data

10.2 Why Tableau?

Why use Tableau software when there are a whole lot of tools available to perform data
visualization?

Tableau is greatly used because data can be analyzed very quickly with it. Also, visualizations are
generated as dashboards and worksheets. Tableau allows one to create dashboards that provide
actionable insights and drive the business forward. Tableau products always operate in virtualized
environments when they are configured with the proper underlying operating system and
hardware. Tableau is used by data scientists to explore data with limitless visual analytics.

10.3 Features of Tableau:

 Tableau Dashboard

 Collaboration and Sharing

 Live and In-memory Data

156 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation

 Data Sources in Tableau

 Advanced Visualizations

 Mobile View

 Revision History

 Licensing Views

 Subscribe others

 ETL Refresh and many more make Tableau one of the most famous Data Visualization tools.

What is Data Visualization in Tableau?

Data Visualization is a pictorial representation of a dataset or information using maps, graphs,
charts, and other visual elements. Data Visualization helps in easy understanding of the trend,
insights, patterns, and other connections in a Dataset. Tableau is one of the most popular Data
Visualization tools used by many enterprises and businesses to gain better insights into their data
to offer the best customer experience.

How does Tableau work?

The major work of Tableau software is to connect and extract the data stored in various places. It
can pull data from any platform. Tableau can extract data from any database, be it Excel, PDF,
Oracle, or even Amazon Web Services.

Once Tableau is launched, ready data connectors are available which allow you to connect to any
database.

The data extracted can be connected live to the Tableau data engine, Tableau Desktop. This is
where a Data Analyst or a Data Engineer works with the data that was pulled up and develop
visualization. The created dashboards are shared with users in the form of static files. The users
receiving dashboards view the files using Tableau Reader.

The data extracted from Tableau Desktop can be published to Tableau Server, which is an
enterprise platform where collaboration, distribution, governance, security model, and automation
features are supported. Using Tableau Server, end users can access the files from all locations, be it
a desktop or a mobile phone.

How Does Tableau Work How Does Tableau Work

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms

Following are the two ways in which Data Analytics of Tableau can be described:

Developer Tools: Tools used in development, like designing charts, dashboards, reports, and
visualizations, come under this category. The major Tableau products in this category are Tableau
Public and Tableau Desktop.
Sharing Tools: By the name, you would have understood what these tools do. Well, they are used
for sharing reports, visualizations, and dashboards which are created using the developer tools.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 157

 Advance Data Visualisation

The main products that fall in this category are Tableau Online, Tableau Reader, and Tableau
Server.

10.4 Tableau Product Suite

What is Tableau Desktop?

This product allows one to code and modifies the reports. Starting from creating reports and charts
to combining them to form a dashboard, all this work is done in Tableau Desktop.

Tableau Desktop is classified into the following according to connectivity and data sources:

Tableau Desktop Personal

The development features of the Tableau Desktop Personal version are close enough to that of the
Tableau Desktop. In this particular version, the workbook is in private mode and the access is
limited. That means, these workbooks can’t be posted and are for personal use only. Therefore, they
have to be divided either on Tableau Public or Offline.

Tableau Desktop Professional

This version is very much like Tableau Desktop, only that the work generated or created in Tableau
Desktop is published on the Tableau Server. In this version, there would be full access to all sorts of
data types. It is great for people who wish to publish their work on the Tableau Server.

What is Tableau Reader?

It is a tool that allows one to view visualizations and workbooks generated using Tableau Public or
Tableau Desktop. This data can easily be filtered, yet modifications are limited. Since anyone
getting the workbook can view it using Tableau Reader, there is no security.
What is Tableau Server?
This is mainly used to share visualizations and workbooks which get generated in the Tableau
Desktop application throughout the organization. The work will become accessible once it is
uploaded to the respective servers.

158 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation

To increase sharing of dashboards in Tableau Server, you should publish your work beforehand in
Tableau Desktop. Though, it’s not completely mandatory for licensed users to have an installed
Tableau Server. They just need the login credentials using which they can verify these reports.
Tableau Online
As the term ‘online’ suggests, Tableau Online is a sharing tool. It has a similar usage as Tableau
Server, but the data is saved on servers that are provided in the cloud maintained by the Tableau
group.

The data that can be published on Tableau Online has no storage limit. Tableau Online and Server,
both need workbooks that are created by Tableau Desktop to broadcast the data. Data streamed
from web applications, be it Salesforce or Google Analytics, are supported by both, Tableau Online
and Tableau Server.

Tableau Public
Tableau Public is specially built for money-saving users. As the word ‘public’ suggests, the created
workbooks can’t be locally saved, rather it is sent to Tableau’s public cloud which can be accessed
by the general public. This is an economical version which is very good for people wanting to learn
and share their data with people.

Tableau vs Excel

Excel and Tableau, are data analysis tools, but both of them have a unique approach to data

exploration. Where Excel works with columns and rows in spreadsheets, Tableau explores the Excel

data using its drag-and-drop feature. It formats the data in graphs and pictures that are easy to

understand.
Tableau MS Excel
Tableau is basically a data visualization tool which Excel is basically a spreadsheet for
provides pictorial and graphical representations of data. working with data in rows and columns.
You need to first represent your data into
a tabular format and then you can apply
visualizations on top of it.
In Tableau, you can gain insights that you never When it comes to Excel, you need to have
thought possible. You can play with interactive a prior knowledge of the insight that you

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 159

 Advance Data Visualisation

visualizations, deploy data drilling tools, and explore want and then work with various
various data that is available, and you don’t need to formulae in order to get there, along with
have any specific knowledge of the insight you are that tabulation is also needed.
looking for.
With Tableau, it is all about an easy and interactive In Excel, you need to have some
approach. programming in order to come up with
real-time data visualization.

Advantages of Tableau
Fantastic Visualizations
You can now work with a lot of data that doesn’t have any order to it and create a range of
visualizations. Well, thanks to the in-built features of Tableau which help you create visualizations
that surely stand out of the crowd. You also have the option of switching between different
visualizations to bring about a greater context, ways of drilling down data, and exploring the data
at a minute level.

In-depth Insights
Tableau can help enterprises futuristically to analyze data without any specific goals in mind. You
can explore visualizations and have a look at the same data from different angles. You can frame
‘what if’ queries and work with data by hypothetically visualizing it in a different manner and
dynamically adding components for comparison and analysis. When you are working with real-
time data, then these capabilities are highlighted in a huge manner.

User-friendly Approach
This is the greatest strength of Tableau. It is built from the ground level for people who don’t have
any technical skills or coding experience. So, everything can be done with this tool by anybody
without any prior set of skills. Since most of the features are in a drag-and-drop format, each
visualization is so intuitive and self-depicting

.Working with Disparate Data Sources

Tableau has a powerful reason to be included by various organizations in today’s data-driven
world where data can come from any point and any disparate sources. Tableau has an edge over
other Business Intelligence and Analytics tools as it lets you work by connecting to various Tableau
data sources, data warehouses, and files that exist in the cloud, big data that exists in spreadsheets,
and non-relational data, among other types of data. Tableau effortlessly blends all different types of
data to help organizations come up with compelling visualizations.

Adding Datasets

160 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation

Be it a database or an Excel workbook, with Tableau, one can easily add new datasets which get
automatically blended with Tableau using common fields.

Switching Between Visualizations

You also have the option of switching between different visualizations to bring about a greater
context, with ways of drilling down data and exploring it at a minute level.

Tableau is one of the top Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tools available today. It is
being used by most of the Fortune Global 500 list of companies in order to derive valuable insights
from their data.

10.5 Installation steps

Running Setup

After you download the Tableau Server installation file, follow the instructions below to install the
server.

Important: Do not install a beta version of Tableau Server in your production environment. You
should also never restore a production Tableau Server installation using a backup of a beta version.

1. Sign in as a user with administrator access to the computer where you want to install
Tableau Server and double-click the installation file.

2. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete Setup and install the application.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 161

 Advance Data Visualisation

The default installation path is C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\<version>. The

Setup program displays the install path without the version, like this: C:\Program
Files\Tableau\Tableau Server. You can choose a different location, including a different
drive, either by browsing to or typing in a new path. Be aware that if you browse to a
location, the Setup program appends \Tableau Server to the end of the path. You can
remove this if it is not the location you want.

If you are upgrading from Tableau Server version 2018.1 or earlier and Tableau was
installed to a non-default location, you need to specify the location of your existing
version. Upgrade steps vary depending on your target version and install location.
See Upgrade Tableau Server Overview for information on how to choose your upgrade
steps.

Note: If you are prompted by Windows Defender Firewall, click Allow access. You may
need to do this multiple times for the installation to complete.

3. Click Next.

On the Server installation type page, you can specify whether you are installing the first
node of a Server installation, or additional nodes in a multi-node installation. You do not
need to change this from the default (Create new Tableau Server installation.) unless you
are installing a multi-node Tableau Server. If you are installing a multi-node Tableau
Server, see Install and Configure Additional Nodes.

4. Click Next.

162 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation

On the Product activation type page, select whether you want to use the Tableau
authorization-to-run (ATR) service to activate Tableau Server (the default), and then
click Install. For more information about the Tableau authorization-to-run (ATR) service,
see Activate Tableau Server using the authorization-to-run (ATR) service(Link opens in a
new window).

5. After the installation completes, click Finish. Setup will then open the TSM configuration
web page on the computer where you are installing Tableau Server.

If you need to support characters that are not the Latin-1 set, install the Windows
Language Packs via Control Panel > Regional and Language Options. The language
packs will need to be installed on the initial server as well as any additional nodes.

10.6 Configure Tableau Server for a forward proxy

If your organization uses a forward proxy solution to access the internet, then configure Tableau
Server to use the proxy server. Tableau Server must access the internet for map data and for default
licensing functionality.

We recommend configuring Tableau Server for a forward proxy solution at this point of the
installation process. See Configuring Tableau Server on Windows to work with a forward proxy

Activate and Register Tableau Server

Tableau Server requires at least one product key that both activates the server and specifies the
number of license levels you can assign to users. You can access your product keys from the
Customer Portal.

If you need to activate Tableau Server on a computer that is offline, see Activate Tableau Server
Offline - Adding a License. If you need to activate additional product keys to add capacity to an
existing Tableau Server installation, see Add Capacity to Tableau Server.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 163

 Advance Data Visualisation

Prerequisite
Prerequisite
Before proceeding with the procedures in this topic, complete the following prerequisites as
outlined in Install and Configure Tableau Server:

Install TSM

TSM uses port 8850. If you are running a local firewall, open port 8850.

