Tableau For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13

Ten Tableau Must-Know Function Types

I don't know about you, but I am not a fan of doing extra data crunching when it's unnecessary. Most big vendors agree that such activity is not a good use of time for folks like you and me. It is common practice for business intelligence and data analysis software to include functions, which provide a way to calculate and convert complex values easily.

This chapter aims to give you a Top 10 list of crucial function areas you might want to use when crunching. Rather than using extraordinarily painful formulas and converting data slowly with a pen and paper (or some other computer application), using these functions can save you lots of time and yield data value precision.

Number Functions

The number function is among the most heavily used in Tableau. Why? Because Tableau first and foremost builds data based on quantitative results. And how do you generate quantitative output? By using numbers. Table 13-1 lists key number functions to support creating numerical output.

TABLE 13-1 Key Number Functions

NAME	DESCRIPTIONS
ABS	Presents the absolute value of a number.
ACOS	Presents the arc cosine of a number.
ASIN	Presents the arc sine of a number.
ATAN	Presents the arc tangent of a number.
ATAN2	Presents the arc tangent of two numbers.
CEILING	Presents a rounded number up to the nearest integer.
COS	Presents the cosine of an angle.
COT	Presents the cotangent of an angle.
DEGREES	Converts an angle from radians ...