Configuring and Using Data Prep Steps (2)

Objectives of this lesson:

 
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
 Use the Profile Pane to examine and identify errors in your data.
 Pivot multiple fields with same attribute into one column.
 Aggregate data so that it is less granular.
 Join data from two or more tables.
 Union data by combining data from multiple tables.

1
 More practice on using Profile Pane

We are stepping through more practices on using Profile Pane to identify errors in the data.

Download the_profile_pane.tflx from the Blackboard and open this flow in Tableau Prep. Follow the video
closely to complete the activities. Save your completed flow as the_profile_pane_finished.tflx and upload
to Blackboard - Assignment.

2
 Pivot Step

If your data has multiple fields with the same attribute, your data may need to be pivoted.

In our example we have a week’s worth of bestseller data that has 7 fields containing the same information
about the bestselling books. To analyse these data effectively, we need to pivot them so we have a column
for book information and a column for bestseller list.

Download the_pivot_step.tflx from the Blackboard and open this flow in Tableau Prep. Follow the video
closely to complete the activities. Save your completed flow as the_pivot_step_finished.tflx and upload to
Blackboard - Assignment.

3
 Aggregate Step

An aggregate step is used to change the level of detail of data so it’s less granular, often in preparation for
combining with other data at a higher level of aggregation.

In our example, we have bestseller information about books, a row is a book’s information for a given week.
We also have data that’s transactional data about sales from a bookstore. The sales data is a row per
transaction. If we join these data, we end up with replicated bestseller information for each transaction of
a given book. What we want is the bestseller information supplemented with a count of the copies sold and
the average discount for that book. The data should maintain the one-row per-book granularity of the
bestseller data.

Download the_aggregate_step.tflx from the Blackboard and open this flow in Tableau Prep. Follow the
video closely to complete the activities. Save your completed flow as the_aggregate_step_finished.tflx
and upload to Blackboard - Assignment.

4
 Join Step

Join lets you combine data from two tables by bringing in new fields or columns based on a shared field or
fields. For example, if we have book bestseller data and want to add fields for movie adaptations and their
release dates, we could join the bestseller information with the movie information based on a shared field
such as title.

Download the_join_step.tflx from the Blackboard and open this flow in Tableau Prep. Follow the video
closely to complete the activities. Save your completed flow as the_join_step_finished.tflx and upload to
Blackboard - Assignment.

5
 Union Step

Union lets you combine data from multiple tables by bringing in new rows or records that match the
structure of the original data (i.e. the fields or columns are the same). For example, if we have multiple
weeks of bestseller data as individual files and want to create a unified data source of all the weeks
together, we can do a union.

Download the_union_step.tflx from the Blackboard and open this flow in Tableau Prep. Follow the video
closely to complete the activities. Save your completed flow as the_union_step_finished.tflx and upload to
Blackboard - Assignment.

Note: after selecting Wildcard Union,

you need to click Apply button for the
Current version.

6
 Summary

1. We learn how to use more options and features on Profile Pane, Pivot, Aggregate, Join, Union steps.
2. We have covered all the various options and steps in Tableau Prep, so step ahead and prepare your data
for future analysis in Tableau Desktop.