Configure Product Key Operations with Forward Proxy

1. If the computer where you are installing Tableau Server has been configured to connect to
the internet through a forward proxy, follow the procedure in the topic, Configure
Product Key Operations with Forward Proxy, before continuing.

2. Sign in to Tableau Services Manager Web UI.

The account you use must have administrative privileges on the computer where TSM is
installed.

3. On the Activate page, Enter or paste your product key and click Activate Product Key.

After your product key is activated, it appears under Activated Product Keys.

4. To activate another product key, type over they key you just entered to add the new
product key, and then click Activate Product Key. After your product key is activated, it
appears under Activated Product Keys. Continue adding product keys in this manner
until you're done.

5. When you’re finished activating product keys, click Next.

164 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation

Note: If the product keys you have activated don’t have the necessary capacity, such as
not enough cores or only a Viewer role product key, Tableau Services Manager displays
the Insufficient licenses applied dialog box. Click Activate Another Product Key to add
another product key and increase capacity on your Tableau Server installation.

6. On the Register page, enter your information into the fields and click Register.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 165

 Advance Data Visualisation

If you have a product key for Data Management or Advanced Management, you must activate that
key to use the additional functionality. Product keys for these licenses should only be activated
after at least one capacity product key has been activated on the server.

 For license information on Tableau Data Management, see License Data Management.

 For license information on Tableau Advanced Management, see About Tableau Advanced
Management on Tableau Server.

166 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation

Summary

 Tableau Desktop has a rich feature set and allows you to code and customize reports.
Right from creating the charts, reports, to blending them all together to form a dashboard,
all the necessary work is created in Tableau Desktop.
 For live data analysis, Tableau Desktop provides connectivity to Data Warehouse, as well
as other various types of files. The workbooks and the dashboards created here can be
either shared locally or publicly.
 Based on the connectivity to the data sources and publishing option, Tableau Desktop is
classified into
 Tableau Desktop Personal: The development features are similar to Tableau Desktop.
Personal version keeps the workbook private, and the access is limited. The workbooks
cannot be published online. Therefore, it should be distributed either Offline or in Tableau
Public.
 Tableau Desktop Professional: It is pretty much similar to Tableau Desktop. The difference
is that the work created in the Tableau Desktop can be published online or in Tableau
Server. Also, in Professional version, there is full access to all sorts of the datatype. It is
best suitable for those who wish to publish their work in Tableau Server.

Keywords

 Tableau connects and extracts the data stored in various places. It can pull data from any
platform imaginable. A simple database such as an excel, pdf, to a complex database like
Oracle, a database in the cloud such as Amazon webs services, Microsoft Azure SQL
database, Google Cloud SQL and various other data sources can be extracted by Tableau.

 When Tableau is launched, ready data connectors are available which allows you to
connect to any database.
 Depending on the version of Tableau that you have purchased the number of data
connectors supported by Tableau will vary.

 The pulled data can be either connected live or extracted to the Tableau’s data engine,
Tableau Desktop. This is where the Data analyst, data engineer work with the data that
was pulled up and develop visualizations.
 The created dashboards are shared with the users as a static file. The users who receive the
dashboards views the file using Tableau Reader.
 The data from the Tableau Desktop can be published to the Tableau server. This is an
enterprise platform where collaboration, distribution, governance, security model,
automation features are supported.
 With the Tableau server, the end users have a better experience in accessing the files from
all locations be it a desktop, mobile or email.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 167

 Advance Data Visualisation

Self-assessment questions

1. Default aggregation used for tree map__________

a. Avg
b. Count
c. Sum

2. The best feature Tableau are except_____________-

a. Collaboration of data
b. Data Blending
c. Real time analysis
d. Data is smaller and more fit

3. How do you find the field is discrete in Tableau ?

a. Green color
b. # symbol
c. Blue color
d. None

4. What percent of total profits do the top 10 customer by Sales represent in sample superstore
dataset ?

a. 5.03%
b. 17.54%
c. 16.26%
d. 3.50%

5. Which of the following is not a Trend Line model ?

a. Linear Trend Line

b. Binomial Trend Line
c. Exponential Trend Line
d. Logarithmic Trend Line

6. Where can we apply global filters?

a. Dashboards
b. Stories
c. Sheets
d. All of the above

168 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 10: Making Comparisons and Basic Calculation

7. The Tableau Product Suite consists of____________-

a. Tableau Desktop ,Tableau Public, Tableau Online, Tableau Server, Tableau Measure
b. Tableau Desktop, Tableau Public ,Tableau Online ,Tableau Server ,Tableau Reader
c. Tableau Desktop ,Tableau Public ,Tableau Dimension ,Tableau Server, Tableau Reader
d. Tableau Desktop ,Tableau Public ,Tableau Online, Tableau Server ,Tableau Organic

8. Tableau File Extension is_______________

a. twbx
b. twby
c. twbw
d. twbz

9. What is the possible cause of the data not being updated?

a. Data Extrac needs an update

b. The data source configuration of Data Extract needs to be refreshed
c. Services on Data Extrac are not running
d. The workers of Data Extrac are taking a timeout

10. What type of join is used in blending?

a. Left join
b. Full join
c. Right join
d. Inner join

11. A justifiable reason to utilize a projectile chart.

a. Looking at the genuine against the objective deals

b. Examining the pattern for an era
c. Showing the business development for a specific year
d. Adding information and ascertaining tally measure

12. What insight will the Link Utilization Hourly Trend give you?

a. This will allow us to identify the specific times during the day the bandwidth utilization is
the highest
b. This will allow us to identify the critical links that don’t need attention
c. This will allow us to correlate bandwidth usage to user traffic
d. This will allow us to identify and set the optimum bandwidth thresholds in Tableau

13. Data Values available for the visualization_______________

a. Basic Expression
b. Table Calculation
c. None of the above
d. LoD Expression

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 169

 Advance Data Visualisation

14. In which Region do all Product Categories fall beneath the overall average profit in sample
superstore dataset?

a. East
b. West
c. Central
d. South

15. Which of these is not a datatype in Tableau?

a. Integer
b. Character
c. Float
d. String

1 c 2 d 3 c 4 a 5 b 6 d 7b 8 a

9 c 10 a 11 a 12 a 13 b 14 d 15 b

Review Question

1. What Are the Data Types Supported in Tableau?

2. How Will You Understand Dimensions and Measures?
3. What is Meant by ‘discrete’ and ‘continuous’ in Tableau?
4. What Are the Filters? Name the Different Filters in Tableau.
5. What Are the Different Joins in Tableau?

Further Readings
"Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring” by Stephen Few
"Beautiful Visualization, Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts by Julie Steele, Noah
Iliinsky"

Web Links
https://www.tableau.com/
https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/

170 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

Unit 11: Advance Calculation

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
3.1 Data Sources in Tableau
3.2 Combining Data Sources
3.3 Tableau Sets & Parameters
Summary
Keywords
Self-Assessment
Answers for Self-Assessment
Review Questions
Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:

 Understand sets and parameters

 Analyze data using the tableau parameter
 Understand data sources

Introduction
In order to master any Business Intelligence tool, the most basic operation we need to learn is to
connect to a data source. Once we establish a successful connection with a data source, we can
access all its data, bring some part of it in Tableau’s repository (extract) and use it for our analysis.
Tableau offers a myriad of data sources such as local text files, MS Excel, PDFs, JSON or databases
and servers like Tableau Server, MySQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server, etc.
A data source is made up of fields and groups. In the same way that folders on your hard disk
contain and organize your files, fields contain the data that users enter into forms that are based on
your form template, and groups contain and organize those fields.

3.1 Data Sources in Tableau

Tableau can connect to all the popular data sources which are widely used. Tableau’s native
connectors can connect to the following types of data sources.

 File Systems such as CSV, Excel, etc.

 Relational Systems such as Oracle, Sql Server, DB2, etc.
 Cloud Systems such as Windows Azure, Google BigQuery, etc.
 Other Sources using ODBC

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 171

 Advance Data Visualisation

The following picture shows most of the data sources available through Tableau’s native data
connectors.

Connect Live
The Connect Live feature is used for real-time data analysis. In this case, Tableau connects to real-
time data source and keeps reading the data. Thus, the result of the analysis is up to the second,
and the latest changes are reflected in the result. However, on the downside, it burdens the source
system as it has to keep sending the data to Tableau.

In-Memory
Tableau can also process data in-memory by caching them in memory and not being connected to
the source anymore while analyzing the data. Of course, there will be a limit to the amount of data
cached depending on the availability of memory.

Combine Data Sources

Tableau can connect to different data sources at
the same time. For example, in a single
workbook you can connect to a flat file and
a relational source by defining multiple
connections. This is used in data blending,
which is a very unique feature in Tableau.

How to Establish a Connection?

Moving on, let us see how do we connect to a
data source from Tableau Desktop. We
will show you how to establish a connection to
an MS Excel file and use its data for analysis
in Tableau.
Open Tableau Desktop in your system. As soon
as it opens, you will get the Tableau welcome

172 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

page. On this page, you will find a blue pane on the left with the heading Connect. In this pane, you
will find a list of data connectors for file-based and server-based sources. You can click on the data
connector name, select a file or establish a connection.

To fetch a Microsoft Excel file, we click on the option Microsoft Excel from the list.

It will open a new dialog box from where you can access files from your system. We have a sample
Excel file which we are going to select and click Open.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 173

 Advance Data Visualisation

This will open the contents of the Excel file in a Data Source tab in a Tableau workbook.

This tab has a Connections pane at its left which shows the name of the data source and its
contents; that is, the number of sheets in the case of an Excel file.

We can manage and view the contents of a data source by dragging and dropping sheets to the
central pane. It will display the entire table with proper rows and columns of the respective sheet.

174 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

In addition to this, you can also add a new data source here by clicking on the Add option and then
selecting the data file or connector of your choice.

Or, by clicking on the Data tab present on the top-left bar and then selecting New Data
Source option from there.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 175

 Advance Data Visualisation

From here, we can sort fields and manage metadata where you can see the names of all the columns
present in their concerning tables. In this way, we can also manage multiple linked data sources.

