Tableau Basic Questions

1. How do you create dashboard? Can you
explain the life cycle?
A dashboard is a collection of several worksheets and supporting information shown in a
single place so you can compare and monitor a variety of data simultaneously. For
example, you may have a set of views that you review every day. Rather than flipping
through each worksheet, you can create a dashboard that displays all the views at once.
You can create a dashboard in much the same way you create a new worksheet. Select
Dashboard > New Dashboard. Alternatively, click the New Dashboard tab along the
bottom of the workbook. A new tab for the dashboard is added along the bottom of the
workbook. Switch to the new dashboard to add views and objects. When you open a
dashboard the Dashboard window replaces the Data window on the left side of the
workbook. The Dashboard window lists the worksheets that are currently in the
workbook. As you create new worksheets, the Dashboard window updates so you always
have all worksheets available when adding to a dashboard it. After a view is added to the
dashboard, the worksheet is marked with a check mark in the Dashboard window. Also,
any legends or quick filters that are turned on for the sheet are automatically added to
the dashboard. By default, dashboards use a Tiled layout, which means that each view
and object is arranged into a single layered grid. You can change the layout to Floating to
allow views and objects to overlap. See Organizing Dashboards to learn more about
these layouts.

How can you schedule the Reports in
tableau? Explain briefly?
• Schedules when you publish workbooks that connect to extracts you can schedule the extracts to be
refreshed automatically. That way you don't have to republish the workbook every time the underlying data
has updated and you can still get the performance of a data extract. For example, let's say you have a
workbook that connects to a large data warehouse that is updated weekly. Instead of publishing a workbook
that queries the live data, you can create an extract including just the data necessary. This increases
performance and avoids queries to the live database. Then you can add that workbook to a schedule so that
the extract is refreshed at regular intervals with updated data from the data warehouse. Schedules are
created and managed on the server by an administrator. However, an administrator can allow you to add a
workbook to a schedule when you are publishing from.
• Tableau Desktop.
1. As you are publishing a workbook, in the Publish Workbook to Tableau Server dialog box, click Scheduling &
Authentication.
2. In the Scheduling & Authentication dialog box, select a schedule for the workbook: All data sources that
require authentication must have an embedded password so that the extract can be refreshed. This includes
data sources that are not extracts.

4. What is the major difference between 7.0
and 8.0 in tableau? And latest?
• New visualizations are introduced like tree map, bubble chart and
box and whisker plot
• We can copy worksheet directly from one workbook to another
workbook
• Introduced R script

5. What are parameters and when do you use
it?
• Parameters are dynamic values that can replace constant values in
calculations. or Parameters are used when you want to change the
static values.
We can create parameters in 3 ways:
• 1) Filters
• 2) Reference lines
• 3) Calculate Field

6. What are the possible reasons for slow
performance in Tableau?
One of the reasons is that filters may not be defined appropriately at report level due to which the entire data
set is pulled from the query (which may not be necessary). There are some of the reasons:
1) Creating a query that returns a large number of records from the underlying table(s), when a smaller
number of aggregated records would suffice. You can check this by looking in the lower-left corner of the
Tableau Desktop work space and looking at the number of marks. If this number is very large, you are
potentially pulling a large amount of data from the database
2) Use native drivers: Tableau will recommend or require you to create a data extract to continue working with
a particular driver. Usage of native driver instead ODBC connections as it will generally provide better
performance.
3) Test with another tool: A good way to determine if a slow workbook is being caused by a slow query is to
test the same query in another tool, such as Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel. To find the query being
run, look in Aditya kommuMy Tableau RepositoryLogs and find a file titled log.txt. Open this file and scroll
up from the bottom until you find a section like the following: The section between the begin and end query
tags is the query that was passed to the database. You can copy this text and then use it from a tool like
Access or Excel. If it takes a similar time to return as in Tableau, then it's likely the problem is with the query,
not the tools.
4) Use extracts: Create a tableau extract if you having performance issues. These extract files can include
performance-oriented features such as preaggregated data for hierarchies and pre-calculated calculated
fields (reducing the amount of work required to render and display the visualization).

