The resulting dataset can be stored as a CSV file or a Tableau Extract (traditional TDE files as well as new hyper extracts are supported) or even published to your organization’s Tableau Server or Tableau Online. Once the data flow is defined and the data is prepared for the analysis, we can execute the flow and Tableau Prep will generate the output data. We can choose among several aggregation functions like sum, maximum, minimum, count, etc. We can write our own calculations using any of the fields in the dataset and choosing between a great set of functions.Īnother functionality available in Tableau Prep is the possibility of creating aggregations using the ‘Aggregate Data’ step. Tableau Prep also allows users to enhance their data by creating new calculated fields that were not present in the original dataset. We´ll go into this in detail in the use case we´re presenting in the paragraph below. In Tableau Prep, we can easily perform this task choosing between three possible alternatives. It is a common situation that our data contains different variations of the same values and we´ll typically want to group them under one unique category. We can quickly perform actions such as changing text to uppercase or lowercase, removing letters, numbers and punctuation sings or deleting spaces.įigure 4: Different actions to clean our text fields. We can choose between performing a ‘Custom Split’ or leaving Tableau to do all the work using the ‘Automatic Split’.Ĭleaning text fields before performing an analysis is a repetitive task that is simplified in Tableau Prep with the cleaning option. The ‘Split Values’ option allows us to create new text fields as a result of splitting an already existing one. We can create a filter based on a new calculation or choose some of the predefined options that Tableau Prep provides, like ‘Relative Dates’ in the case of date values or ‘Range of values’ if we work with numeric fields. Tableau Desktop users will recognize this feature as it presents the same intuitive behaviour it has in Desktop. It includes some functionalities that we already know from Tableau Desktop, so it is easy to give our data the shape and look we are looking for. Starting from basic but essential functionalities like removing or renaming fields, the ‘Clean Step’ is where we can find the main utilities to transform our data. At any time, you can visualize the dataset that results from the combination, which allows you to quickly identify issues.įigure 2: Union of two datasets in Tableau Prep. You´re able to easily perform joins or unions between different data sources. Going more into detail, with Tableau Prep you will be able to perform the following tasks:įollowing the simplicity to connect to disparate data sources (already in Tableau Desktop) Tableau Prep offers a series of connections to different types of files and databases, including some of the most common on-premise databases like Oracle or Ms SQL Server, as well as cloud platforms such as Amazon Redshift or Google Cloud SQL. All of this can be performed in a simple and intuitive way with the help of a graphic interface to build the data flows.įigure 1: Example of data flow in Tableau Prep. In general, it allows the user to extract data from different sources, transform that data and then output it to different type of files. Tableau Prep includes a great variety of functionalities to perform typical tasks in data cleaning. Does this ring a bell to you? Then, keep reading!īeing a great tool for data cleansing, Tableau Prep is not meant to replace the enterprise ETL but to provide business users with a set of tools that enables them to perform their data analysis independently. We are talking about users who normally spend hours cleaning the data in Excel, filtering, pivoting… users who don´t want to (or cannot) wait for the IT team to prepare the data for them but also would rather not spend too much time in such a tedious and time-consuming task like cleaning and preparing the data. This new Tableau product is a personal data preparation tool aimed to those users who need to clean the data in order to make their analysis. With the recently launched Tableau Prep they are bringing this concept of self-service data preparation to the field. For the last couple of years, Tableau has been working on a product to make analytics more accessible to business users.
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