Once we load our data source, we can move on to create a worksheet in Tableau. Open the tab
called Sheet1 just next to the Data Source tab and you will find a list of available data sources and
fields within it. On the left, there is an organized list of available dimensions and measures from
where you can select and use them to create charts and graphs. Just drag and drop dimensions and
measures to the Columns and Rows section to start making visualizations.

176 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

Every data source, especially server-based sources have different steps to follow in order to
establish a connection with. Follow the steps, provide the necessary information and start working
with your data in Tableau to carry out the analysis.

3.2 Combining Data Sources

There are several ways to combine data, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Relationships are the default method and can be used in most instances, including across tables
with different levels of detail. Relationships are flexible and adapt to the structure of the analysis on
a sheet by sheet basis. However, you can't create relationships between tables from published data
sources.

Joins combine tables by adding more columns of data across similar row structures. This can cause
data loss or duplication if tables are at different levels of detail, and joins must be established before
analysis can begin. You can't use a published data source in a join.

Blends, unlike relationships or joins, never combine the data directly. Instead, blends query each
data source independently, aggregate the results to the appropriate level, then present the results
together visually in the view. Because of this, blends can handle different levels of detail and also
work with published data sources. Blends don't create a new, blended data source (and therefore
can't be published as a "blended data source"). Instead, they are simply blended results visualized
per sheet.

3.3 Tableau Sets & Parameters

Sets

You can use sets to compare and ask questions about a subset of data. Sets are custom fields that
define a subset of data based on some conditions.

You can make sets more dynamic and interactive by using them in Set Actions. Set actions let your
audience interact directly with a viz or dashboard to control aspects of their analysis. When
someone selects marks in the view, set actions can change the values in a set.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 177

 Advance Data Visualisation

Create a dynamic set

There are two types of sets: dynamic sets and fixed sets. The members of a dynamic set change
when the underlying data changes. Dynamic sets can only be based on a single dimension.

To create a dynamic set:

1. In the Data pane, right-click a dimension and select Create > Set.

2. In the Create Set dialog box, configure your set. You can configure your set using the
following tabs:

o General: Use the General tab to select one or more values that will be considered
when computing the set.

You can alternatively select the Use all option to always consider all members
even when new members are added or removed.

178 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

o Condition: Use the Condition tab to define rules that determine which members
to include in the set.

For example, you might specify a condition that is based on total sales that only
includes products with sales over $100,000.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 179

 Advance Data Visualisation

o Top: Use the Top tab to define limits on what members to include in the set.

For example, you might specify a limit that is based on total sales that only
includes the top 5 products based on their sales.

180 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

3. When finished, click OK.

The new set is added to the bottom of the Data pane, under the Sets section. A set icon
indicates the field is a set.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 181

 Advance Data Visualisation

Parameters
A parameter is a workbook variable such as a number, date, or string that can replace a constant
value in a calculation, filter, or reference line.

Example you may create a calculated field that returns True if Sales is greater than
$500,000 and otherwise returns False. You can replace the constant value of “500000” in the formula
with a parameter. Then, using the parameter control, you can dynamically change the threshold in
your calculation.

You can even create a dynamic parameter that’s set to automatically refresh its current value (to the
result of a single-value, view-independent calculation), list of values (based on a data source
column), or range of values. This will happen each time the workbook is opened and Tableau
connects to the data source referenced by the parameter, or whenever you select Refresh from the
data source’s context menu..

You can make your parameters more dynamic and interactive by using them in Parameter Actions.
Parameter actions let your audience change a parameter value through direct interaction with a viz,
such as clicking or selecting a mark.

Create a parameter
Follow the instructions below to create a new parameter from the Data pane.

1. In the Data pane, click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner and select Create
Parameter.

182 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

2. In the Create Parameter dialog box, give the field a Name.

3. Specify the data type for the values it will accept:

4. Specify a current value. This is the default value for the parameter. In this case, let’s leave
the field as is because we’ll be using the latest data, which we’ll configure in the next step.

5. Specify a value when the workbook opens. In this case, let’s create a dynamic parameter
by setting the parameter’s default value to the result of a single-value, view-independent
calculation.

Notes

If there is more than one value, the workbook would not be able to choose a
default value. The calculation must also be view-independent so that the value won’t
change as the viz changes. To do this, you can use a FIXED level of detail (LOD)
expression that is not dependent on the structure of the viz. All parts of the calculation

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 183

 Advance Data Visualisation

must be inside the FIXED LOD expression. If you use a FIXED LOD expression as the
default value and are using context filters, the dynamic parameter will not reflect any
context filters. For more information on LOD expressions, see Create Level of Detail
Expressions in Tableau.

For this dynamic parameter, let's use Latest Month. This means that if the connected data
source is updated and the workbook is opened, the parameter will automatically update
when the workbook is opened.

6. Specify the display format to use in the parameter control (Tableau Desktop only).

7. Specify how the parameter will accept values. You can select from the following options:

o All - The parameter control is a simple text field.

o List - The parameter control provides a list of possible values for you to select
from.

o Range - The parameter control lets you select values within a specified range.

The availability of these options is determined by the data type. For example, a string
parameter can only accept all values or a list. It does not support a range.

If you select List, you must specify the list of values. Click in the left column to type your
list of values, or you can add members of a field by selecting Add values from.

184 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

If you select Range, you must specify a minimum, maximum, and step size. For example,
you can define a date range between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019, with the step
size set to 1 month to create a parameter control that lets you select each month in 2019.

In this case, to refresh the parameter’s list of values (or domain) whenever the workbook
opens, select List, and then select When workbook opens. Notice that the list of values on
the left is grayed out because the workbook is dynamically pulling values from the data
source.

8. When finished, click OK.

The parameter is now listed in the Parameters section at the bottom of the Data pane.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 185

 Advance Data Visualisation

The parameter is also available everywhere else you can use a parameter—for example, on
the Top tab in the Filter dialog box, or in the Reference Line dialog box. Parameters are
global across the workbook and can be used in any worksheet.

Summary
 Tableau is a popular Business Intelligence tool used by thousands of companies around
the world. It helps businesses generate valuable insights by connecting and analyzing the
raw data from different sources. It offers various tools and techniques that a business can
use to establish relationships between different data sources.
 Parameters in Tableau are the container of values used to calculate and dynamically enter
the values that are otherwise not present in the original dataset. You can add conditions
and select the range of the values for which you want to create a parameter. After that,
you can incorporate these values into reports and dashboards and see their effect on
different visualizations.
 Parameters are a method that transfers the control on datasets from the author of the
report to the user.
 Parameters or container values in Tableau are mainly used to dynamically enter the values
in the dataset that would otherwise not be present in it. With tableau parameters, you can
set the range for any dataset and only focus on specific data variables/dimensions for
performing data analysis.

Keywords
Parameters: Parameters are useful when you want to add interactivity and flexibility to a report, or
to experiment with what-if scenarios. Suppose you are unsure which fields to include in your view
or which layout would work best for your viewers.
Data Source: Data Source is a name given to the connection set up to a database from a server. The
name is commonly used when creating a query to the database. The data source name need not be
the same as the filename for the database.

186 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

Sets: Sets are custom fields that define a subset of data based on some conditions. A set can be
based on a computed condition, for example, a set may contain customers with sales over a certain
threshold. Computed sets update as your data changes. Alternatively, a set can be based on specific
data point in your view.

Self-Assessment

1. What are the different Tableau files?

A. Workbooks

B. Bookmarks

C. Packaged Workbooks

D. All of these

2. What are the characteristics to distinguish data source?

A. Icon/Name

B. Connection Type

C. Connects to

D. All of these

3. Tableau was founded by

A. Chris Stoltecorrect

B. Chris Jordan

C. Alexander Fleming

D. None

4. How do you identify a continuous field in Tableau?

A. It is identified by a blue pill in the visualizationwrong

B.It is identified by a green pill in a visualizationcorrect

C. It is preceded by a # symbol in the data window

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 187

 Advance Data Visualisation

D. When added to the visualization, it produces distinct values

5. The icon associated with the field that has been grouped is a _____________

A. Paper Clipcorrect

B. Set

C. Hashwrong

D. Equal To

6. What are the file extensions in Tableau?

A. Tableau Bookmark (.tdm)

B. Tableau Map Source (.tms)

C. Tableau Preferences (.tps)

D. All of the abovecorrect

7. How do you identify a discrete field in Tableau?

A. It is identified by a blue pill in the visualization
B. It is identified by a green pill in a visualization
C. It is preceded by a # symbol in the data window
D. When added to the visualization, it produces distinct values

8. It contains qualitative values…………….

A. Dimensions
B. Measures
C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

9. It contains quantitative values…………….

A. Dimensions
B. Measures

188 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

10. It contains options to create graphs

A. Dimensions
B. Measures
C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

11. It contains option to apply all formulas

A. Dimensions
B. Measures
C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

12. It can be used to define the level of detail to perform an aggregation on

A. Dimensions
B. Measures
C. Show me
D. Calculated fields

13. In which type of graph geographical role is defined

A. Bar graph
B. Map charts
C. Scatter plot
D. Dimensions

14. In which type of graph spatial data is required

A. Bar graph
B. Map charts
C. Scatter plot

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 189

 Advance Data Visualisation

D. Dimensions

15. Tableau takes at least one measure in the Rows shelf and one measure in the Columns
shelf to create a _____________
A. Bar graph
B. Map charts
C. Scatter plot
D. Dimensions

Answers for Self-Assessment

l. D 2. D 3. A 4. A 5. C

6. D 7. A 8. A 9. B 10. C

11. D 12. A 13. B 14. B 15. C

Review Questions
1. Why Tableau is preferred by the business community?
2. What do you mean by data source? How it is important for tableau.
3. What is a parameter? Write the steps to implement parameters using tableau.
4. What are the different responsibilities of a Tableau professional?
5. What are sets?

Further Readings

1. Communication Data With Tablue, Ben Jones, O’ Reilly Publications

Web Links

https://www.tableau.com/
https://www.datacamp.com/tutorial/data-visualisation-tableau

190 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 11 – Advance Calculation

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 191

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
12.1 What is Tableau?
12.2 Installation:
12.3 Data Visualizations
12.4 Various Graphs and Charts
12.5 Filters
Self-assessment questions
Answers for Assessment
Review Questions

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand concept of different graphs.
• install software for data visualization.
• Understand dimensions and measures.
• Understand continuous and discrete data.

Introduction
Data Visualization with tableau is the process of presenting information through visual rendering.
From centuries back, people have used to visualizations such as charts and maps to understand
information more quickly and easily. As far as the human brain is concerned, it recognizes visual
data more quickly than text data.