FOR DBA point:
1) Tune your indexes :Make certain you have indexes on all columns that are part of table joins
1. Make certain you have indexes on any column used in a filter
2. Explicitly define primary keys
3. Explicitly define foreign key relationships
4. For large data sets, use table partitioning
5. Define columns as NOT NULL where possible
2) Use statistics Databases engines collect statistical information about indexes and column data
stored in the database. These statistics are used by the query optimizer to choose the most efficient
plan for retrieving or updating data
3) Optimize the data mode: beneficial to create summary tables if most of your queries only need
aggregated data - not base level details records.

What the Difference is between connect live
and import all data and Import some data?
• Connect live – Creates a direct connect to your data. The speed of your data source will
determine performance.
• Import all data – Imports the entire data source into Tableau’s fast data engine as an
extract. The extract is saved with the workbook.
• Import some data – Imports a subset of your data into Tableau’s fast data engine as an
extract. This option requires you to specify what data you want to extract using filters.
(Or)
• Connect Live - By using this feature you can directly connect to live database. When you
select this feature the performance will be reduced.
• Import all data - By using this feature you can import all data into your local machine.
This will be called an EXTRACT, file saved with the Extension of .tde (tableau Data
extract).
• Import some data - it is also like extract data but you can apply filters while importing
data into your local system.

9. What is Ad-hoc Reports in tableau?
Explain?
Actually Ad-hoc reports means on the spot based on the client
requirement by connecting to live environment we can create reports
these reports are called Ad-hoc reports.

10. What is the Difference between quick
filter and Normal filter in tableau?
Quick filter is used to view the filtering options and can be used to select
the option.Normal filer is something you can limit the options from the list or use
some conditions to limit the data by filed or value.
(Or)
Quick Filter always appears right side of your window and it showing what
elements that you select. Normal filter always hide mode .but both work same...
(Or)
Filter: - This is used to restrict the data from database based on selected
dimension or measure. If u drags a dimension into filter shelf u can filter the data
by selecting list of values. When dragging by measure u can select a range of
values. Quick Filters:- whatever u have applied filter, if u want give a chance to
user for dynamically changing data members at run time this is useful. In this u r
able to see only non restricted data members only...

11. Does Tableau Public work on a Mac?
Macintosh users can view Tableau Public content in their browser.
Tableau Desktop Public Edition used for authoring content is a
Windows application only. If you are using a Macintosh computer that
has an Intel processor, you can use virtualization software such as
VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop to install Windows and run
Tableau Desktop Public Edition. Alternatively, you can use a built-in
utility called Boot Camp to install Windows and run the Tableau
software.
(Or)
Yes, the latest Version 8.2 of Tableau Desktop can be installed on Mac
as well.

12. How do I automate reports using Tableau
software?
You need to publish report to tableau server, while publishing you will
find one option to schedule reports.You just need to select the time
when you want to refresh data.

13. How does Tableau perform with huge
data sets?
Due to VizSQL

14. Name the components of dashboard?
1. Horizontal
2. Vertical
3. Text
4. Images etc
(Or)
1. Horizontal
2. Vertical
3. Text
4. Image Extract
5. Blank Page
6. Web [ URL ACTION ]

15. How is Tableau so fast when working with
databases?
Tableau compiles the elements of your visual canvas into a SQL or MDX query for the remote database to process. Since a database
typically runs on more powerful hardware than the laptops / workstations used by analysts, you should generally expect the
database to handle queries much faster than most in-memory BI applications limited by end-user hardware. Tableau's ability to
push computation (queries) close to the data is increasingly important for large data sets, which may reside on a fast cluster and
may be too large to bring in-memory. Another factor in performance relates to data transfer, or in Tableau's case result set transfer.
Since Tableau visualizations are designed for human consumption, they are tailored to the capabilities and limits of the human
perception system. This generally means that the amount of data in a query result set is small relative to the size of the underlying
data, and visualizations focus on aggregation and filtering to identify trends and out liers. The small result sets require little
network bandwidth, so Tableau is able to fetch and render the result set very quickly. And, as Ross mentioned, Tableau will cache
query results for fast reuse. The last factor as mentioned by Eriglen involves Tableau's ability to use in-memory acceleration as
needed (for example, when working with very slow databases, text files, etc.). Tableau's Data Engine uses memory-mapped I/O, so
while it takes advantage of in memory acceleration it can easily work with large data sets which cannot fit in memory. The Data
Engine will work only with the subsets of data on disk which are needed for a given query, and the data subsets are mapped into
memory as needed.
OR
Tableau does do some amount of in-memory storage to increase speed (when extracted), but a great portion of its speed actually
comes from not having to store data in memory. This is because Tableau only stores the data relevant to your queries in-memory,
whereas other solutions will store the entire set in memory, which can take more time to load. OR Tableau main feature "data
engine" is really a cool feature. If you work with a large amount of data it takes some time to import, create indexes and sort data
but after that everything speedup. Tableau data engine is not really in-memory technology. The data is stored in disk after
imported and then RAM is hardly utilized. This conception brings the desired performance.

