Tableau is a popular data visualization tool developed by Tableau Software, now part of Salesforce. Tableau is designed to help users explore and understand their data by creating interactive and shareable visualizations, reports, and dashboards. It is widely used in organizations for data analysis, reporting, and decision-making.
Some features of Tableau include:
- Data connectivity: Tableau can connect to many data sources, including databases, cloud services, spreadsheets, and web data connectors. It supports popular databases like SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, and cloud data sources like Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery.
- Data preparation: Tableau offers tools for data cleaning and transformation, making it easier to work with the data. One can pivot, aggregate, filter, and reshape the data according to their needs.
- Data visualization: Tableau provides a drag-and-drop interface for creating various interactive visualizations, including bar charts, line charts, scatter plots, maps, heat maps, and more. Users can customize the appearance as well as the behavior of these visualizations to suit their needs.
- Dashboards: Users can combine multiple visualizations and interactive elements to create dynamic dashboards. Dashboards allow users to explore data and gain insights by interacting with the visualizations.
- Calculations: Tableau includes a formula language called Tableau Calculations, which allows users to create custom calculations and measures.
List of recommended resources #
For a broad overview #
Comparative Study of Big data Analytics Tools: R and Tableau
This paper, by C. Rajeswari, Dyuti Basu and Namita Maurya, does a comparative analysis of the two popular data analytics tools: Tableau and R.
Learning Tableau: A data visualization tool
This paper gives a broad understanding of the data visualization tool of Tableau particularly focusing on its use in the field of economics.
Top Data Visualization Tools for Business Professionals
This insight article by Tim Stobierski for Harvard Business School Online gives a brief overview of the top data visualization tools used by business professionals. Some notable tools include Microsoft Excel, Tableau, and Datawrapper.
For in depth understanding #
Tableau Full Course – Learn Tableau in 6 Hours | Tableau Training for Beginners | Edureka
This in-depth tutorial by edureka! gives critical understanding of the data visualization tool of Tableau for beginners.
Tableau Your Data!: Fast and Easy Visual Analysis with Tableau Software
Daniel G. Murray, in his book, provides a comprehensive guide to using Tableau for data visualization and analytics. Murray gives step-by-step guidance towards the best practices and techniques for this easily accessible data visualization tool.
Case study #
Mobile Phones and Water Point Mapping
This paper by Joy Kazadi and Elizabeth Kleemeier studies various applications which can study information regarding water points. The data collected can then be analyzed and visualized through softwares such as Tableau or SPSS.
Visualization of Plant Protection Products Properties via Tableau Desktop Software
This paper by Donyo Ganchev uses the data visualization tool of Tableau to present visualization techniques of properties of plant protection products for the purposes of safe and effective selection of pesticides towards different abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic conditions.
References #
What Is Tableau? How BI Inspires Growth
What is Tableau: Power-packed Tutorial For Beginners