12.1 What is Tableau?

Tableau is a Data Visualisation tool that is widely used for Business Intelligence but is not limited
to it. It helps create interactive graphs and charts in the form of dashboards and worksheets to gain
business insights. And all of this is made possible with gestures as simple as drag and drop!
What Products does Tableau offer?

192 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

12.2 Installation:
To work on Tableau, you need Tableau, right?

Out of the five above mentioned products, Tableau Desktop, Public and Online offer Data Visual
Creation.

Tableau Desktop

It is available in the following three formats:

1. Free trial for 14 days

2. If you are a student or a teacher, you get free access to the Desktop for a full year.
3. Purchase Tableau

Tableau Public

Tableau Public is purely free of all costs and does not require any license. But it comes with a
limitation that all of your data and workbooks are made public to all Tableau users.

Tableau Online

Tableau Online is the best option for you, if you wish to make your Workbooks on the Cloud and
be able to access them from anywhere.

Connect to the Data

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 193

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

You should see a screen similar to the one above. This is where you import your data. As is visible,
there are multiple formats that your data can be in. It can be in a flat-file such as Excel, CSV or you
can directly load it from data servers too.

You can see that Tableau itself offers some Sample Workbooks, with pre-drawn charts, graphs, and
other visuals. I would suggest going through these later for further exploration.

The best way to learn is to get your hands dirty. Let us start with our Data, which can be
found here. The data is that of a United States’ Superstore which is deliberating over its expansion.
It wishes to know the prospective regions of the country where it could and hence requires your
help.

The first thing that you will obviously need to do is import the data onto Tableau. So quickly follow
the below steps:

1. Since the data is in an Excel File, click on Excel and choose the Sample – Superstore.xls file
to get :

2. You can see three sheets on the screen, but we are only going to be dealing with Orders
here, so go ahead and drag the same on Drag sheets here :

194 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Uh oh, the imported data looks a bit different for the first few rows. Don’t worry, the solution lies
right ahead.

Data Interpreter

3. You see the option of Use Data Interpreter? Click on it to get the following clean view :

All that messy data magically disappeared!

If you open the Excel data file, you will see some metadata in it, i.e. information about data :

Tableau imports the entire data file as is, but anticipating such discrepancies, explicitly provides a
solution in the form of a Data Interpreter. If you wish to view the exact changes that it made, click
on Review the results, and choose the Orders tab in the opened Excel sheet.

As it will show, it simply removed the erroneous data.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 195

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

12.3 Data Visualizations

As soon as you had imported your dataset, next to the Data Source tab near the bottom of the
screen, you immediately must have seen Go to Worksheet. A Worksheet is where you make all of
your graphs, so click on that tab to reach the following screen:

Don’t get overwhelmed by the various elements that you see here, we will cover them all one by
one.

Dimensions and Measures:

Moving onto Shelves :

Visualization in Tableau is possible through dragging and dropping Measures and Dimensions
onto these different Shelves.

Rows and Columns : Represent the x and y-axis of your graphs / charts.
Filter: Filters help you view a strained version of your data. For example, instead of seeing the
combined Sales of all the Categories, you can look at a specific one, such as just Furniture.

196 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Pages: Pages work on the same principle as Filters, with the difference that you can actually see the
changes as you shift between the Paged values. Remember that Rosling chart? You can easily make
one of your own using Pages.
Marks: The Marks property is used to control the mark types of your data. You may choose to
represent your data using different shapes, sizes or text.

And finally, there is Show Me, the brain of Tableau!

When you drag and drop fields onto the visualization area, Tableau makes default graphs for you,
as we shall see soon, but you can change these by referring to the Show Me option.

Note: Not every graph can be made with any combination of Dimensions or Measures. Each graph
has its own conditions for the number and types of fields that can be used, which we shall discuss
next.

12.4 Various Graphs and Charts

Using Superstore Sales and Profit Statistics. That would include the Net Sales, the Net Profit and
the growth of the two measures, to name a few. Here is a gist of what we will be making:

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 197

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

From what can be observed, the net sales are on the rise, but the Profit is creeping up slowly. We
can also quite clearly see the peak Sales Months, which could be attributed to various reasons. We
can only know more as we explore more.

Before we start, there is one thing that I would like to recommend and that is you name
your Worksheets as being done here.

Let’s begin with the simplest visualization, and that is displaying the Net
Statistics numbers. Tableau, being as smart as it is, automatically computes such
values under Measure Names and Measure Values. Follow these steps to make what is called
a Text Table :

1. Drag Measure Names from Dimensions onto the central empty area so that you see a Text
Table.
2. Measure Names will be displayed automatically onto Rows, so drag it from Rows to
Columns.
3. Since we don’t really need Measures like the Row ID, Discount, etc, you can drag them off
from below the Marks Pane, to get something like this :

198 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Note: Don’t get confused by the different colors of the fields that you see. Just remember one small
trick: Blue means Discrete and Green, Continuous.

So we have the net Sales and Profit values, let’s delve a little deeper by getting the Sales and Profit
Values over the years. Let’s make another, but a more detailed, Text Table :

1. Drag Order Date from Dimensions and Sales from Measures to Rows.
2. Right-click on the green Sales Pill, and select Discrete, in place of Continuous, since we
want the explicit values and not the bar graphs.
3. Finally, drag Profit on the ‘abc’ column to get :

4. Do the same thing for Monthly Sales and Profit Values, but this time changes the format
of Order Date, from Year to Month, by right-clicking on Order Date in the Rows, and
choosing Month, to get something like this :

We have just covered the numeric part of the Dashboard, but that is not its selling point. It’s
the Line Charts. Lets quickly learn how to make one :

1. To create the chart of Sales and Profit Growth, drag Order Date over
the Columns, Sales over Rows and then Profit over the formed Sales axis – so that you

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 199

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

see an equals sign – to get the following :

2. Repeat the same to find the Peak Sales and Profit Months, but again change the format
of Order Date, from Year to Month, and get :

If you were to click on Show Me, you will see the different types of Line Charts that you can make,
and if you were to hover over each of them, you will get to see their Dimension and Measure
requirements too. In case you ever feel lost, I recommend referring to Show Me.

With the previous visualizations, we had gotten a brief overview of the Superstore. Let’s dig a little
deeper now. The next thing that I can think of exploring is the demographic of the Sales and Profit.
What are the States that have the highest Sales Revenue, which ones are generating the maximum
Profits:

200 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Before discussing the inferences, let’s first create the Pie Chart of Region Sales :

1. Drag Regions onto Rows and Sales onto Columns.

2. Go to Show Me, and select the Pie Chart.
3. And finally, drag Sales over the Label in the Marks Pane to get :

From the visual, it’s pretty evident that the two opposite ends, East and West are leading in the
Sales game. Let’s dissect this a bit more.

Note : Whenever you have some geographical data, it is always advisable to plot and see it on a
Map to gain better insights.

So, we are now going to make the Map Chart of State Sales Distribution :

1. Since its the States that we wish to analyze, drag States onto the empty area, so that you
automatically see a Map, with small Circles. Follow this step by dragging Profits next. You
will notice the size of these circles changing to represent the varying values of Profits. This
is called a Symbol Map. But we are going to convert this into a Filled one, by going to
Show Me, and selecting the Filled Map.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 201

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

2. Drag Profits again, but this time onto Label in the Marks Pane, to view the Profit Values
mapped as well, like so :

California and New York are the top most sellers from the West and East region, but unfortunately,
there are other states such as Texas, Colorado which even after having good Sales, have negative
Profits! This is certainly not good news for the Superstore. You can perceive a good analysis for the
other States as well.

And lastly, here are the steps for making the Scatter Plot of Sales and Profit Analysis :

1. Drag Sales onto Rows, and Profit onto Columns. You will see one tiny circle, which
actually represents the Total Sales and Profit Values.
2. To get more information, drag States onto the graph created, so that these circles/bubbles
scatter to represent the individual States.
3. To better understand the central tendency of the data, we have also added a Median
axis as Reference Line. This can be easily done by right-clicking on the Sales / Profit Axis –
> Adding Reference Line and choosing Median over the default Average Reference.
4. Finally, for some more insight, drag States again, but this time onto Label in the Marks
Pane, and get:

The findings from the Map chart become more prominent with the following Scatter
plot inferences :

202 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 The states in the top right, with high Sales and high Profits, mean good business for the
organization.
 States with positive Sales and Profits, but near the two respective axis are the ones where
there is some scope of improvement.
 Whereas the states that belong to the 2nd or 3rd quarter are the ones which are not
generating much revenue.

One of the great things about Tableau is that it lets you interact with the visuals. Have a look at an
example :

When we clicked on the Central Region, it highlighted and showed the Central States of the US,
along with their respective Sales and Profit scatter. Here we used the chart as a Filter itself which is
a feature of a Dashboard. We shall learn how to make one at a later stage.

There is one pretty important analysis that we have yet to touch, and that is Product Statistics. High
Sales could be easily attributed to the high cost of the products being sold. Also, when you are
considering expansion, you will want to know the Sales distribution of the Products too:

Here we have visualized not just the Sales but also the Profits.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 203

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

Its quite surprising to see Categories that have high Sales, generating negative profits, like
Technology in November 2015, or Furniture in October 2016 and this is inferred from the first chart,
which is also called a Highlight Table. As the name suggests, it highlights the relative proportion
of the Measure Values of our data. So let’s learn how to make one :

1. Drag Category and Order Date ( Year ) in Rows.

2. Drag Order Date (Month ) over Columns, and Sales over the empty ‘abc’ fields
3. Select Highlight Table from Show Me, and drag Order Date ( Year ) back to Rows, in case
it got re-shuffled.
4. Finally drag Profits over Colour in the Marks Pane, to get :

The Product Sub Category Sales is a Bar Chart, which is also quite easy to make :

1. Just drag Sub – Category over to the Rows

2. Drag Profit onto the Columns.
3. Go to Show Me and choose the Horizontal Bars
4. For some customization, drag Sales over Colour in the Marks Pane to attain this final
visualization:

From the above graph, we are getting a good idea of the Net Sales and Profit margins of the various
products. Notice that even though Tables’ Sales are quite high on the scale, it’s the only product
with the least profit.

204 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Now, just like before, consider interaction with the visualization:

We are now able to view each Category’s Products’ Sales and Profits, at a low-level granularity of
Year and Month!

