Tableau Reporting

What is Tableau Reporting?

It creates interactive dashboards, shares them with others, and manages the dashboard using the available Tableau reporting features. This process can be used to analyze and understand complex data sets and to clean and preprocess datasets with the tools available in Tableau.

See this simple Tableau report on the Petal width between the three species in the Iris dataset.

In this example, a dashboard is created to show a detailed insight into the petal length and petal width in the “Iris” dataset using the Tableau reporting dashboard technique.

Tableau Reporting Tools Overview

Tableau is a data analysis software used by business analysts and business owners to view, interact, and create interactive reports. There are a few things to look out for in Tableau. It is explained in detail.

Connecting Data

You can connect to different types of data and servers using Tableau to create your reports. It plays a huge role in creating the best reports possible. A good dataset creates a strong foundation on which you can build more of the other aspects later.

Data Cleaning

Tableau provides various tools and avenues with which you can preprocess, rearrange, and clean data. Tableau provides you with an overview of how your preprocessing steps affect the dataset as a whole, which gives you a better idea of how these changes would help you create suitable predictions or forecasts.

Data Visualization

Tableau is widely known for its data visualization capabilities. With its vast array of tools and abilities to customize the graphs/visualizations to your preference, the Tableau reporting features go to another level with this tool.

Sharing Reports

Tableau lets its users upload their data visualizations/dashboards/reports online to the Tableau public website, where anyone can access their report.

Tableau Reporting Capabilities

Aside from the tools used in Tableau, it provides many functionalities that make Tableau reporting commercial visualizations viable. Here are a few capabilities explained.

Analytics

Using the Analytics tab, you can create predictions, trend lines and detect patterns in data.

You also can choose Machine Learning (ML) models to help you in predictions with about 95% accuracy. You can also aggregate data using statistical functions available by default, such as SUM, MAX, MIN, COUNT, and COUNT DISTINCT.

Security Access

You can choose who can access your Tableau reports and are allowed to modify them. Access to the data can also be restricted.

Device Compatibility

With Tableau, you can make the Tableau reports compatible on both PC and mobile phone screens. It allows Tableau to view the reports anywhere at any time.

Integration

Third-party applications can be integrated with Tableau, such as data connection to an SQL server or OLAP server. Tableau reports can also be embedded into websites with the JavaScript API it provides for you to input in your front-end code.

These are the various capabilities made possible in Tableau reporting.

How to create a report in Tableau?

To create a report in Tableau, you need to create a dashboard. To do so, follow these simple steps, as shown below.

Step 1: Create a new Tableau workbook to create your dashboard. Do this by opening the Tableau application and then clicking “File” – “New” in the toolbar.

Step 2: Import the dataset of your choice. You can do this by simply dragging and dropping the dataset file in the workbook. It is the chocolate sales in different countries.

Alternatively, you can click on the “New Data Source” or press Ctrl+D and select the datatype that your dataset is in. It will open the Files application, where you can select the File of your choice.

Step 3: Go to the first sheet to start with your reporting.

Step 4: Drag and drop “Amount” to the “Rows” segment.

Step 5: In the “Show Me” option on the top right corner, select “text tables.”

It will change the feature to “Measure Names.” Drag that from the “Rows” to the “Columns” segment.

Step 6: Drag and drop “Boxes Shipped” and the total data count in the “Measure Values” box.

Step 7: Right-click on the table and select “Format” on the title names.

Step 8: Adjust the font size and alignment to your needed preferences.

Step 9: Change the color of the worksheet by clicking on the paint icon and changing the color of the worksheet to your needs.

Also, change the color of the bar graph by clicking on the “Color” tab in the “Marks” section.

Step 10: Similarly, format the values as you did the Measure values.

Step 11: Customize the font size and alignment.

Step 12: Create a new worksheet for a new visualization.

Step 13: In the worksheet, place the “Sales Person” in the “Rows” segment and the “Amount” in the “Columns” section.

Adjust the bar graph in descending order by clicking on the graph icon next to the “Amount” axis.

Similarly, change the worksheet color by right-clicking on the bar graph, clicking on the format, and following “Step 9.”

Step 14: Change the name of the worksheet by double-clicking on the sheet name and changing it to the ensuing popup.

Step 15: Similarly, in a new worksheet, place the “Country” in the Columns and “Boxes Shipped” in the rows and arrange them in descending order.

Similarly, change the worksheet color by formatting the table and following “Step 9”.

Step 16: Create a new dashboard.

Step 17: In the dashboard, set the Objects to “Floating.”

Step 18: Create a new container and stretch it through the entirety of the dashboard to cover it. Then, in the “Layout” section, click on “Background” and change the color to your preference.

Step 19: Drag and drop the worksheets and place them according to your preference.

It is how you get by creating interactive reports using Tableau.

Examples

See the different ways in which you can create a Tableau Reporting tutorial.

Example #1

It is a simple example by which you can create a report of how much butter is consumed in the entirety of Europe. It can be displayed in Tableau by creating a dashboard to do so.

