IT DEPARTMENT SIES GST Business Intelligence LAB

Experiment No. : 10
Aim : Study on BI tool tableau

Theory:
Tableau online from the basics. Tableau is a powerful business intelligence and data
visualization tool. It is extensively used for creating and distributing highly interactive
and powerful reports and dashboards that depict the data in a visually appealing form like
trends, variations, charts, graphs, plots, and so on.
Tableau can connect to a large number of files, relational and big data files to acquire and
process the data. The tableau tool can blend all types of data like relational, unstructured,
and big data sources for acquiring and processing data.

Working:
Tableau connects and extracts the data stored in various places. It can pull data from any
platform imaginable. A simple database such as an excel, pdf, to a complex database like
Oracle, a database in the cloud such as Amazon web services, Microsoft Azure SQL
database, Google Cloud SQL and various other data sources can be extracted by Tableau.
When Tableau is launched, ready data connectors are available which allows you to
connect to any database.

The pulled data can be either connected live or extract to Tableau's data engine, Tableau
Desktop. This is where the Data analyst, data engineer work with the data that was pulled
up and develop visualizations. The created dashboards are shared with the users as a
static file. The users who receive the dashboards view the file using Tableau Reader.

The data from the Tableau Desktop can be published to the Tableau server. This is an
enterprise platform where collaboration, distribution, governance, security model,
automation features are supported. With the Tableau server, the end users have a better
experience in accessing the files from all locations be it a desktop, mobile or email.

Tableau Features:
1. Depending upon the useability of Tableau it has the following features:

 Easy to access from different sources,

 No need for any technical or programming knowledge, and
 Quick response for making a dashboard.

2. For easy accessibility and analysis, the data file can be downloaded locally on
mobile or desktop, multilingual representation of data, real-time exploration of any
dataset, etc.

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3. In terms of connecting and sharing, it has various inbuilt advanced features such
as
 Collaboration and distribution,
 Highly securable,
 Multiple data sources connection,
 Easy importation and exportation of the massive size of data.

Tableau Product Family:

1. Tableau Desktop: It is a self service business analytics and data visualization that
anyone can use. It translates pictures of data into optimized queries. With tableau
desktop, you can directly connect to data from your data warehouse for live upto date
data analysis. You can also perform queries without writing a single line of code. Import
all your data into Tableau’s data engine from multiple sources & integrate altogether by
combining multiple views in a interactive dashboard.

2. Tableau Server: It is more of a enterprise level Tableau software. You can publish
dashboards with Tableau Desktop and share them throughout the organization with web-
based Tableau server. It leverages fast databases through live connections.

3. Tableau Online: This is a hosted version of Tableau server which helps makes business
intelligence faster and easier than before. You can publish Tableau dashboards with
Tableau Desktop and share them with colleagues.

4. Tableau Reader: It’s a free desktop application that enables you to open and view
visualizations that are built in Tableau Desktop. You can filter, drill down data but you
cannot edit or perform any kind of interactions.

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5. Tableau Public: This is a free Tableau software which you can use to make
visualizations with but you need to save your workbook or worksheets in the Tableau
Server which can be viewed by anyone.

Applications of Tableau in real world:

Tableau is a powerful tool that can be used in any industry since the best part is that Tableau
can work with any kind of data.
 Come up with quick visualizations and insights on disparate sources of data
 Work with statistical analysis like trending and forecasting features
 Deploy extreme data discovery and come up with unknown insights
 Easily connect with computer programming languages for powerful table
calculations
 Work with data in the most intuitive, interactive manner through Tableau
dashboards.

Steps for installation

Step 1: Go to https://www.tableau.com/products/desktop on your Web browser.

Step 2: Click on the 'Try Now' button.

Step 3: This will start downloading the .exe File for window machine by default.
Step 4: Open the download file, and click on the 'Run' button.

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Step 5: A pop message will be shown on the screen to get the approval of the
administrator to install the Tableau software. Click on 'yes' to approve it than
installation will be started.

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Step 6: Once the installation is completed, then open the Tableau desktop
software.

Step 7: Start screen of the Tableau Desktop.

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Basic Operations in Tableau

These three steps are -
 Connect to a data source − It involves locating the data and using an
appropriate type of connection to read the data.
 Choose dimensions and measures − This involves selecting the required
columns from the source data for analysis.
 Apply visualization technique − This involves applying required
visualization methods, such as a specific chart or graph type to the data
being analyzed.
We have used SampleSuperstore dataset in this case study from Kaggle

Connect to a data source

On opening Tableau, you will get the start page showing various data sources.
Under the header “Connect”, you have options to choose a file or server or saved
data source. Under Files, choose text file and Then navigate to the file “Sample –
Superstore.csv”
The worksheet contains all the features and visualization options required to build
a perfect project. So, go to the bottom left corner of the interface and click on
Sheet 1 to create the worksheet.

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Choose dimensions and measures and applying visualization technique

Next, choose the data to be analyzed by deciding on the dimensions and measures.
Dimensions are the descriptive data while measures are numeric data. When put
together, they help visualize the performance of the dimensional data with respect
to the data which are measures. Choose Category and Region as the dimensions
and Profit as the measure. Drag and drop them as shown in the following
screenshot. The result shows bar chart of total profit in each category for each
region. For better visualization we can use graphs and add colors according to our
convenience.

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Next, go to the bottom left corner of the interface and click on Sheet 2 to create
new worksheet.
Choose Category and Ship Mode as the dimensions and Quantity as the
measure. Drag and drop them as shown in the following screenshot. The result
shows bar chart of total quantity in each category for each ship mode. For better
visualization we can use graphs and add colors according to our convenience.

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Creating a Dashboard
A dashboard is a consolidated display of many worksheets and related information
in a single place. It is used to compare and monitor a variety of data
simultaneously. The different data views are displayed all at once. Dashboards are
shown as tabs at the bottom of the workbook and they usually get updated with the
most recent data from the data source. While creating a dashboard, you can add
views from any worksheet in the workbook along with many supporting objects
such as text areas, web pages, and images.
Drag the two worksheets to the dashboard. Near the top border line of Sheet 1
worksheet, we can see three small icons. Click the middle one, which shows the
prompt Use as Filter on hovering the mouse over it.
Here, we have tried filtering data by selecting central and south region.

Finally, we have added both the sheets on dashboard

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Conclusion:
Hence, we have successfully learned about the Tableau tool. Tableau is a great software
to simplify all your data visualization tasks, to create better and accurate analysis. The
software comes with even more features and specifications to make the job of the data
analyst accurate and efficient.

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