12.5 Filters
Till now we have only made simple charts, that actually provide cumulative data, which is
combined data over the lifetime of the Superstore. To look at Sales of a particular Year, a Month, for
a certain Product, or to basically view the distinct aspects of the data, Filters are the way to go.

Let’s head back to the first-ever Chart that we had made, of Peak Sales and Profit Months :

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 205

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

The visual here is an accumulation of all 4 years of data, for all Regions, States, Categories and Sub
Categories.

The steps of turning any Dimension into a Filter are the same. Let’s first experiment with the Order
Date ( formatted to Year ) :

1. Drag the Dimension to the Filters’ Shelf, to see the following pop up. Here we will be
choosing Years :

206 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

2. Choose the values that you want to be a part of your Filter :

3. Right-click on the newly generated Filter, and then choose Show Filter :

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 207

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

4. You can also change the format of your Filter, for example, whether you wish for a
Dropdown list, a Slider, a Single Value List, etc :

5. If you feel that some of your filters can be applied to other sheets as well, then rather
than repeating the steps, you can simply Apply the Filter to all other relevant Worksheets
:

Summary

 Tableau Public Server. Tableau Public server is a free server in the internet. ...
 Tableau Public Desktop. Tableau Public Desktop is a free desktop application. ...
 Tableau Mobile. Tableau mobile is a mobile application.

208 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Tableau can handle millions of rows of data with ease. Different types of visualization can
be created with a large amount of data without impacting the performance of the
dashboards.
 Also, there is an option in Tableau where the user can make “live” to connections to
different data sources like SQL etc.

Keywords

 Visualization helps people to understand things clearly and have a better insight into the
topic.
 Visualization helps to predict the future easily and take better decisions
 Data of large volumes can also be spotted easily and quickly
 Data visualization conveys the information in a universal manner
 It makes it simple to share ideas with others

Self-assessment questions

1. How do you identify a continuous field in Tableau?

A. It is identified by a blue pill in the visualization
B. It is identified by a green pill in a visualization
C. It is preceded by a # symbol in the data window
D. When added to the visualization, it produces distinct values

2. How do you identify a discrete field in Tableau?

A. It is identified by a blue pill in the visualization
B. It is identified by a green pill in a visualization
C. It is preceded by a # symbol in the data window
D. When added to the visualization, it produces distinct values

3.The icon associated with the field that has been grouped is a _____________
A. Paper Clip
B. Set
C. Hash
D. Equal To

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 209

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

4. What are the file extensions in Tableau?

A. Tableau Bookmark (.tdm)
B. Tableau Map Source (.tms)
C. Tableau Preferences (.tps)
D. All of the above

5. How to view underlying SQL Queries in Tableau?

A. Create a Performance Recording
B. Reviewing the Tableau Desktop Logs
C. Both A and B
D. None

6. Tableau was introduced in the year of

A. 2000
B. 2002
C. 2003
D. 2005

7. What different products Tableau provide?

A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

8. ____________is an online platform that allows you to host and manage Tableau data sources.
A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

9. ________________helps to create reports, dashboards, and stories using different charts and
graphs.

A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

210 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

10. ______________does not need to connect to any source, but it can read reports built on top of
any and all of the listed data sources that Tableau Supports.

A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

11. Your data is out in the public once your report is published on to the ___________.

A. Tableau Public Server

B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

12. ___________is for somebody that only needs to monitor the analytics
A. Tableau Public Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

13. For creating variable size bins we use ____________

A. Sets
B. Groups
C. Calculated fields
D. Table Calculations

14. For writing own calculation we use________

A. Sets
B. Groups
C. Calculated fields
D. Table Calculations

15. For writing separation of two categories we use________

A. Sets
B. Dimensions
C. Show me
D. Table Calculations

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 211

 Unit 12: Analytical Topic/Capability

Answers for Assessment

1 b 2 a 3 a 4 d 5 c 6 c 7 d 8a

9 b 10 c 11 a 12 c 13 c 14 c 15 a

Review Questions
 What makes data visualization good?
 How can you visualize more than three dimensions in a single chart?
 Is Tableau good for data visualization?
 What are the strengths and limitations of Tableau when it comes to data visualization?
 What Are the Data Types Supported in Tableau?
 How Will You Understand Dimensions and Measures?
 What is Meant by 'discrete' and 'continuous' in Tableau?

Further Readings
"Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring” by Stephen Few
"Beautiful Visualization, Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts by Julie Steele, Noah
Iliinsky"

Web Links
https://www.tableau.com/
https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/

212 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

Unit 13: Interactive Dashboard Tableau

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
13.1 What is Data Visualization?
13.2 Identify the Purpose of the Visualization
13.3 What are the common challenges?
13.4 Interactive Representation of Data
13.5 What are its major processes?
13.6 What are the best tools?
13.7 What is the purpose of Big-Data Visualization tools?
13.8 Top 5 Data Visualization Techniques and Strategies
13.9 Tableau Pareto Chart
13.10 Mapping Concepts in Tableau:
Summary
Keywords
Self Assessment
Answers for Self Assessment
Review Questions

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand concept of Advance tableau graphs.
• install software for data visualization.
• Understand Show me tab of tableau.
• Understand concept of green and yellow pills (discrete data and continuous data).

Introduction
Tableau Desktop is a part of the tableau suite for Business Intelligence used for data analytics and
visualization. It’s a visual analytics solution that allows the user to explore complex datasets from
varied sources and perform various operations to drive valuable insights out of them.
On Tableau Desktop, even a non-programmer can connect with a myriad of data sources and
transform the data into dashboards. These dashboards can then be shared with multiple users
through Tableau Server to make data-driven decisions.

Advanced Charts in Tableau

Tableau is a powerful Business Intelligence tool and thus, provides a number of visualizations to
represent different business scenarios. It also features the Visualization Query Language or VIZQL
that enables you to run queries and interact with the SQL database

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 213

 Advance Data Visualisation

Tableau features more than 25 different types of visualizations in terms of charts, maps, and
graphs. From a simple bar chart to advanced stacked bar and gauge charts, tableau has it all.

13.1 What is Data Visualization?

It uses charts and graphs to visualize large amounts of complex data. Visualization provides a
quick, easy way to convey concepts and summarize and present large data in easy-to-understand
and straightforward displays, which enables readers insightful information. With the help of its
techniques, enterprises are able to see the overview of their unstructured enterprise data in a better
way.
What are its key features?

 Identify areas that need attention or improvement.

 Clarify which factors influence customer behavior.
 Decision-making Ability.
 Integration Capability.
 Predict sales volumes.

What are the best techniques?

For growing companies, it is the essential part of the business to make business strategies. They
follow various visualization techniques listed below:

Understanding the motive of the Visualization

 Know your data.
 Getting to know the structure of your data.
 Which Variables are we trying to plot?
 How x-axis and y-axis will be used for the representation.
 How different colors symbolize visualization.

13.2 Identify the Purpose of the Visualization

1. Identifying the purpose of creating a chart is necessary as this helps define the
structure of the process.

2. Select the right chart type.

3. Selecting the right type of chart is very crucial as this defines the overall functionality
of the chart.

4. Attention to Detail using colors, shapes, and sizes.

5. Choosing the correct type of color, shape, and size is essential for representing the
chart.

214 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

13.3 What are the common challenges?

Big Data is a large volume, complex dataset. So, such data cannot visualize with the traditional
method as the traditional method has many limitations.

 Perceptual Scalability: Human eyes cannot extract all relevant information from a
large volume of data. Even sometimes desktop screen has its limitations if the dataset
is large. Too many visualizations are not always possible to fit on a single screen.
 Real-time Scalability: It is always expected that all information should be real-time
information, but it is hardly possible as processing the dataset needs time.
 Interactive scalability: Interactive help to understand what is inside the datasets, but
as big data volume increases exponentially, visualizing the datasets take a long time.
But the challenge is that sometimes the system may freeze or crash while trying to
visualize the datasets.

What are the Data Visualization techniques and strategies?

It strategy is another on the rundown. You may have the information scrubbed and the bits of
knowledge removed, yet you ought to likewise make sense of how to manage all the fortune.

Better Preparation and Investigation

Information system guesses numerous means, from examining the business sector and industry,
picking and organizing information streams — constant or heritage, inner or outer, or both, and so
on., to choosing apparatuses and hotspots for information preparing and investigation — manual
information researcher examination, front line AI calculations.

Identify Areas that need Attention.

As indicated by an Experian report, 95% of U.S. associations state that they use the data to control
business openings. Another 84 percent accept information is an essential piece of shaping a
business system. With an exponentially developing volume of data, chiefs might appear wealthy
and ought to get ready to receive liberal rewards from their increasing resources. Nonetheless,
more isn't, in every case, better.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 215

 Advance Data Visualisation

Quick Action

Managing much information can be overpowering and bring about "suffocating" if the
organizations don't settle specific difficulties before venturing into an information-driven period.

13.4 Interactive Representation of Data

The way we presented information significantly impacts information investigation and deciphers a
large amount of information in a continuous structure by using complex arrangements of numerical
or verifiable figures. With the vast surges of information promptly accessible to the present
organizations across ventures, the test lies in information understanding, essential to the individual
association, just as its points, objectives, and long-term targets. Best use of Data The information is
essential for the accompanied performance of your business and to help you get the most
imaginable incentive. From this, I attempted and tried methods for dissecting and introducing
crucial data.

What are the key components?

Its component helps to give more details and alternative views to look after the data. Listed below
are the components of it.

Line Charts
Line Charts involves Creating a graph in which data is represented as a line or a set of data points
joined by a line.

Area chart
Area chart structure is a filled-in area that requires at least two groups of data along an axis.

216 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

Pie Charts
Pie charts represent a graph in the shape of a circle. The whole chart is divided into subparts, which
look like a sliced pie.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 217

 Advance Data Visualisation

Donut Chart
Doughnut Charts are pie charts that do not contain any data inside the circle.

Drill Down Pie charts

Drill down Pie charts are used for representing detailed description for a particular category.

Bar Charts

A bar chart is the type of chart in which data is represented in vertical series and used to compare
trends over time.

218 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

Stacked Bar
In a stacked bar chart, parts of the data are adjacent to each bar and display a total amount, broken
down into sub-amounts.

Gauges
The gauge (gauge) component renders graphical representations of data.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 219

 Advance Data Visualisation

Solid Gauge
Creates a gauge that indicates its metric value along a 180-degree arc.