Step 1: Start by opening a new workbook. Import a dataset into this workbook.

Select “Microsoft Excel” and select the “food-consumption” dataset from your local storage. If the file is in CSV format, drag and drop it.

Step 2: In the first worksheet, drag and drop “Country” in either the “Rows” or “Columns.”

Step 3: Click on “Show Me” and select the “Maps” visualization.

Step 4: Right-click on the worksheet and select “Background Layers.”

In that, set the “Washout %” to 100% to remove the other countries except the marked ones.

Step 5: In a new worksheet, place “Country” in the “Columns” section. Then, using “Show Me” use the “text tables” visualization.

Step 6: Place “Butter” in the “Text” component in the “Marks” tab.

Format the table by right-clicking on the Country Names and clicking “Format.”

Change the color of the table.

Double-click on the sheet name to change it.

Step 7: In a new worksheet, create a bar graph with “Country” and “Butter.”

Step 8: Create a new dashboard and set the Objects as “Floating.”

Step 9: Drag and drop the visualizations from the worksheets and place them to your needs in the dashboard.

It is the report showing the amount of butter consumed by each country in Europe.

Example #2

Consider an example where you want to create a cybercrime report of the years 2016-18 of the country India. You can do so with the cybercrime dataset and with a few visualizations.

Step 1: Import the cybercrimes dataset into a new workbook. After doing so, you can go to the first worksheet to perform the necessary calculations.

Step 2: Place “State/UT” in either “Rows” or columns.

Then, click on “Show Me” and select the “Maps” visualization.

Step 3: Right-click on the map and select “Background Layers.”

Step 4: Change the style to “Dark.”

Step 5: To change the background color, right-click on the map and select “Format.”

Step 6: Change the worksheet color to black.

Step 7: Place the “Rate of Total Cybercrimes” in the “Color” component and the attacks in the years 2016-18 in the “Detail” component in the “Marks” tab.

Step 8: In a new worksheet place the 2016 attacks and “State/UT” in the “Columns” and “Rows,” respectively.

Similarly, change the worksheet’s color to black.

Step 9: In a new worksheet, create a bar graph with “State/UT” and “Mid-Year Projected Population.”

Step 10: Create a table with 2016, 2017, and 2018, along with the cybercrime rate.

Place the “Measure Names” in the columns.

Then, format the font size and color of both the “Measure Names” and the values. Similarly, change the background color to black.

Step 11: Create a new dashboard and set the “Objects” to floating.

Step 12: Create a new horizontal container and stretch it throughout the dashboard. Then, in the layout tab, change the background color to black.

Step 13: Drag and drop all the worksheets to your preference to create the Tableau reports. This is the resulting cybercrime report across India.

Example #3

In some cases, there needs to be a sales report for specific countries, separately. In this chocolate dataset, the sales Tableau reports of chocolates in the US are taken and expanded upon.

Step 1: Open a new workbook (if you don’t have one opened already) or create a new worksheet. Drag and drop the chocolate sales dataset.

Step 2: In the worksheet, place “Country” in the filter and select the “USA.”

Step 3: Right-click on the filter, then go to “Apply to Worksheets” – “All Using This Data Source.”

All subsequent worksheets will have this filter applied unless specified.

Step 4: Place “Country” in the “Columns,” go to “Show Me,” and select “Maps.”

Step 5: Right-click anywhere on the map and select “Background Layers.”

Step 6: Set the “Washout” to 100% to remove the other countries except the shaded region.

Step 7: In a new worksheet, create a table with the “Date” in the “Columns” and drag and drop “Amount” in the worksheet, as shown.

Step 8: Right-click on the table to click “Format” to change and align both the Measure Names and the values.

This results in the table as shown.

Step 9: In the next worksheet, place the “Sales Person” and “Amount” in either columns or rows interchangeably.

Then, go to “Show Me” on the top right corner of the worksheet and select “packed bubbles”.

It is the graph.

You can also change the worksheet names by double-clicking on the worksheet name and changing it in the popup.

Step 10: Create a new dashboard and set the “Objects” to “Floating”.

Step 11: Drag and drop the worksheets and place them accordingly. It creates a sales report for chocolates in the US.

Important Things To Note

• Leverage Tableau’s ability to connect to various data sources to integrate and analyze data from multiple origins in your Tableau reports.
• Employ filters and parameters to allow users to interact with the data, refining visualizations to display relevant insights dynamically.
• Utilize live data connections for real-time analysis, enabling the most current data to inform decisions.
• Refrain from using inconsistent or unverified data sources, which can lead to unreliable Tableau reports and incorrect conclusions.
• Don’t overlook the necessity of setting appropriate data refresh cycles, which can lead to outdated information in Tableau reports.
• Avoid cluttering reports with overly complex visualizations that can confuse users; simplicity aids understanding.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Download Template

This article must help understand the Tableau Reporting formula and examples. You can download the template here to use it instantly.

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