Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2. Introduction to Tableau
“We help people see and understand data.”
—Tableau Software mission statement
Tableau software helps people communicate data through an innovation called VizQL, a
visual query language that converts drag-and-drop actions into data queries, allowing users to
quickly find and share insights in their data. The version of Tableau available at the time of
writing is Tableau 8.
The goal of this chapter is to help you understand the different types of Tableau software, the
basic user interface, how Tableau deals with data, and how data can be visualized in a variety
of different ways. If you are already an intermediate Tableau user, you may want to skip this
chapter and move on to
Chapter 3
.
Using Tableau
With Tableau, “data workers” first connect to data stored in files, cubes, databases, ware-
houses, Hadoop technologies, and even some cloud sources like Google Analytics. They
then interact with the Tableau user interface to simultaneously query the data and view the
results in charts, graphs, and maps that can be arranged together on dashboards. When it's
time to communicate key insights, there are a variety of options depending on the product
being used, from sending files to embedding interactive visualizations online to sharing via
social media.
Tableau facilitates the data discovery process (finding insights in data) as well as the data
communication process (creating explanatory graphics, exploratory dashboards, and data
storytelling) with no programming required.
My Tableau Story
The first time I encountered Tableau, I was researching data visualization tools and methods
because I recognized a huge gap between what I could do with the tools at my disposal and
what I wanted to do. It was 2011, and I had come to accept that sharing richly interactive