Activity Gauge
Creates a gauge that shows the development of a task. The inner rectangle shows the current level
of a measure against the ranges marked on an outer rectangle.

Heat and Treemaps

Heatmaps are useful for presenting variation across different variables, revealing any patterns,
displaying whether any variables are related to each other, and identifying if any associations exist
in-between them

220 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

Treemap with Levels

The treemap component displays quantitative hierarchical data across two dimensions, represented
visually by size and color. Treemaps use a shape called a node to reference the data in the

hierarchy.
Scatter and Bubble Charts
Creates a chart in which the position and size of bubbles represent data. Use to show similarities
among types of values, mainly when you have multiple data objects, and you require to see the
general relations.

Combinations
Creates a graph that uses various kinds of data labels (bars, lines, or areas) to represent different
sets of data items.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 221

 Advance Data Visualisation

3D Charts
Creating a 3D chart helps rotate and view a chart from different angles, which supports in
representing data.

3D Column
A 3D chart of type columns will draw each column as a cuboid and create a 3D effect
.

13.5 What are its major processes?

Each and every data has its particular need to illustrate data. Listed below are the stages and
process flow for it.

Acquire
Obtaining the correct data type is a crucial part as the data can be collected from various sources
and can be unstructured.

Parse
Provide some structure for the data's meaning by restructuring the received data into different
categories, which helps better visualize and understand data.

Filter
Filtering out the data that cannot serve the purpose is essential as filtering out will remove the
unnecessary data, further enhancing the chart visualization.

222 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

Mining
Building charts from statistics in a way that scientific context is discrete. It helps viewers seek
insights that cannot be gained from raw data or statistics.

Represent
One of the most significant challenges for users is deciding which chart suites best and represents
the right information. The data exploration capability is necessary to statisticians as this reduces the
need for duplicated sampling to determine which data is relevant for each model.

Refine
Refining and Improving the essential representation helps in user engagement.

Interact

Add methods for handling the data or managing what features are visible.

13.6 What are the best tools?

Nowadays, there are many tools. Some of them are:

 Google Chart: Google Chart is one of the easiest tools for visualization. With the help
of google charts, you can analyze small datasets to complex unstructured datasets.
We can implement simple charts as well as complex tree diagrams. Google Chart is
available cross-platform as well.
 Tableau: The tableau desktop is a very easy-to-use its tool. Two more versions are
available of Tableau. One is "Tableau Server," and the other is cloud-based "Tableau
Online." Here we can perform visualization operations by applying drag and drop
methods for creating visual diagrams. In Tableau, we can create dashboards very
efficiently.
 Microsoft Power BI: This tool is mainly used for business analysis. Microsoft Power
BI can be run from desktops, smartphones, and even tablets. This tool also provides
analysis results very quickly.
 D3: D3 is one of the best tools. D3.js is an open-source visualization tool.
 Datawrapper: Data wrapper is a simple tool. Even non-technical persons can use the
Datawrapper tool. Data representation in a table format or responsive graphs like a
bar chart, line chart, or map draws quickly in the Datawrapper.
 Databox: Databox is another visualization tool. It is an open-source tool. The whole
data set can store in one location in the Databox tool. Then discover the insight data
and perform visualization operations. In dashboard can view or match data from
different datasets.

Many more tools are available per requirements and based on datasets, and visualization tools are
chosen.

13.7 What is the purpose of Big-Data Visualization tools?

Its tools' purpose is to read complex unstructured data with the help of visual diagrams to benefit
our business. One relevant example is the covid 19 affected report. That is a large dataset. Only data
scientists can read and find out the pattern and predict the percentage of affected patients.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 223

 Advance Data Visualisation

Approach to Visualize Big Data

Big data is unstructured, and such data can be very easily stored on a NoSql database like
MongoDB or relevant information needed to extract from the data and stored on a SQL database.
Then from that dataset, with the help of its tools, some charts like bar charts, pie charts, etc., need to
plot. Then from those visual chart analyses can be performed.

13.8 Top 5 Data Visualization Techniques and Strategies

This section will list 5 basic techniques and strategies you should know to manage and analyze a
large amount of data in a simple manner. So, let's get started!

Design your Visualization keeping the Audience in Mind

When it's all said and done, the World Wide Web and Information Technology as an idea are in
their early stages – and information perception is a significantly more active part of advanced
development. So, the absolute most cultivated business people and officials think that it is hard to
process more than a pie diagram, bar chart, or a neatly introduced visual, nor do they have the
opportunity to dig profound into information. Hence, guaranteeing that your substance is both
moving and custom-fitted to your crowd is one of the most basic information perception methods
possible. A few partners inside your association or customers and accomplices content with a
straightforward pie diagram. However, others are looking to you to dig further into the bits of
knowledge you've assembled, and this is one of the best strategies. For the most significant effect
and achievement, you ought to consistently examine those you're introducing. Before a gathering,
and ordering your report to guarantee your visuals and level of detail address their issues
precisely.

Have Clear Goals for the Visualization Strategy

 Like any business-based interest, from the brand narrating directly through to
computerized selling in the past – with the representation of your information, your
endeavors are convincing as the methodology behind them.
 To structure your perception endeavors, make a legitimate story, and drill down into
the bits of knowledge that issue the most. It's critical to set a distinct arrangement of
points, targets, and objectives preceding the structure of your administration reports,
diagrams, outlines, and extra visuals.
 By building up your focuses on a particular crusade of interest. You ought to plunk
down in a synergistic situation with others. Put resources into the extend and Define
your endpoints regardless of the type of information that helps you reach them.
 One of the advanced Data Visualization techniques to direct your endeavors is by
utilizing a foreordained arrangement of applicable KPIs for your undertaking, efforts,
or continuous business endeavors and utilizing these bits of knowledge to create your
perceptions.

Number charts
 Real-time number diagrams are exceptionally viable when you're looking to
grandstand a quick and intuitive review of a specific key presentation marker,
regardless of whether it's a business KPI, site appearances, commitment levels, or a
level of advancement.
Maps
 Most importantly, maps look incredible, which implies they move commitment in an
executive gathering or introduction. Besides, a guide is a snappy, simple, and

224 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

absorbable approach to introducing vast or complex geological data arrangements for

various purposes.
Pie charts
 While pie graphs have received a terrible rep lately, we feel that they structure a
valuable perception device. That presents essential measurements in a simple-to-
follow group. Pie diagrams are especially useful while showing the relative
arrangement of a specific variable over a static period. What's more, pie diagrams
make an essential thing of your representation.
Gauge Charts
 This model shows the working cost proportion, firmly identified with the benefit and
misfortune territory of your fund division's critical exercises, and this shading-coded
wellbeing measure causes you to access the data you need, even at a quick look.
 Gauge charts can be successfully utilized with a solitary worth or information point.
Regardless of whether they're being used in money-related or official dashboard
reports to show progress against key execution markers. Check outlines are an
astounding guide to feature a quick pattern sign.
Colors Matter
 The clearest of our chose information representation procedures. Selecting the right
shading plan for your presentational resources is one of the best Techniques and
Strategies. That will help improve your endeavors fundamentally.
 The standards of shading hypothesis will notably affect the general accomplishment
of your perception model. You ought to consistently attempt to keep your shading
plan steady through your information perceptions, utilizing clear differentiation. To
recognize components (for example, positive patterns in green and negative trends in
red).
 As a guide, individuals utilize yellow as it can be perceived and deciphered easily.

Keep visualizations dashboards Simple and appropriate

 To assist you with taking care of your enormous information and separate it. For the
most engaged, legitimate, and absorbable representations conceivable, here are some
essential hints:
 Find which information is accessible to you and your association, conclude which is
the most significant, and mark each part of data obviously. To make it simple to
isolate, break down, and interpret.
 Guarantee that the entirety of your partners, staff, and colleagues comprehend where
your information originates from and how to get to it. To guarantee the smooth
treatment of bits of knowledge across offices.
 Keep your information ensured and your information taking care of frameworks
basic, absorbable, and refreshed. To make the representation procedure as direct and
natural as humanly conceivable.
 Guarantee that you use business dashboards that present your most significant bits of
knowledge in a straightforward. To-get to deep space – quickening the perception
procedure while likewise crushing the most considerable incentive from your data.
Tell a Data Story
 Like substance showcasing, when you're introducing your information in a visual
configuration. With the point of conveying an important message or objective,
recounting your story draws. In your crowd and make it simple for individuals to
comprehend with negligible exertion.
 Scientific studies affirm that people, in huge, react better to an all-around recounted
story and by adopting this strategy. To your representation interests, you won't just
astonish your associates, accomplices, and customers with your reports and
introductions. However, you build your odds of passing on your most basic messages,
getting the upfront investment and reaction. As per best techniques and Strategies,
you have to make the sort of changes. That brings about long-haul development,
advancement, and achievement.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 225

 Advance Data Visualisation

 To do as such, you ought to order your data, thinking as far as an essayist. Setting up
an obvious start, center, and end, just as contention and goals. Building pressure
during your account to add the most extreme effect on your different representations.
What are the common use cases?

 Sports Analysis: Based on previous datasets with the help of visualization tools, a
winning percentage prediction is possible. Graph plotting for both teams or players is
possible, and analysis can be performed.
 Fraud Detection: Fraud detection is a famous use case of big data. With the help of
visualization tools after analyzing data, a message can be generated to others, and
they will be careful about such fraud incidents.
 Price Optimization: In any business product, price set is a significant issue with
visualizing tools and all the components used; price can be analyzed and finally
compared with market price, and then a relevant price can be set.
 Security Intelligence: Visualizing criminals' records can predict how much threat
they are to society. Each country has its security intelligence, and its task is to
visualize information and inform others about a security threat.

13.9 Tableau Pareto Chart

Named after Vilfredo Pareto, it’s a type of chart that contains both a line graph and a bar chart.
Here, the cumulative total is represented by the line graph and other data values with a bar chart in
descending order.

There is a principle developed in the year 1906 called Pareto or 80-20 rule used to check the
efficiency of your business plans. Below is a step-by-step guide for creating a Pareto chart in
tableau:

Load the Sample_Superstore or any other dataset on the Tableau Desktop software.
Add the Sub-Category and Sales dimension from the Data panels to the Columns and Rows
sections.
Select the sort option from the drop-down menu of the Sub-Category column.
A dialog box will appear where you have to select the sort order to Descending and other options
as mentioned below screenshot.

