What Is Tableau ? How You Can Use It For Visualizing & Analyzing Data

It is problematic to invest in data analytics solutions that are nearly impossible to use. Visualizing data is a crucial part of business intelligence and it can become an issue if you're not a tech expert or a professional analyst. 

Most data analytics tools require a certain level of coding knowledge or analytical prowess to leverage it for your business. But what if you are not skilled in any of these? Wouldn't it be much simpler to manage your data with simple functions  and ready to use features? This is where tableau comes into play!

Whether you're a teacher, student, doctor, CEO or regular staff, you can analyze and visualize your data without much trouble using tableau. This article will cover all you need to know about tableau and by the time you're done reading, you’ll be ready to leverage this tool for your business needs ! 

Is the thought of how much data you need to  manage overwhelming? Feel free to book a call  with one of our data specialists and let us help you with the solution  to your data needs !

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What Is Tableau?

In a nutshell, Tableau is BI software that significantly lowers knowledge barriers by enabling non-technical users to visualize their data and work with it almost immediately. As a result, professionals at all levels of an organization can understand the data, thanks in part to Tableau. Additionally, it enables non-technical users to design unique dashboards.

With the help of the Tableau tool, data analysis can be completed very quickly, and dashboards and worksheets are used to create the visualizations.

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How Does Tableau Work?

Tableau works by connecting and extracting  the data stored in various places. It can pull data from any platform imaginable including cloud-based databases from Google Cloud SQL, Microsoft Azure SQL, Amazon Web Services, Excel, and PDF files and complex databases like Oracle.. 

The extracted data can either be connected live or extracted to Tableau Desktop, which is the data engine for Tableau. Here, the data engineer and analyst work with the retrieved data to create visualizations and users have access to the created dashboards as a static file. 

Furthermore, It is possible to publish data from Tableau Desktop to Tableau Server. Collaboration, distribution, governance, security models, and automation features are also supported on this enterprise platform and the Tableau server improves the end user's ability to access files from any location, including a desktop, mobile device, or email.

Tableau Uses And Features

Outlined below are some features and uses of Tableau.

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Live And In-memory Data

Tableau guarantees connectivity to both real-time data sources and external data sources for in-memory data extraction. As a result, the user has complete freedom to use data from various sources without any limitations. In order to support data connectivity, Tableau also offers features like automatic extract refreshes and live connection failure notifications.

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Collaboration And Sharing

Tableau offers simple ways for users to work together and instantly share data in the form of visualizations, sheets, dashboards from many different data sources, including hybrid, on-premise, and on-cloud. Quick reviews or feedback on the data are obtained through instantaneous, simple collaboration and data sharing, which improves the data's overall analysis.

Data Sources In Tableau

Tableau supports a wide variety of data sources, including on-premise files, spreadsheets, relational databases, non-relational databases, data warehouses, big data, and on-cloud data. Any of the Tableau data sources can be easily connected securely, and when combined with data from other sources, they can be used to produce visualizations that provide a combinatorial view of the data. Various types of data connectors are also supported by Tableau, including those for Presto, MemSQL, Google Analytics, etc.

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Ask Data

Tableau's "Ask data" feature has increased in popularity among users worldwide. With this feature, manipulating data is as easy as performing standard Google searches. Simply type a natural language question about your data, and Tableau will respond with the most pertinent information.

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Mobile View

A mobile version of the Tableau app is available because Tableau recognizes the significance of mobile phones in today's world. New phone layouts, interactive offline previews, and other options can be added using the customization feature. As a result, the mobile view offers Tableau users a great deal of flexibility and convenience when working with their data while on the go.

Tableau Dashboard

Tableau dashboards use text, visual objects, visualizations, and other elements to give you a complete picture of your data. Dashboards can present data as stories, allow the addition of multiple views and objects, offer a variety of layouts and formats, and allow users to apply appropriate filters. These features make dashboards very informative. Even better, it's simple to move a dashboard or its individual components from one workbook to another.

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Robust Security

Data and user security are given special consideration by Tableau. For data connections and user access, it has a foolproof security system based on authentication and permission systems. You have the option to integrate Tableau with additional security protocols like Active Directory, Kerberos, etc. It's important to note that Tableau uses row-level filtering, which helps to protect the data.

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Trend Lines And Predictive Analysis

Using time series and forecasting is yet another fantastic Tableau feature. By simply choosing a few options and performing drag-and-drop operations on the relevant fields, you can quickly obtain data predictions such as a forecast or a trend line.

