The OneNumber Blog — OneNumber

Tableau Education and Consulting Experts

Jun 28
Jun 28 How to Prepare (Structure) Data for Tableau - Webinar Recording

Data, Tableau Prep

Are you having trouble getting your data to work in Tableau the way you want? Join us to learn how to prepare data for analysis in Tableau!

You can find a thousand tutorials on how to use Tableau, but they're all worthless until your data is structured for analysis in the format that Tableau likes. Don't get stuck in your analysis journey because Tableau doesn't like your data.

6 data formats to avoid, 8 key rules for structuring data, and 1 video you can't miss. Check out the recording to learn about the key concepts you can utilize to prepare for your data for Tableau.

Jun 16
Jun 16 How to Filter Top 10% of Values in Tableau

Tableau Calculations

When you have a worksheet with many values, one of the best ways to present it to your user is to filter on the most relevant values. Those will often be the highest or lowest values. Tableau has a built in dimension filter which allows you to pick the top (or bottom) number of values you would like to display (e.g. Top 10).

You know what Tableau doesn't have out of the box? The ability to select the top *percent* of values to filter on. Don't sweat it though, because we've got you covered! With a parameter, calculation and filter application, we can filter on a top percent of values and give end users the options to change the top percent of values being displayed.

Jun 9
Jun 9 How to Create Dynamic Labels for Tableau Highlight Tables

Design, Tableau Calculations

Highlight tables are one of my all-time favorite Tableau visuals. You can pack so much information into a limited space. One of the only weaknesses of highlight tables is that they usually display every label (too cluttered) or no labels (too bare). Most users are looking for a specific insight. Maybe the want to focus attention on the highest values, lowest values, or top N.

Jun 2
Jun 2 10 Tableau String (Text) Functions in 10-ish Minutes

Tableau Calculations, String Functions

Manipulating text is one of the primary use cases for Tableau calculations. There are all sorts of things you may want to accomplish with string functions.

· Concatenate multiple text values into a single value.

· Grab characters from the beginning, middle or end of a text string.

· Filter on whether certain text criteria are met.

May 26
May 26 How to Highlight a Single Column in Tableau

“Can Tableau do conditional formatting?”

Lots of new Tableau users, especially with Excel skills, want to know if they can use Tableau like Excel. Tableau isn’t really designed like Excel. It’s not intended for data input, but rather data preparation and visualization. That said, a lot of features you might be used to from Excel like highlighting cells or highlighting rows of values are possible!

May 19
May 19 How to Repeat Row Labels in Tableau

So let’s say you built a worksheet in Tableau and the row labels aren’t repeating for every row in the table. For example, maybe a year or quarter field is only showing up once instead of repeating.

May 12
May 12 How to Tableau: Conditional Formatting (Highlight a Cell)

Tableau General Knowledge

Can Tableau do conditional formatting like Excel? A lot of people will tell you that it’s not possible. However, they’re wrong! It might take a little creativity, but it can be done! Check out the video below to learn how you can select and conditionally format cells in a Tableau highlight table.

May 5
May 5 Tableau Blending; Why am I getting an asterisk (*)?

Blending is nearly as old as Tableau Desktop itself. Executing a blend in Tableau is a method for relating data from multiple different tables so it can be analyzed together. For instance, a sales value and a quota.

Apr 28
Apr 28 Top 10 Tableau Formatting Tricks

Tableau General Knowledge, Tableau How-Tos

Tableau formatting is a world of its own. While there are loads of options, there are also some under the radar tricks which can help you build workbooks faster and cut down on repeat work.

Apr 21
Apr 21 Calculate Quarter to Date vs Previous Quarter to Date in Tableau

Tableau Dates, Tableau Calculations

Hey everyone! We are back with another one of the “To Date” calculation videos many people know us for.

Need to calculate Quarter to Date vs. Previous Quarter to date in Tableau? Check out the video below to learn the simplest method.

In addition, you can easily tweak this formula to compare to the same quarter last year, or any other quarter of interest.

Apr 14
Apr 14 How to Keep Superstore Data Sets Up to Date for Tableau

The superstore data that Tableau provides is a helpful tool for practice, mockups and trying out concepts. However, one of the frustrations is that it can get “out of date” so to speak so the latest date in the data set might be December 31, 2021 even though today’s date is month’s later.

Apr 7
Apr 7 How to Validate Join Results in Tableau Desktop

When joining two tables in Tableau, have you ever wondered any of the following questions?

Is the join working?
Is the join resulting in data duplication?
Am I losing rows of data due to the type or argument of the join?

Mar 31
Mar 31 Pop a Filter On and Off a Tableau Dashboard

Tableau Dashboards

Want to set up filters or parameters on your Tableau dashboard so they disappear or reappear based on a user selection? I ran into this scenario recently when working with a client. We had a handful of pre-set date ranges a user could select (e.g. Month to Date, This Quarter, etc.) but we also wanted to give the user the option to select a custom date range.

Mar 23
Mar 23 Build a Selected vs. Comparison Date Period Filter in Tableau

This video covers how you can create a parameter which is used in a Tableau dashboard to control two date ranges at once, a “selected period” (e.g. month to date) and a “comparison period” (e.g. previous month to date).

Mar 17
Mar 17 How to Remove Unwanted Values (e.g. Nulls) from Tableau Filters

Tableau How-Tos, Tableau General Knowledge

Let me guess, you have a value (maybe a null) displaying in a Tableau filter and you want it to go away? You don’t want to leave it just sitting there because it’s ugly and your users are insatiably curious. You know if you leave it they are going to select it and you’re going to have to answer questions about what this “null” value means and why it’s a filter option.

Mar 10
Mar 10 Preparing Survey Data in Tableau Desktop - Webinar Recording

In its natural state, survey data is rarely in a format where it is optimized for analysis. If you need to visualize survey data, it's likely going to require some preparation and reshaping.