Getting started with Tableau: A step-by-step tutorial for beginners

Introduction to Tableau

Tableau is a powerful Business Intelligence tool that makes the data visualization, data analytics and reporting easy. It enables users to transform raw data into valuable insights by creating visualizations, dashboards, and reports. Following are the products of Tableau.

Tableau Desktop: It is a licensed tool where user can connect to raw data to create interactive dashboards and reports.

Tableau Public: A free platform to create the visualizations and publicly share it online.

Tableau Server: It is a communication tool which shares data connections and visualizations with the end users. It is a web-based application for hosting and managing tableau data sources, workbooks, reports and dashboards generated using Tableau Desktop

Tableau Reader: Reads Tableau workbooks but cannot create or modify existing workbooks

Tableau online: It is similar to Tableau server but here data is stored on the servers hosted in the cloud, maintained by Tableau.

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Key features of Tableau

Tableau offers many features for data analysis including:

Data sources: Tableau connects to several data sources like databases and spreadsheets. It allows users to generate reports by combining and merging different datasets.

Visualization: It allows us to create data visualizations in worksheets and dashboards

User friendly interface: It’s drag and drop interface allows users to create visualizations without prior knowledge and technical expertise.

Collaboration: The data visualizations are published and shared via Tableau public, Tableau server or Tableau Online. It also enables to collaborate with the team members to work on the same visualizations.

How to use Tableau:

Let’s concentrate on Tableau Public, free version of Tableau. Following are the steps to be followed while using Tableau Public.

Importing the data: Once the Tableau Public is installed, we will open it and load the dataset. First, download the dataset. Then, select the file, on the data source tab on the starting page and then open the file. Let’s illustrate using the sample superstore dataset.

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Joining the data

Sometimes it is necessary to combine data from different tables or data sources to perform analysis. The default method in tableau is to use relationships. This can be done as follows:

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Visualizations:

Once we have loaded the data, we can start our analysis. To do this, we can open the worksheet and start working on our visualization. Tableau classifies each field in the data pane as dimension or measure based on the data type of the field. We will use these fields to create visualizations.

Dimension: Dimensions contains qualitative values such as names, dates, or geographical data

Measure: Measures contains quantitative values that can be measured.

Let’s explore how these values are used in our visualizations. Tableau has wide variety of charts available as below:

1.      Let’s create a chart to show category wise profit and sales using sample superstore dataset. First, drag category to columns and then profit and sales to rows. This chart is side by side bar chart.

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2.      Next, let's explore how to create a pie chart to display sales and profit by sub-category. Drag sub-category to columns and profit and sales to rows, select pie chart from show me section. Also drag and drop the sub-category and sales to label.

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3.      Further let’s dive into funnel chart, to display sub-category wise profit. Here, drag sub-category into columns and profit into rows. Then drag both sub-category and profit into filter. Next, drag sub-category to color, label, profit to size and label. You should be able to see the funnel chart. If it doesn’t appear as funnel, try sorting the data in descending order.

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4.      Map Chart to display the state wise sales: To create the map chart, drag and drop the state (dimension) to the column and sales (measure) to the rows and select the Maps in the show me section. Then drag the state to detail and label and sales to color and label. The resulting map chart will appear as shown below:

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Creating the Dashboard in Tableau:

A dashboard is a combination of multiple visualizations in one worksheet. To create a dashboard, click on the new dashboard icon, next to the new worksheet icon. Next, drag all your worksheets (or double click on each worksheet) onto the dashboard workspace. Adjust the dashboard size to accommodate all the visualizations. You can choose from various layout options, such as tiled or floating, to organize your charts. Use the Layout tab to add borders and format the text within the visualizations. To add a dashboard title, check the 'Show dashboard title' option at the bottom of the left panel. You can also rename and format worksheet titles by right-clicking on the sheet. Once your dashboard is ready, save your work in Tableau Public and it can be shared. The video below demonstrates how to create a dashboard.

Video by Author

Saving your work:

To save your work, go to File and select 'Save to Tableau Public As.' If you don't already have a Tableau account, you'll need to create one. Once you've logged in, enter a file name and save your work.

Conclusion:

In this beginner’s guide, we have explored the fundamentals of tableau and have created basic charts like bar chart, pie chart as well as complex charts like funnel charts which will be helpful the those who are getting started with tableau. With these understanding, I encourage you to dive deeper into the tableau features to visualize the data effectively and create great visualizations.