16. What is Tableau Desktop?
Tableau Desktop is a data visualization application that lets you analyze
virtually any type of structured data and produce highly interactive,
beautiful graphs, dashboards, and reports in just minutes. After a
quick installation, you can connect to virtually any data source from
spreadsheets to data warehouses and display information in multiple
graphic perspectives. Designed to be easy to use, you’ll be working
faster than ever before.

17. What is Tableau Reader?
Tableau Reader is a free viewing application that lets anyone read and
interact with packaged workbooks created by Tableau Desktop

18. How Does Tableau Work?
While Tableau lets you analyze databases and spreadsheets like never before, you don’t
need to know anything about databases to use Tableau. In fact, Tableau is designed to
allow business people with no technical training to analyze their data efficiently.
Tableau is based on three simple concepts:
Connect - Connect Tableau to any database that you want to analyze. Note that Tableau
does not import the data. Instead it queries to the database directly.
Analyze - Analyzing data means viewing it, filtering it, sorting it, performing calculations
on it, reorganizing it, summarizing it, and so on. Using Tableau you can do all of these
things by simply arranging fields of your data source on a Tableau worksheet. When you
drop a field on a worksheet, Tableau queries the data using standard drivers and query
languages (like SQL and MDX) and presents a visual analysis of the data.
Share - You can share results with others either by sharing workbooks with other Tableau
users, by pasting results into applications such as Microsoft Office, printing to PDF or by
using Tableau Server to publish or embed your views across your organization.

19. What is the difference between tableau
7.0 and 8.0 versions
• New visualizations are introduced like tree map, bubble chart and box
and whisker plot
• We can copy worksheet directly from one workbook to another
workbook
• Introduced R script

20. When do you use horizontal and vertical
components?
• We can use these when we want to have all sheets or filter to move in
single shot.. however we can still create the dashboard without this
also.. this allows us to make our work simple

21. What is data blending..? When do you use
this.?
Data blending is when you blend data from multiple data sources on a
single worksheet. The data is joined on common dimensions. Data
Blending does not create row level joins and is not a way to add new
dimensions or rows to your data. We use this when we want to fetch
data from different sources and make use in single worksheet.

22. Can you explain about table calculations?
These are inbuilt calculations in tableau which we normally use to
calculate Percentage from or for YTD and other calculations like the
measure across table, below table and etc..

23. How we can find the tableau Report
Rendering Time.?
Report rendering time=Network time(request from URL to Report
server) +Query execution time + Network time(response from SQL
Server)+calculations(table column)+time taken to display the report in
desired format(HTML/ pdf/ excel)

24. VizQL is a visual query language?
VizQL is a visual query language that translates drag-and-drop actions
into data queries and then expresses that data visually. VizQL delivers
dramatic gains in people’s ability to see and understand data by
abstracting the underlying complexities of query and analysis. The
result is an intuitive user experience that lets people answer
questions as fast as they can think of them. We believe that VizQL
represents a foundational advancement in the area of data analysis
and visualization.

25. Why should you use tableau?
There are many reasons why one should use tableau they are It is very
easy to use: You don’t need to know programming of any sort, all you
need is some data and tableau to create reports that are visually
enchanting and which tells a story which you need to tell your
managers or impress your professor in class. With its revolutionary
drag and drop feature u can easily create stories or reports using just
your mouse and a little imagination. All this is possible due to the
revolutionary VizQL a visual query language.

26. How many types of filters are there in
Tableau.?
In Tableau, there are three types of filters. More explicitly, there are
three different ways to limit the data that is displayed by your graph.
Each of these has its own strengths and weaknesses, and we will look
at them one at a time. These types are
• Custom SQL "Filters"
• Context Filters
• Traditional Filters.

