November 2013
Beginner to intermediate
528 pages
12h 45m
English
Content preview from Tableau Your Data!: Fast and Easy Visual Analysis with Tableau SoftwareBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
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CHAPTER 6
Developing an Ad Hoc Analysis Environment
Any time a bureaucrat (i.e., a custodian of a system) stands between you and something you need or want, your challenge is to help that bureaucrat discover a means, harmonious with the systems, to meet your need.
GORDON MACKENZIE1
Tableau core design encourages discovery. In Chapter 2 you learned that Tableau connects to a wide variety of datasources, and this is further extended through data blending from external sources. Chapter 3 introduced the Show Me button, trend lines, reference line, and how filters, sets, grouping and hierarchies can be used to present information meaningfully—for facts and dimensions that are included in views.
Webster's Dictionary defines ad hoc as follows:
“Concerned with a particular end or purpose, formed or used for specific or immediate problems or needs, fashioned from whatever is immediately available.”
In this chapter you'll explore three ways Tableau facilitates ad hoc analysis:
- Generating new data with forecasts
- Designing flexible views using parameters
- Changing or creating designs in Tableau Server
Desktop users can create forecasts when viewing time series data, and also get feedback from Tableau on the quality and type of forecasts Tableau generates. Desktop report designers can also build flexibility into views and dashboards using variables called parameters. Parameters allow information consumers to alter views within limits defined by the designer. Most significantly, even staff ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.