Learning Google BigQuery

Map charts in Tableau

One of Tableau's strengths is its ease of use when creating a number of different types of charts. This is true when creating maps, especially because maps can be very painful to create using other tools. Here is the way to create a simple map in Tableau using BigQuery public data. The first few steps are the same as in the preceding example:

1. After opening Tableau Desktop, select Google BigQuery under the Connect To a Server section on the left; then enter your login credentials for BigQuery.

2. At this point, all the tables in your dataset should be displayed on the left-hand side.
3. Click where it says New Custom SQL and enter the following query in the dialog:

SELECT zipcode, SUM(population) AS populationFROM `bigquery-public-data.census_bureau_usa.population_by_zip_2010` ...