27. How to Improve Performance in
Tableau.?
1. Use an extract. There is nothing else that comes close to the efficiency gained using an extract. If you don't absolutely need live
data, extracting is the best bet.
2. Limit your dashboard to fully answering only one scenario. At it's simplest, a dashboard should be able to fully explore a single
scenario. If your dashboard has six sheets, five actions, and 3 quick filters, you might not be looking at only one scenario.
Remember, no matter how elegant and comprehensive your solution is, if it doesn't run as quickly as the user would like it to, he
or she will not use it. I would not recommend butchering your dashboard so heavily that it cannot fully handle a scenario. If the
user has to go somewhere else to find the answer, why did they use your dashboard at all?
3. Limit the data being introduced to each worksheet. If you are not planning on using a set of rows, you should filter them out of the
data set as early as possible. If your table contains all sales, and you only want to look at US sales, create a Custom SQL query that
filters it out. If the filter is worksheet dependent, try using a Context Filter. For more information on filtering, check out my other
post Types of Filters in Tableau. You can also click the Down Arrow beside the word "Dimension" and Select "Hide All Unused
Fields" to hide any fields you are not using in any of your worksheets. I'm not sure if this improves efficiency; but I'd have to
imagine that it does, less data should always improve performance.
4. Remove components that add no value. While aesthetics are very important to building a usable dashboard, unimportant objects
aren't worth losing efficiency over. In fact, you would be better off adding more functionality than you would by adding a purely
aesthetic object.
5. Eliminate any non-essential components from the visualization. This refers to values that would appear on the Pages, Filters, and
Level of Detail Shelves. If they are purely there for the user to see if they scroll over a point, then they aren't adding any value to
the initial glance. However, I leave this as the last step because it should be a last resort. In most cases, a little forethought can
save you a lot of heartache when you are creating dashboards. Decide exactly what story you want to tell, and tell only that. It is
much easier to add functionality to a small dashboard, than to butcher a large one. Thanks for reading.

28. What is Tableau Public?
The free version of Tableau Public is for people. This includes writers,
bloggers, students, professors, hobbyists, journeymen, critics, citizens
and more. It?s also meant for organizations, but only as an
introductory service. If your organization wants to put data online for
the public, you are welcome to use this as an introductory service. If
you like what you see, contact us at info-
public@tableausoftware.com to discuss a commercial relationship.

29. How does Tableau Public work?
Tableau Public includes a free desktop product that you can download
and use to publish interactive data visualizations to the web. The
Tableau Public desktop saves work to the Tableau Public web servers
? nothing is saved locally on your computer. All data saved to Tableau
Public will be accessible by everyone on the internet, so be sure to
work only with publically available (and appropriate) data.

30. I have my own blog or website. Can I use
Tableau Public to share data there?
Yes. Use Tableau Public to share data and insights with your
community. Embed the content in your blog or website, or share it via
links on web pages or in emails. Use our website to find out how.
Learn more about Sharing Views in the Knowledge Base.

31. Is there a limit on storage space for the
data?
Yes, there is a 1 gigabyte limit on storage space for data. For the vast
majority of users, we expect that 1 GB will be more space than
needed. Learn more about Data Requirements and Limitations in the
Knowledge Base.

32. Do I need to be a programmer to use this?
No programming skills of any kind are required. It is a simple drag and
drop process that anyone can easily learn.

33. I work for an organization that has lots of data
to share with the public. Can we use Tableau
Public?
• Yes -- as long as you and everyone at your organization together use
less than 50 megabytes of space. Tableau Public gives your
organization (e.g., a company, government agency or educational
institution) the opportunity to explore its capabilities.

34. Do I need the free desktop product if I already
own a commercial version of Tableau Desktop?
No. Tableau Desktop comes in three editions: Professional Edition
($1,999), Personal Edition ($999) and Public Edition (free). If you
already have Professional or Personal Edition, you'll find that your
latest upgrade includes the ability to publish to the Tableau Public
servers. There is nothing in Public Edition that isn't included in the
latest versions of the paid products.

35. What type of data limitations does
Tableau Public have?
Tableau Public can connect to Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and
multiple text file formats. It has a limit of 1,000,000 rows of data that
is allowed in any single file. Learn more about Data Requirements and
Limitations in the Knowledge Base.

