Chapter 1: Getting Started with Tableau Prep

Tableau Prep Builder is an exciting new platform to develop data pipelines to transform your data for reporting and analytics purposes.

In this chapter, you will come to understand how we think about data preparation from the perspective of Tableau Prep Builder. You will learn about the different use cases you may employ Tableau Prep for, be it ad hoc data analysis, creating a dataset for a BI tool, or specifically for Tableau Desktop.

In this chapter, we will cover the following recipes:

• Installing Tableau Prep Builder
• Checking out the user interface
• Using Tableau Prep for ad hoc data analysis
• Preparing data for generic BI tools
• Preparing data for Tableau Desktop ad hoc analysis

Technical requirements

To follow along with the recipes in this chapter, you need to have Tableau Prep Builder installed, and Tableau Desktop. In the first recipe, we'll walk through the details of installing Tableau Prep Builder.

Installing Tableau Prep Builder

In this recipe, you'll install Tableau Prep Builder. We'll download the software, perform the installation, and open Tableau Prep Builder for the first time.

Getting ready

To enjoy the many benefits of Tableau Prep Builder, you need a license key. Typically, this would be issued by your administrator. Alternatively, you may have purchased a license yourself at https://buy.tableau.com/.

If you do not have a license key, Tableau offers a free trial so you can start right away.

As with all recipes in this book, the installation is performed on an Apple MacBook running macOS Big Sur. The steps are nearly identical on Windows machines and you can follow along on either operating system.

How to do it…

Ensure you're connected to the internet and have your favorite browser open:

1. Navigate to https://www.tableau.com/products/prep/download, enter your business email, and click START FREE TRIAL:

   Figure 1.1 –...

Checking out the user interface

Tableau has taken great care in creating an interface that is intuitive and easy to understand. Perhaps best of all, it has quite a few similarities to the manner in which things are laid out in Tableau Desktop. So, if you are familiar with Tableau Desktop, you should feel right at home.

In this recipe, we will take a brief tour of the Tableau Prep user interface.

Getting ready

Tableau Prep provides what we need right out of the box. That includes data connectors, sample flows, training resources, and community updates. We'll walk through these step by step. This knowledge is foundational to all recipes.

How to do it…

Open Tableau Prep:

1. When you open Tableau Prep Builder, you're presented with the home screen. From here, you can take a number of actions, which we'll cover briefly:

   Figure 1.2 – Tableau Prep Builder home page

   In Tableau Prep, a flow is what we call a data pipeline. If you've used...

Using Tableau Prep for ad hoc data analysis

In this recipe, you'll learn how to leverage Tableau Prep Builder to perform ad hoc data analysis. In most scenarios, getting insights from your data would involve the creation of a data pipeline and then connecting a data visualization tool to the output of that pipeline to perform your analysis. However, with Tableau Prep Builder, you can perform basic ad hoc analysis on your data from within the tool itself.

Getting ready

Open the Tableau Prep Superstore flow to follow along with the steps outlined.

How to do it…

Ad hoc analysis typically starts with a business question to be answered with the use of your data. Let's assume the question posed for the Superstore data is: Which is the top category of products that consumers order with same-day delivery?

Following these steps, you'll be able to use Tableau Prep to answer this question without the need for additional reporting tools:

1. In Tableau...

Preparing data for generic BI tools

In this recipe, you'll learn how to use Tableau Prep to generate outputs for consumption by a variety of Business Intelligence (BI) tools. Specifically, we'll write a single output, from a flow with multiple outputs, to a CSV file. At the time of writing, output to CSV is the only non-Tableau proprietary format supported by Tableau Prep. Future releases of Tableau Prep will see the introduction of output to databases.

Getting ready

Open the Tableau Prep Superstore flow to follow along with the steps outlined.

How to do it…

In the steps that follow, we'll create an output that is suitable for consumption by data visualization and BI tools other than Tableau Desktop:

1. Examine the output steps in the Superstore flow by clicking either output. In the bottom pane, notice how Output type is set to Tableau Data Extract (.hyper). This is the default output format for any output step added to a flow:

   Figure 1.21 –...

Preparing data for Tableau Desktop ad hoc analysis

In this recipe, you'll learn how to use Tableau Prep to generate a Tableau Desktop workbook at any point in your flow, to perform further analysis on that data.

Similar to the third recipe, Using Tableau Prep for ad hoc data analysis, we'll find the answer to the question posed for the Superstore data: Which is the top category of products that consumers order with same-day delivery? However, this time, we'll get the answer in Tableau Desktop instead.

Getting ready

Open the Tableau Prep Superstore flow to follow along with the steps outlined. Ensure that Tableau Desktop is installed.

How to do it…

In the steps that follow, we'll produce a temporary hyper extract that will allow us to perform quick ad hoc analysis in Tableau Desktop:

1. To perform quick ad hoc analysis with a dataset in Tableau Desktop, you can click any step (excluding input and output steps) and select Preview in Tableau...