Need help figuring out how to make the most of data visualization tools for your business needs? The information contained in this  blog post  will help you out!

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Advantages Of Tableau

Let us now discuss the advantages you can gain from using tableau for business insights!

1. Range Of Amazing Visualizations

Tableau has a number of built-in features that can assist you in producing amazing and original visualizations.While exploring the data in-depth, Tableau can also switch between various visualizations to provide a more significant and detailed context for the data.

2. Can Work With Disparate Data Sources

In today's data-driven world, where data can come from any location and a variety of disparate sources, Tableau has an advantage because it enables you to connect to a variety of data sources, including data warehouses, cloud-based files, big data stored in spreadsheets, non-relational data, and other types of data. Tableau seamlessly combines all types of data to assist businesses in creating eye-catching visualizations.

3. In-Depth Insights

Enterprises can use Tableau to analyze data in the future without any predetermined objectives. With Tableau you can also experiment with visualizations to view the same data from various perspectives. By imagining the data in a different way and dynamically adding elements for comparison and analysis, you can frame "what if" queries and work with them. These capabilities are greatly emphasized when working with real-time data.

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4. User-Friendly Approach

This is the main advantage of Tableau.. It is designed from the ground up for those without any coding or technical background. Therefore, anyone can use this tool without any prior knowledge or skill. Since the majority of the features are drag-and-drop, each visualization is incredibly simple and self-explanatory.

5. Use Of Other Scripting Languages In Tableau

Users can incorporate Python or R to get around performance problems and perform complex table calculations in Tableau. By using Python script to perform data cleansing tasks with packages, the workload on the software can be reduced. However, Tableau does not accept Python as a native scripting language. Consequently, you can import some of the packages or visuals.

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Tableau Product Suite 

Outlined below is everything contained in the tableau suite of products. 

Tableau Desktop

Tableau Desktop connects directly to hundreds of data sources, both on-premises and in the cloud, with just a few clicks, making it simpler to begin analysis. People of all skill levels can quickly find actionable insights using an intuitive and visually appealing interface thanks to interactive dashboards, drag-and-drop capabilities, and natural language queries.

Tableau Desktop is divided into various categories based on its connectivity to data sources and publishing options.

• Tableau Desktop Personal: With tableau desktop personal, access is restricted, and the personal version keeps the workbook private. 
• Tableau Desktop Professional: This is quite  similar to Tableau Desktop But the main difference is that  the work produced in Tableau Desktop can be published online or in Tableau Server 

Pros

Intuitive Interface

Tableau has a drag-and-drop user interface that is very user-friendly for beginners. With a single click, you can create graphs using the "show me" menu.

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Additionally, Tableau does not require any scripting or programming expertise. This is excellent for business users and non-technical analysts who want to gain insights. 

Interactivity With "Canned" Filters

Filters, Actions, and Parameters are three excellent interactivity options that come with Tableau and are reasonably simple to set up.

Cons

Cannot Store Variables

There is no simple way to store variables to save an overall number in Tableau because it lacks a scripting layer. Although level-of-detail (LOD) functions are offered by Tableau to assist in resolving this problem, using them requires some assistance from a Tableau power user. 

Not for Complex Calculations or Advanced Statistics

Tableau is not designed to build some of the most complicated or sophisticated calculations because it lacks a scripting layer. Users can easily create relatively simple functions, but as layers are added to dashboards, they quickly encounter problems, such as agonizingly slow response times or corrupt workbooks (pro tip: Tableau doesn't have autosave, so save frequently!). 

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LOD calculations can help with some problems if you are using Tableau and need to include complex logic. 

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Breaks With Too Much Data

Tableau is not designed for native connections to large datasets, despite the fact that this has improved. Users of Tableau are familiar with the difficulties and restrictions of blending.

The Hyper Data Engine

Tableau's in-memory data engine is called Hyper, as was already mentioned. As long as you have enough memory, the in-memory approach works great. Tableau's native in-memory approach, however, gets worse as the data size grows and stops working at 3TB. 

Tableau Public 

 This is a version of Tableau created specifically for users who value affordability. This is the best version for those who want to learn Tableau and those who want to share their data with the public. 

Pros

• Sharing Dashboards with the public.
• All features like the desktop.
• No data restrictions, and safe to share.