36. Can I set permissions or protect the data I
save to Tableau Public?
All content saved to Tableau Public is accessible to everyone on the
internet. As the author, you are the only one who can delete your own
content, but anyone on the internet can view it. In addition to viewing
it, anyone can download a copy of your workbook (including the
underlying data) as well, which will let them work with and build upon
your original.

37. If I publish my data on Tableau Public. is
my data now public?
Yes, your data on Tableau Public is now accessible on the world-wide
web and is down loadable by anyone. We strongly suggest you only
publish data you are willing to share with anyone.

38. What online blog services is Tableau
Public compatible with?
Embedding Tableau Public content into a blog requires the blog software to
support embedded HTML content, including script tags. Some popular blog
sites which are compatible with Tableau Public embedded content are:
Blogger (by Google) ? www.blogger.com Type pad ? www.typepad.com Edit
your posts in HTML mode rather than Rich Text, otherwise the Tableau Public
embed codes don?t get preserved. Wordpress - www.wordpress.org. On this
site you can download and install a software script called WordPress. To do
this you need a web host. WordPress is completely customizable and can be
used for almost anything. There is also a service called www.WordPress.com
which lets you get started with a new and free WordPress-based blog, but it
is less flexible than the WordPress you download and install yourself. Blogs
hosted on Wordpress.com do not take advantage of tools like Tableau that
use JavaScript

39. What kind of technology is a Tableau Viz?
It is a thin AJAX based JavaScript application.

40. How do people find the visualizations I
save to Tableau Public?
Once you save your work to Tableau Public, it may be shared (by
emailing a link or embedding the work in your blog, wiki, or website).
If you embed the work onto a web page, anyone who visits the page
will see the live interactive view. If you email a link, just clicking the
link will open a browser page with the view loaded. Learn more about
Sharing Views in the Knowledge Base.

41. "What?s the ""Download"" link on the
Viz?"
Any Tableau Public viz can be downloaded by pressing the download
link in the lower right corner. It saves to your computer as a TWBX
file. Anyone with Tableau Desktop (Professional, Personal or Public
Edition) can open the file and review or extend the work that was
behind the original posting. Learn more about Downloading Tableau
Public Workbooks in the Knowledge Base.

42. Is there a plug-in required to see the
Tableau Viz?
No plug-ins are required. You just need a browser with JavaScript
enabled

46. What is KPI in Tableau.?
We can easily create a view that shows Key Progress Indicators (KPIs).
To do this, you complete the following tasks:
• Create the base view with the fields you want to measure.
• Build a calculated field that establishes the figure from which you
measure progress for the data you’re measuring.
• Use shapes that Tableau provides that are designed specifically for
KPIs.

47. How to Improve Performance in Tableau.?
1. Use an extract. There is nothing else that comes close to the efficiency gained using an extract. If you don't absolutely need live
data, extracting is the best bet.
2. Limit your dashboard to fully answering only one scenario. At it's simplest, a dashboard should be able to fully explore a single
scenario. If your dashboard has six sheets, five actions, and 3 quick filters, you might not be looking at only one scenario.
Remember, no matter how elegant and comprehensive your solution is, if it doesn't run as quickly as the user would like it to, he
or she will not use it. I would not recommend butchering your dashboard so heavily that it cannot fully handle a scenario. If the
user has to go somewhere else to find the answer, why did they use your dashboard at all?
3. Limit the data being introduced to each worksheet. If you are not planning on using a set of rows, you should filter them out of the
data set as early as possible. If your table contains all sales, and you only want to look at US sales, create a Custom SQL query that
filters it out. If the filter is worksheet dependent, try using a Context Filter. For more information on filtering, check out my other
post Types of Filters in Tableau. You can also click the Down Arrow beside the word "Dimension" and Select "Hide All Unused
Fields" to hide any fields you are not using in any of your worksheets. I'm not sure if this improves efficiency; but I'd have to
imagine that it does, less data should always improve performance.
4. Remove components that add no value. While aesthetics are very important to building a usable dashboard, unimportant objects
aren't worth losing efficiency over. In fact, you would be better off adding more functionality than you would by adding a purely
aesthetic object.
5. Eliminate any non-essential components from the visualization. This refers to values that would appear on the Pages, Filters, and
Level of Detail Shelves. If they are purely there for the user to see if they scroll over a point, then they aren't adding any value to
the initial glance. However, I leave this as the last step because it should be a last resort. In most cases, a little forethought can
save you a lot of heartache when you are creating dashboards. Decide exactly what story you want to tell, and tell only that. It is
much easier to add function

