Hands On With Google Data Studio

CHAPTER 2Cooking with Google Data Studio

We are going to start our exploration of Google Data Studio by diving into some reports and then deconstructing them. Showing you how to build them yourself will help you to become familiar with some basic Data Studio ways of doing things.

Although you can simply browse through this book, I recommend creating the examples as they are outlined in each chapter. For this chapter, I recommend downloading the example data CSV file and the image file so that you can follow along, creating your own Data Studio report from the example resources.

All downloadable data files, images files, and links to the live Data Studio examples can be accessed from the resources page located here: www.wiley.com/go/handsondatastudio.

Our First Example

For this first example, we will go through the basics of the full process. I will use the cooking analogy of preparing a dish from start to finish. Here is a breakdown of the first six steps that prepare us for actual report construction:

1. Select a dish to prepare: We will use the example that follows.
2. Shop for ingredients: Finding data and getting it in a usable format.
3. Unpacking the groceries: Setting up Google Drive folders and moving files.
4. Preparing the ingredients: Loading the data and doing “data cleansing.”
5. Get to know the kitchen: Get familiar with the Data Studio interface and starting a new report.
6. Assemble the ingredients: Connecting the data to the report and configure the fields.

After completing ...