Cons 

The word "Public" denotes that the created workbooks cannot be saved locally instead,locally; instead, they must be saved to Tableau's public cloud, which anyone can view and access.

Tableau Server

The program is used specifically to distribute workbooks and visualizations produced by the Tableau Desktop application throughout the company. You must publish your work in Tableau Desktop before sharing dashboards on the Tableau Server and only authorized users will be able to access the work once it has been uploaded to the server.

Pros 

• The Tableau Server does not necessarily need to be installed on the computers of licensed users, they simply need the login information so they can check reports using a web browser
• Tableau Server's high level of security makes it ideal for efficient and quick data sharing within an organization.

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Tableau Online

It is a Tableau online sharing tool, as the name implies. Although its functionalities are comparable to those of Tableau Server, data is stored on cloud-hosted servers that are managed by the Tableau group.

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Pros 

• The amount of data that can be published in Tableau Online has no storage limit
• The workbooks made by Tableau Desktop are necessary for publishing on both Tableau Online and Server
• Tableau Server and Tableau Online both support data that is streamed from web applications like Google Analytics and Salesforce.com

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Tableau Reader

Users can view workbooks and visualizations made with Tableau Desktop or Tableau Public using the free tool Tableau Reader. Filtering of the data is possible, but editing and modification are not. In Tableau Reader, the security level is set to 0, meaning that anyone with access to the workbook can view it.

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However, the recipient of the dashboards you have created must have Tableau Reader in order to view the file.

File Types Used In Tableau 

Workbooks (.twb)

Tableau workbook files are saved with the ".twb" file extension. In addition to zero or more dashboards and stories, workbooks can contain one or more worksheets.

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Bookmarks (.tbm) 

Tableau bookmark files are saved with the ".tbm" file extension. A single worksheet is contained in a bookmark, which makes it simple to quickly share your work. 

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Packaged Workbooks (.twbx)

The ".twbx" file extension is used for Tableau packaged workbooks. A packaged workbook is a single zip file that includes a workbook as well as any necessary background images and local file data. The best way to present your work to people who don't have access to the original data is in this format. 

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Tableau Extract Files

These file types can either have the ".hyper" or ".tde" file extension, depending on the version the extract was created in. In order to share data with others, work offline, and enhance performance, extract files are a local copy of a portion or the entire data set.

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Data Source (.tds)

 Tableau data source files have the ".tds" file extension. Data Source files serve as shortcuts for quickly accessing frequently used original data. The information required to connect to the actual data, as well as any alterations you've made on top of the actual data, such as changing default properties, creating calculated fields, adding groups, etc., are all contained in data source files, which don't actually contain the data itself.

What Types Of Data Are Used In Tableau?

Tableau makes use of different data types. Here are some examples: 

String Data Type

The string data type is created from a group of characters. A single or double inverted comma must always be used to separate strings. The string's samples include "Vansh," "Hi! Such as "GeeksforGeeks," "How are you?" etc.

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Numeric Data Type

The data type for numbers can be either an integer or a floating point number. Users prefer using the integer type over the floating type because it becomes difficult to add more decimal points after a certain point. Additionally, it has a function called Round() that can be used to round up float values.

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Date And Time Data Type

Tableau supports all date and time formats, including dd-mm-yy and mm-dd-yyyy, among others. Additionally, the values of the time data can take the form of a decade, year, quarter, month, hour, minute, second, etc. Tableau automatically registers any data and time values entered by the user under the Date data type and Date & Time data value.

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Boolean Data Type

Boolean data type values are produced as a result of relational calculations. Either True or False represents the boolean data values. Null data values are used when the outcome of a relational calculation is frequently unknown. 

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Geographic Data Type

All values that are used in maps fall under the category of geographic data type. Names of countries, states, cities, regions, postal codes, etc., are some examples of geographic data values.

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Cluster Or Mixed Data Type

A data set may occasionally include values with a variety of data types. These values are also referred to as mixed data values or cluster group values. Users can choose to handle such a situation manually or delegate it to Tableau for processing.

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Final Thoughts: Visualize Your Data With Tableau!

Tableau is a powerful data analytics and visualization tool. The features of this tool vary and when used correctly, it can contribute greatly to your business intelligence. 

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Without the need to have extensive knowledge of code or technical knowhow, Tableau is just what you need to get started on making effective data driven decisions for the growth of your business. 

However, if this all sounds overly complex to you, you can look up our data solutionsat Capella and request a quote or a custom solution, and we'd be happy to help you.