Tableau Maps

226 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

Maps have a long history and remain a staple in our daily lives—to navigate on road trips or
understand proximity of one location to another. Until recently, maps were static and printed,
which limited the potential for business use cases. With technology advancements, content on maps
and the maps themselves became digital, interactive, and more appealing as they’re incorporated in
data analysis and reporting. Seeing location data mapped and included in visualizations has both
enhanced understanding by more audiences and offered a valuable, new context. Several best-in-
class interactive maps exist, but these ten notable examples cover different topics, span the globe,
and demonstrate the power of location data when paired with business intelligence.
Here in tableau, we have different types of maps, which are:

Tableau Proportional symbol maps

Tableau Choropleth maps (filled maps)
Tableau Point distribution maps
Tableau Heatmaps (density maps)
Tableau Flow maps (path maps)
Tableau Spider maps (origin-destination maps)

13.10 Mapping Concepts in Tableau:

It is very difficult to understand the insights of data even though the data is clearly processed and
arranged in tables. To tackle this issue or to have a clear understanding of data you must use
“Maps” which have occupied an important role in data visualization. We have multiple maps
available in the table which plays a unique role in visualizing the data.

There may be several reasons to use maps or plot your data on the map. Maybe you have some
location data or do you think plotting data on a map could help you in making your data pop?
These two reasons are good enough to create a map visualization. In Tableau each type of map
comes with unique features to cater to the specific needs of data mapping requirements.

Tableau maps answer your spatial questions and need to understand the trends in the data.

But you may have popped up with the question “what is the spatial question”?

The below-mentioned list is some of the spatial questions:

 Which state has the highest literacy rate in India?

 Which regions in the U.S. have the highest obesity rates?

 Where did storms move over a period of time?

 Which metro station is highly crowded with people in my city?

 Which state has more farmer’s markets in the U.S?

These are some of the Spatial questions, and the map is the best possible way to answer all your
questions.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 227

 Advance Data Visualisation

Circumstances to use maps:

Till now we have come to know that if you have spatial question maps would be the perfect way to
answer your questions but there may be some exceptions in which you can answer the spatial
questions better with other types of charts instead of maps.

Let’s consider one of the spatial questions we have asked above.

Take, for example, the last question from the list above: Which state has more farmers markets in
the U.S?

Let us assume that you have entire data about the number of farmers markets across the U.S and
you wish to know which state has the highest number of farmer markets. The obvious thing that
would come to your mind is “Maps” to visualize this data. If you plot the given data related to the
US farmers market you will get an image like below.

Summary
 While data visualization often conjures thoughts of business intelligence with button-
down analysts, it’s usually a lot more creative and colorful than you might think.
 There are many wide-ranging applications from business dashboards to public health
visualizations to pop culture trend breakdowns.
 Great and beautiful data visualization requires graphic design and storytelling skills in
addition to great analysis skills.
 Data visualization is the graphical representation of different pieces of information or
data, using visual elements such as charts, graphs, or maps

Keywords
 Tableau is a powerful data visualization tool that helps you in simplifying the data
visualization process.
 Tableau uses a different type of charts which includes Bar Chart, Line Chart, Pie Chart,
Maps, Scatter Plot, Gantt Chart, Bubble Chart, etc. Each Chart is unique and preferable for
specific purposes.
 Maps are among the few frequently used charts in Tableau. Let's get to know more about
Maps.

Self Assessment
1. 1 dimension and 1 measure required in which type of graph

228 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

A. Heat map
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

2. Geo dimension required in which type of graph

A. Heat map
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

3. Geo dimension required in which type of graph

A. Symbol maps
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Both A and C

4. 2 to 4 measures s required in which type of graph

A. Heat map
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

5.Dimensions contain___________ values

A. Qualitative
B. Quantitative
C. Both
D. None of these

6.Measures contain___________ values

A. Qualitative
B. Quantitative
C. Both
D. None of these

7.Individually separate and distinct is

A. Continuous data
B. Discrete data
C. Random Data
D. None of these
8.___________ data means "forming an unbroken whole, without interruption"

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 229

 Advance Data Visualisation

A. Continuous data
B. Discrete data
C. Random Data
D. None of these

9. Green pills in tableau means

A. Continuous data
B. Discrete data
C. Random Data
D. None of these

10. Blue pills in tableau means

A. Continuous data
B. Discrete data
C. Random Data
D. None of these

11.Creating graph options are available in

A. Measures
B. Dimensions
C. Show me
D. All of these

12. ________________helps to create reports, dashboards, and stories using different charts and
graphs.
A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

13. ______________does not need to connect to any source, but it can read reports built on top of
any and all of the listed data sources that Tableau Supports.
A. Tableau Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

14. Your data is out in the public once your report is published on to the ___________.
A. Tableau Public Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

230 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Unit 13: Interactive Dashboards Tableau

15. ___________is for somebody that only needs to monitor the analytics
A. Tableau Public Server
B. Tableau Desktop
C. Tableau Reader
D. All of these

Answers for Self Assessment

1 d 2 c 3 d 4 b 5 a 6 b 7 b 8 a

9 a 10 b 11 c 12 b 13 c 14 a 15 c

Review Questions
 Explain any 5 types of charts available in Tableau?
 What is the difference between dual axis and blended axis in Tableau?
 What is process to create scatter plot in Tableau?
 Explain process to create maps in tableau using geographical data?
 Explain difference between green and blue pills description?

Further Readings
"Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring” by Stephen Few
"Beautiful Visualization, Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts by Julie Steele, Noah
Iliinsky"

Web Links
https://www.tableau.com/
https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 231

Dr. Pritpal Singh, Lovely Professional University Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
14.1 Different types of maps.
14.2 Building a Simple Tableau Custom Map
14.3 Building Different Types of Tableau Custom Maps
14.4 Point Distribution Tableau Custom Maps
Summary
Keywords
Self-Assessment
Answers for Self Assessment
Review Questions

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand concept of Tableau Maps.
• define geographical role.
• Understand Show me tab of tableau.
• Understand concept of different symbol maps.

Introduction
Understanding the Key Features of Tableau
Some of the key features of Tableau are as follows:
Data Sources: Tableau offers seamless integration with a large number of widely used platforms for
data storage such as File Systems like Microsoft Excel, CSV, etc., Relational Databases like Microsoft
SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2, etc., Cloud-based Systems such as Google Big Query, Windows
Azure, etc., or other sources such as ODBC/JDBC.
Attractive Visualizations: Tableau gives users the ability to create different types of data
visualizations. For example, users can easily create the simplest visualizations such as a Pie Chart
or Bar Chart or some of the most complex visualizations such as Bullet Chart, Gantt Chart, Boxplot,
etc. Tableau also comes with information on geographical data such as Countries, Cities, Postal
Codes, etc. that allows users to build visualizations using informative maps.
Wildcard Union and Cross-Data Join: Users have the ability to perform Cross-Data Join and Union
in Tableau. This helps in removing the barriers and time-consuming workarounds that were
required due to the massive use of numerous data sources.
Cross-Data Source Filtering: For data with common dimensions, Tableau gives users the ability to
perform the filter operation across multiple data sources at the same time. This also results in all
necessary edits or changes being made to all worksheets with the same data sources using the same
set of filters automatically.
Mobile Dashboards: Tableau allows users to format all their Reports and Dashboards in such a
manner that it is compatible with mobile devices as well. It lets users create custom mobile layouts
for their Reports or Dashboard specific to their device.

232 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Maps are one of the best ways to represent the data in Tableau. Data visualizations using maps look
very attractive and appealing. Map charts suites better when you want to show the demographic
data such as Population census, income, housing, household rates, etc. Maps give an easy-to-infer
advantage over the other charts available in Tableau and are highly interactive when you want to
plot demographic or geographical data on a plot.

14.1 Different types of maps.

Tableau Proportional symbol maps
Tableau Choropleth maps (filled maps)
Tableau Point distribution maps
Tableau Heatmaps (density maps)
Tableau Flow maps (path maps)
Tableau Spider maps (origin-destination maps)

14.2 Building a Simple Tableau Custom Map

To build a Simple Tableau Custom Map, you need a data source, like Sample-Superstore data,
consisting of location data, location names, latitude, longitude coordinates. Without geographical
coordinates, you can’t prepare map visualization in Tableau. A simple Tableau Custom Map can be
created by implementing the following steps:

 Step 1: Open Tableau Desktop, connect to the Sample-Superstore data source, and the
worksheet will open in front of your screen.

 Step 2: Move your cursor to the Location option, select the Country & State parameter
under it, drag both of them to the worksheet.
 Step 3: Right-click over the State and select the Dimension from the drop-down list.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 233

 Unit 14:
Unit 7: Building Sharing
View yourMap
Advance Dashboard
Option

 Step 4: Drag the Sales table to the Mark sheet as shown below.

Step 5: Move your cursor to the Maps tab and choose Map Layers from the drop-down list.

 Step 6: On the Map Layers pane, unselect the Country/Region Names and
select Normal from the drop-down list of style.

234 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

This is how you can design simple Tableau Custom Maps to perform a basic geographical analysis
of your data.

Creating a Polygon Tableau Custom Map

A simple Polygon or Filled Tableau Custom Map helps you understand the basic mapping concepts
in Tableau. The following steps can be implemented to create a Polygon Tableau Custom Map:

 Step 1: Drag the State parameter from the Data pane to the worksheet.

 Step 2: Move your cursor to the Marks pane, choose the Map option from the drop-down
list.

 Step 3: The worksheet will show the following visualization of the map.

 Step 4: Select the Sales parameter from the Data pane and place it over the map.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 235

 Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

You can see the Number of Sales from the polygons in the updated map.

14.3 Building Different Types of Tableau Custom Maps

Tableau Desktop enables you to design the following types of maps depending upon your business
needs and visualization requirements. The different kind of custom maps that can be created on
Tableau are as follows:

 Choropleth or Filled Tableau Custom Maps

 Flow or Path Tableau Custom Maps
 Proportional Symbol Tableau Custom Maps
 Point Distribution Tableau Custom Maps
 Heat or Density Tableau Custom Maps
 Spider or Origin-Destination Tableau Custom Maps

1) Choropleth or Filled Tableau Custom Maps

Choropleth Maps, also known as Filled Maps, are perfect to represent ratio and aggregated data.
Users can use ratio or aggregated data for polygons that can be related to locations, such as
countries, regions, states, or any area.

