Introduction to Tableau

Introduction

This tableau introduction section covers a brief introduction to the tableau software. Tableau is a robust data visualization software that can be used to handle large-scale data. It can connect to various data sources for importing data, like Amazon Redshift, Hadoop, and Google BigQuery, among others.

The key advantage of using Tableau for big data is its ability to handle large volumes of data without affecting performance. With the help of Tableau's optimized data engine, we can perform querying and aggregating large datasets in a relatively short time. This enables users to analyze vast amounts of data in real-time, without the need for lengthy processing times. Tableau provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, which can be used to create interactive and engaging visualizations

Tableau has built different products to gain business intelligence and these products are,

• Tableau Desktop is a tool that can be installed locally and can be used to visualize structured data in various forms and create stunning graphs, and reports in a matter of minutes. There is a personal and professional in this software where the professional version provides access to multiple data types publishing the insights created from data.
• Tableau Server is an online data visualization and business intelligence application that provides browser-based visualizations that are easy to collaborate and share. It is usually used by administrators for managing licenses and performances.
• Tableau Online is a flexible cloud-based solution that can be used to create and share data visualizations, interactive dashboards, and data reports. This is very secure as it fulfills the EU-US Privacy Shield standards, Service Organization Control (SOC) 2, Sarbanes Oxley, and can scale up dynamically to the demand of resources.
• Tableau Public is the only analytics-free software provided by this company. Even though this software doesn't have all the features like previous software, we can create amazing visualizations and share them.
• Tableau Prep is a tool that is used in the process of setting up data pipelines for managers and analysts, streamlining the scheduling and tracking of these pipelines throughout an organization.
• Tableau Mobile can be used from Android or `IOS mobiles to monitor the dashboards and reports on data.
• Tableau CRM can be used to provide AI-driven insights on data. This platform provides very clean and specific insights using integrations of artificial intelligence.
• Tableau Reader is another free software that can be used to view visualizations created using Tableau public or desktop. This can be used to view shared works.

Why Use Tableau?

The advantages of Tableau have been discussed in the Tableau introduction part and now let us see the features provided by Tableau that help to achieve business insights into data. The following features of Tableau make it worth using for business analytics,

• We can import data from different data sources including files like spreadsheets, relational database services, cloud systems like Google BigQuery, and also using the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface.
• Tableau provides an interactive dashboard through which we can explore our data in real-time with multiple filters and queries.
• We can combine data from multiple sources through the tableau data blending feature and analyze, and visualize the data.
• We can easily create charts, and graphs to visualize data by using the drag-and-drop feature of the tableau. We can also customize the graphs according to our needs and requirements.
• Interactive visualizations created by Tableau can help professionals to collaborate easily with stakeholders, and it becomes easier to interpret and analyze the data for better decision-making.
• Tableau also provides services like forecasting, trend analysis, and clustering to get a deeper exploration of data.

Tableau has also been named a leader in the field of discovery of business insights and data visualization in the research report, Data Visualization and Discovery, and Tableau has also included augmented analytics and automated insights into their application for faster insights.

Values in Tableau

Values in Tableau refer to the data points that are used to create visualizations. These values can be either discrete or continuous and can be of a quantitative or qualitative nature.

In Tableau, as discussed in the Tableau introduction, visualizations are created using the values displayed on the rows and columns of a view. The values can be aggregated using functions such as sum, average, and count to generate more complex visualizations such as bar charts, scatter plots, and heat maps`.

Moreover, Tableau allows users to manipulate values using various built-in calculations and functions. This enables users to perform mathematical operations, create custom fields, and transform data to generate more insightful and meaningful visualizations.

Values can be classified under the following major two types,

Dimensions

Dimensional values are discrete or categorical values that will give information to a specific group of data and will not change over time. Dimension values are used in Tableau to group, sort, and filter data. We can also build and interact with visualizations based on these dimensions' data using features of the tableau.

Measures

Measures are continuous or numeric values and can change concerning time. These values can be processed using mathematical formulas. We can perform operations like comparisons and aggregations like sum, average, maximum, etc.. to create charts and graphs. We can use measures to find values like total income over a region.

Advantages of Tableau

Some of the tableau's advantages are already discussed in the tableau introduction and now let us understand some more advantages of the tableau.

Quick calculation

Tableau can perform data processing and visualization quickly and efficiently using its data engine as it is designed to handle large datasets.

Interactive dashboards

Tableau provides interactive dashboards which can be used to explore and analyze data in real-time. This is being used to identify patterns in data by analysts. We can also share the visualizations and dashboard with stakeholders for easier collaboration. Tableau also provides a mobile application that can be used to access visualizations and dashboards anytime.

No manual calculation

There is no need for any manual calculation in Tableau. Tableau provides a user-friendly, flexible interface that can be used for calculating any information from data. Measures are used for calculation in Tableau, and we can also apply various filters to these calculations.

A large amount of data

Tableau specializes in handling a large amount of data and can scale according to the demand for resources to analyze and visualize data. Tableau supports a variety of data types and can also perform advanced analytics like statistical analysis, and geospatial analysis using a large amount of data.

Disadvantages of Tableau

High Cost

Tableau is not free software and a proper license must be brought from the tableau organization to use the data visualization tool. This can be costly and harder to afford for a small organization or a single individual.

Static and Single-Value Parameters

The parameter features in Tableau are designed to select a single static value and must be manually updated every time the underlying data changes. This means that if the data being analyzed changes frequently, the parameters will need to be updated frequently as well. While parameters can be useful for certain types of analysis, this limitation can make them less useful for dynamic or rapidly-changing data.

Limited Data Preprocessing

Tableau provides very little concerns to data preprocessing and can only be used for data visualization and attaining business intelligence. If a dataset without proper preprocessing is uploaded to the tableau, we may get wrong insights which could potentially affect the business. Tableau also doesn't provide any support for unstructured data.

Visualizations in Tableau

Tableau can be used to analyze data as discussed in the tableau introduction section and can also be used to create interactive and meaningful visualizations that can help identify trends and patterns in their data. A wide range of visualizations, from simple bar charts and line graphs to complex heat maps and geospatial visualizations, can be created using Tableau.

Tableau allows dynamic visualizations, which means users can scale their data visualizations as their data increases. As more dare is being added to the data sources, we can easily update the visualizations to include the new data, without having to recreate their visualizations from scratch.

We can also customize our visualizations using Tableau's customization feature which helps users to choose from a variety of chart types, colors, and styles to create visualizations that could be used for a specific need. Some of the major charts used for data visualization in the tableau are,

• Size of different categories can be compared using Bar charts.
• The increment or decrement of a specific attribute over time can be visualized with Line charts.
• Multiple attributes can be compared with Area charts.
• The relationship between attributes can be visualized using Scatter plots.
• The density or spread of data can be visualized using Heat maps in a 2D space.
• Gantt charts, which are used in software development to show project timelines can also be created.