Tableau definition and its terminology - IQ Online Training


Tableau helps people see and understand data

What is Tableau?

Tableau is a Business Intelligence platform that turns raw data into actionable insights with great data visualizations. It is an end to end analytical platform that is more powerful and secure. It performs quick data analysis
You can get connected to different data sources from different servers and files. You can even import data from various servers like MySQL, Amazon Redshift, Tableau Server etc. and work on different file formats as well like, txt, csv, json etc.



Tableau Data Terminology

Glossary of frequently used Tableau terms

·       Alias

Alias is an alternate or an elective name given to a field or to a measurement part.

Bin

A user-defined grouping of measures in the data source

·       Bookmark

Much like a web browser bookmarks, Bookmark is a .tbm file in the Bookmarks folder in the repository of Tableau. It is a convenient way to quickly displays different analyses.

·       Calculated Field

It is a new field created to modify the existing fields in the data source. It is created by using a formula.

·       Crosstab

It is also called a text table since it shows data in textual format. Crosstab is a chart and a way to visualize data containing dimensions and measures.

·       Dashboard

Using dashboard you can customize views that you regularly visit and create a dashboard of them so that you can view all of them at a glance and can monitor and compare at just a view. To simply put, it is a collection of different views arranged on a single page.

·       Data pane

It is located on the left side of the screen and it provides access to the data source, sets, parameters and all fields. When the ViewData icon is clicked, it displays the underlying data.

·       Data Source Page

This provides access for editing data source, publishing data sources, creating data extracts etc. It shows all the data sources.

·       Dimension

It categorizes different data. Dimensions include customer names, dates, customer segments, Location, products etc.

·       Extract

This is used to save some data offline from the data source so that you can use it to analyze and improve the performance.

·       Filters Shelf

You can use this to exclude some data from view by filtering it using measures and dimensions. It is located on the left side of the workbook.

·       Format Pane

Format Pane contains format settings for the entire worksheet. This is present on the left side of the workbook.

·       Legend

Legend serves the dual purpose of communicating Color, Size and shape information that exists in the view. Implementing legends can enhance user interactivity and save much space on the dashboards.  

·       Level of Detail (LOD) Expression

As the name suggests, you can attach one or more dimensions to any aggregate expression with a level of detailed expressions. LOD helps in solving many complex queries which contain any number of dimensions at the data source level.

·       Marks

A mark can be a line, bar or square and it shows a part of the view that visually represents some of the rows. You can control the marks’ type, color, and size.

·       Marks Card

Here you drag fields to control mark properties like color, size, label etc.

·       Measure

Measures will go with a literal meaning here. They measure or calculate certain fields like temperature, frequency or sales. Measures contain quantitative values. Measures can be discrete or continuous in Tableau.

·       Pages Shelf

This is present on the left side of the view and it is used to split the screen or view into a sequence of pages depending on the values and members. 

·       Parameter

A Parameter helps in customizing the program for a particular purpose by passing a dynamic value to it. A parameter could be a range of values or a string of text, or an amount.

·       Rows Shelf

It is used to create rows of the data table. Any number of dimensions and measures can be created in the shelf.

·       Set

Sets are present at the bottom of the Data pane. It is a custom field based on some conditions which are a subset of table data.

·       Pills

A pill is a piece of data that you want to show on the visualization

·       Shelves

This is the area where fields are placed to create views. Pills are dragged to different shelves for different functions.

·       Workbook

It is a .twb extension file that contains worksheets

·       Worksheet

A worksheet is a single view or place. Here, you drag and drop different fields into the shelves to build views.

Awards:
·       For its works in IT industry, it was named as the CODie winner for “Best Business Intelligence solution” by the Software & Information Industry Association in 2008.
·       For five consecutive years between 2012 and 2017, Tableau was recognized as the industry leader in the “Gartner Magic Quadrant”.


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