For simplicity, download Tableau Example Workbook and implement the following steps to show
ratio or combined data in Tableau Desktop:

 Step 1: Go to Worksheet Tab and select the New Worksheet from the drop-down list or
press CTRL+M. A New Sheet will open.

236 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 2: Under the State, Country dimension, select the State option and move to the sheet.

 Step 3: Now select the Datapoint of Alaska, United States.

 Step 4: Click over it and choose the Exclude option.
 Step 5: Repeat the same steps for Hawaii.

You’ll see a better version of the map.

 Step 6: Click on the plus symbol of State to get details of all countries, as shown below.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 237

 Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

 Step 7: Place your cursor over Percent- 2012 and drop it over the color option.

 Step 8: To get the obesity percentage range, select the Edit Colors option from
the Color icon.
 Step 9: Select the Purple color and click Apply.

 Step 10: Open the Effect option from the Color icon.
 Step 11: Select the None option from the Border list.

238 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

The output of the Choropleth will appear in front of your screen.

 Step 12: In the above map, Tableau selected the default color distribution. However, if you
want to change it, go to the Edit Color menu again. Mark the Stepped color and enter 8.
Click on the Apply button and close it.

 Step 13: Repeat the same steps, but this time select 5.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 239

 Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

 Step 14: The map view for 4 Stepped Color might look like this.

By selecting 4 instead of 5, you will understand that obesity rates are higher in the South. However,
prior maps were showing even distribution of colors or obesity rates in the United States (US). All
the maps are great to show aggregate data, yet each is giving you prominent information on obesity
rates in different countries.

Similarly, if you want to plot the map for a State Level detail, remove the County from
the Marks chart. You can analyze that Texas has higher obesity rates, followed by Georgia.

2) Flow or Path Tableau Custom Maps

Tableau Business Intelligence tool allows users to determine the flow of path over time, e.g., the
path of the storm, through Flow or Path Maps. To create Flow Maps in Tableau, download Example
Workbook and implement the following steps:

240 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 1: Open the downloaded example in Tableau Desktop.

 Step 2: Open a New Worksheet.
 Step 3: Move Latitude and Longitude coordinates using the drag-and-drop method.
 Step 4: Choose the Storm Name and place it over the Details icon in the Marks pane.

 Step 5: To apply filters, select the Date from the Data pane and place it over
the Filters area.
 Step 6: Choose Year, such as 2012.
 Step 7: Click on Apply and close the screen.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 241

 Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

 Step 8: Repeat the same steps for Bhasin and select the West Pacific region.
 Step 9: Select Normal Background from the Map tab. The final map might look like this.

 Step 10: Select a Line from the Marks pane.

242 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Step 11: Drag the Date from the Data pane and place it over the Path icon. This will remove the line
due to the absence of an exact date.

 Step 12: Click on the Date parameter, select an Exact Date option.

 Step 13: Drag the Wind Speed (kt) from the Data pane and place it over the Size icon.
 Step 14: Right-click over the Wind Speed (kt) and choose the Average parameter.

 Step 15: Place Storm Name over the Colors icon to complete the Flow Map.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 243

 Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

3) Proportional Symbol Tableau Custom Maps

A Proportional Symbol Map is a great start to acquire quantitative values for individual locations.
Nevertheless, your data source should contain quantitative values, longitude and latitude
coordinates to create Proportional Symbol Maps. Download Example Workbook to learn more in
detail.

 Step 1: Download Example Workbook.

 Step 2: Open the downloaded file on Tableau Desktop.
 Step 3: Open a New Worksheet.
 Step 4: Drag Latitude and Longitude to the sheet.

 Step 5: Select the ID from the Data pane and place it over the Details icon.
 Step 6: A dialog box will appear, select Add All Members.

244 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

 Step 7: Select Magnitude^10 and place it over Size in Marks.

 Step 8: Grab the Magnitude to Color option.

 Step 9: Click on Edit Colors from the Color icon.

 Step 10: Select your preferred color, opacity (70%), and Border.
 Step 11: Click on Stepped Color and choose 8.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 245

 Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

 Step 12: Click the Reversed checkbox.

 Step 13: Click on Advanced, click Center, and enter 7.

 Step 14: Right-click over the ID and select the Sort option.
 Step 15: Choose Descending for Sort Order option.

 Step 16: Choose Fields for Sort By option and then choose Magnitude.
 Step 17: Click OK.

246 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Step 18: Select any appropriate background for your map. The final image of the map might look
like this.

14.4 Point Distribution Tableau Custom Maps

Everyone loves to spot visual clusters, and Tableau Desktop makes this process super easy through
Point Distribution Maps. But your data source should have longitude and latitude coordinates to
map visual clusters. Download the Example Workbook right now and implement the following
steps:

 Step 1: Open Tableau Desktop and select a New Worksheet.

 Step 2: Click on the Latitude dimension.
 Step 3: Select the Geographic Role.
 Step 4: Choose the Latitude parameter.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 247

 Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

 Step 5: Click on the Longitude dimension.

 Step 6: Select the Geographic role.
 Step 7: Choose the Longitude parameter.
 Step 8: Double-click over both Longitude and Latitude dimensions.

 Step 9: Click on the AVG(Longitude) and select Dimension.

 Step 10: Click on the AVG(Latitude) and select Dimension.

248 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

The map might look like something as follows:

To make it clearer, move your cursor to the Marks card.

 Step 11: Click on the Size.

 Step 12: Move the bar to the left edge.

 Step 13: Zoom the graph to get the entire picture.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 249

 Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

Maps are one of the most inherent and useful features in Tableau. The visualizations that contain
maps in Tableau look very appealing and is interactive as well. Most demographic data like
income, census based population, housing and household rates are in-built. It is also possible to use
custom geocodes to add geographic roles such as zip code, street names, etc.

Maps give an easy-to-infer advantage over the other charts that are available in Tableau. If the
available population data is consumed on the map, we can comprehend which regions are
densely/scarcely populated at a glance.

If your data set contains any kind of spatial data viz. State-wise or Country-wise data, Tableau
auto-generates the respective latitude and longitude for the spatial fields that are available in the
data set. However, the latitude and longitude fields that are auto-generated by Tableau can only be
used for generating the maps and cannot be used in any of the calculation fields or parameters of
the report. Tableau generates a map with the generated longitude and latitude by just a click of that
particular spatial field, which we will be discussing later in the blog.

Tableau provides two types of maps by default:

Symbol map
Filled map
Some of the basic scenarios that we might come across is just to view the spatial distribution of
data. Here, the coordinates of the geographic location do not play a significant role. In such cases, a
map may not even be the right choice of visualization of the data.

Summary
 Geographic Analysis of business and customer data is essential for revenue growth.
 By visualizing data on a map, businesses can answer numerous questions such as which
regions bring more sales, which countries are more profitable, which countries require
more Marketing efforts, etc.
 All in all, the mapping features of Tableau Desktop gives business the ability to get all the
answers to spatial questions.
 Tableau is a popular Business Intelligence and Data Analytics tool that was developed to
help organizational decision-makers visualize, analyze and understand complex business
data and make data-driven decisions.

250 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

Keywords
 There are many reasons to put your data on a map. Perhaps you have some location data
in your data source? Or maybe you think a map could really make your data pop? Both of
those are good enough reasons to create a map visualization, but it’s important to keep in
mind that maps, like any other type of visualization, serve a particular purpose: they
answer spatial questions.
 You make a map in Tableau because you have a spatial question, and you need to use a
map to understand the trends or patterns in your data.
 But what is a spatial question? Some examples might be:
 Which state has the most farmers markets?
 Where are the regions in the U.S. with the high obesity rates?

Self-Assessment
1. Default Aggregation Used for Tree Map
A. Sum
B. Avg
C. Count
D. Countd

2. What Are the File Extensions In Tableau?

A. Tableau Workbook (.twb)

B. Tableau Packaged Workbook (.twbx)
C. Tableau Data Source(.tds)
D. All of the above

3. What Type of Join Is Used in Blending?

A. Right join
B. Left join
C. Full join
D. Inner join

4.The _________keyword returns all records from the right table (table2), and the matching records
from the left table (table1).

A. Right join
B. Left join
C. Full join
D. Inner join

5.The ______keyword returns all records from the left table (table1), and the matching records from
the right table (table2).

A. Right join

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 251

 Unit 14: Sharing your Dashboard

B. Left join
C. Full join
D. Inner join

6.____________returns all the rows from both joined tables, whether they have a matching row or
not.

A. Right join
B. Left join
C. Full join
D. Inner join

7. The INNER JOIN keyword selects records that have matching values in both tables.

A. Right join
B. Left join
C. Full join
D. Inner join

8.Power BI Is A Product Of

A. Oracle
B. Facebook
C. Microsoft
D. SAP

9.What Are The Components Of A Dashboard?

A. Horizontal
B. Vertical
C. Image Extract
D. All of the above

10. How Many Maximum Tables Can You Join In Tableau?

A. 2
B. 8
C. 16
D. 32

11. For creating variable size bins we use ______

A. Sets
B. Groups
C. Calculated fields
D. Table

252 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

Advance Data Visualisation

12. For differentiating two dimensions we use

A. Sets
B. Measures
C. Fields
D. Table

13. Geo dimension required in which type of graph

A. Heat
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

14. Geo dimension required in which type of graph

A. Symbol maps
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Both A and C

15. 2 to 4 measures s required in which type of graph

A. Heat map
B. Scatter plot
C. Maps
D. Text chart

Answers for Self Assessment

1 A 2 D 3 B 4 A 5 B 6 C 7 D 8 C

9D 10 D 11 C 12 A 13 C 14 D 15 B

Review Questions
 What are the map types in Tableau?
 Which is the easiest way to create a map on Tableau?
 What are the options for maps in Tableau?
 How to define geographical role in Tableau maps?
 What are advantages of Tableau maps?

Further Readings

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 253

 Unit 14:
Unit 7: Building Sharing
View yourMap
Advance Dashboard
Option

"Information Dashboard Design: Displaying Data for At-a-glance Monitoring” by Stephen Few
"Beautiful Visualization, Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts by Julie Steele, Noah
Iliinsky"

Web Links
https://www.tableau.com/
https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/

254 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
Jalandhar-Delhi G.T. Road (NH-1)
Phagwara, Punjab (India)-144411
For Enquiry: +91-1824-521360
Fax.: +91-1824-506111
Email: [email protected]