48. Is there any new features implemented in
tableau 8.0 regarding the tableau server
performance improvement?
1. Use an extract
2. Limit your dashboard to fully answering only one scenario
3. Limit the data being introduced to each worksheet
4. Remove components that add no value
5. Eliminate any non-essential components from the visualization

46. How to improve the tableau report
performance?
If you are not planning on using a set of rows, you should filter them
out of the data set as early as possible. If your table contains all sales,
and you only want to look at US sales, create a Custom SQL query that
filters it out. If the filter is worksheet dependent, try using a Context
Filter. For more information on filtering, check out my other post
Types of Filters in Tableau. You can also click the Down Arrow beside
the word "Dimension" and Select "Hide All Unused Fields" to hide any
fields you are not using in any of your worksheets. I'm not sure if this
improves efficiency; but I'd have to imagine that it does, less data
should always improve performance.

47. How many types of filters are there in
Tableau.?
In Tableau, there are three types of filters. More explicitly, there are three different ways to limit the data that is displayed by your graph. Each of these has its own strengths and
weaknesses, and we will look at them one at a time.
These types are
• Custom SQL "Filters"
• Context Filters
• Traditional Filters.
Custom SQL Filters: Custom SQL "Filter" is a WHERE clause that is placed in the SQL that queries the data to be used in the workbook. "Filter" is a Tableau term that technically applies
only to Context and Traditional Filters; however, the Custom SQL "Filter" emulates the behavior of a global Context Filter, so we will refer to it as such. By construction, Custom
SQL "Filters" are always global. The most common reason for using a Custom SQL "Filter" is to limit the size of a data extract. The smaller your data extract, the more quickly your
charts will load. In other words, you can make more complex charts without sacrificing efficiency. One of the ways to create a Custom SQL "Filter" is during the Server Connection
process.
Context Filters: a Context Filter is a filter in Tableau that affects the data that is transferred to each individual worksheet. Context Filters are great when you want to limit the data
seen by the worksheet. When a worksheet queries the data source, it creates a temporary, flat table that is uses to compute the chart. This temporary table includes all values
that are not filtered out by either the Custom SQL or the Context Filter. Just like with Custom SQL "Filters", your goal is to make this temporary table as small as possible.
Context Filters have a few advantages over Traditional Filters. First, they execute more quickly than Traditional Filters. They are also executed before Traditional Filters and can be
executed all at once, which further improves efficiency. However, they do have one drawback. It takes time for the filter to be placed into context. A rule of thumb, from
Tableau's KnowledgeBase, is to only place a filter into context if it reduces the data by at least 10%. A Context Filter is created by dragging a field onto the "Filters" Shelf and
editing the filter. Then, you can Right-Click the field on the shelf and select "Add to Context." If you have multiple context filters, you can CTRL-Select them all and add them to
context in a batch. This will improve the efficiency of your filter.
Traditional Filters: Traditional Filter is exactly what most people think of when they think of filters.
When Tableau is creating the visualization, it will check to see if a value is filtered out by a Traditional Filter. Since this is not performed at the table level, it is the slowest of all filter
types. However, it does have the advantage of being performed after the Context Filters. This is a necessity if you are dealing with complex "Top N" filters. A Traditional Filter can
be created by simply dragging a field onto the "Filters" Shelf.

48. What is the Difference between connect live
and import all data and Import some data.?
• Connect live – Creates a direct connect to your data. The speed of
your data source will determine performance.
• Import all data – Imports the entire data source into Tableau’s fast
data engine as an extract. The extract is saved with the workbook.
• Import some data – Imports a subset of your data into Tableau’s fast
data engine as an extract. This option requires you to specify what
data you want to extract using filters.

49. Name the components of dashboard?
• Horizontal
• Vertical
• Text
• Images etc

Tableau Basic Questions

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Tableau Basic Questions (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Tableau Basic Questions