Author: Srinivas Rentala
1.Re-designed Home/Start screen:
1.Re-designed Home/Start screen:
It
looks sharp and polished. It is also slick and responsive. Thumbnails
change sizes and you see more or less depending on the size of the
window. It’s easy to quickly connect to data or open workbooks.
2.
New Home Screen:
The
Home screen from previous versions with the Connect to Data screen.
You will also notice the
“Sheet, Thumbs, Data, Home” buttons have been removed and a new
“Tableau Logo” button added to the top-left.
3.
Tableau logo button:
Press
to “Tableau” button on the top left corner and below the menu
bar, which allows you to quickly flip between your viz and the
Tableau Desktop start page.
4.
Add New Data Source” Button
Drop –Down Menu:
Clicking
on the add new data source button in the menu bar now reveals a
drop-down menu, which allows you to really quickly connect to a new
data source, without having to navigate to another page.
5.
Direct Connector for Stats
Package Files-(SAS,SAPSS,R) :
This
new connector brings native support for a number of statistical
package files including:
.sas7bdat –
the file format used by SAS
.sav – the
binary file format used by SPSS
.rdata, .rda -the
file formats employed by the R
statistical analysis package.
New
connections are now available for the following file types:
.sav–
IBM SPSS file (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).
Binary Format Data set with Data dictionary.
.sas7bdat– SAS data file (Statistical Analysis software).
Binary Database Storage file. Common in Pharmaceutical Analysis
.rda– R data file
Created by older versions of R Statistical Programming Language
.rdata– R data file
Created by new versions of R.xlsb – optimized Excel file
.cub– Local Cube file
data files created and referenced by Analysis Services (was available within 8.3 for those that didn’t know)
.tsv– A tab-separated file.
A simple text format for storing data in a tabular structure for databases or spreadsheets.
.tbm– Tableau Bookmark
A snapshot of a Tableau worksheet. Contains data source and sheet layout information. Commonly used to transfer worksheets between Tableau Workbooks.
Binary Format Data set with Data dictionary.
.sas7bdat– SAS data file (Statistical Analysis software).
Binary Database Storage file. Common in Pharmaceutical Analysis
.rda– R data file
Created by older versions of R Statistical Programming Language
.rdata– R data file
Created by new versions of R.xlsb – optimized Excel file
.cub– Local Cube file
data files created and referenced by Analysis Services (was available within 8.3 for those that didn’t know)
.tsv– A tab-separated file.
A simple text format for storing data in a tabular structure for databases or spreadsheets.
.tbm– Tableau Bookmark
A snapshot of a Tableau worksheet. Contains data source and sheet layout information. Commonly used to transfer worksheets between Tableau Workbooks.
Note: The software
supports Spark SQL, Amazon EMR and IBM Big Insights as data sources
in Tableau 9.0 version.
6.
“Discover Panel” side menu on the start page:
When
you open Tableau Desktop 9.0, In start page you’ll now notice a new
menu on the right that, alerts you to a bunch of handy Tableau
resources, including links to training for beginners, a highlight
section on the Tableau Viz of the Week. Further down towards the
bottom of the Discover panel, you’ll find links to other resources
like the forums, recent Tableau blog posts and Tableau Conferences.
It allow customers to customize this pane with their own links to
internal resources, like corporate templates or color palettes,
internal user groups etc.
7.
Connect to Data Screen:
The
“Go To Worksheet” button has disappeared
But
you now use the sheet navigator at the bottom of the screen to go to
a sheet.
8.
Data Source button:
9.
“New Story” button on Sheet Tabs:
It’s
the new “New Story” button. Again, one less click and less use of
menus.
Visual
Analytics:
1.
Drag and drop analytics:
Tableau
9.0 has a new Analytics pane that provides quick and easy access to
common analytic features In Tableau. You can drag reference lines,
forecasts, trend lines, and other objects into your view from the
analytics Pane, It is now easy to edit, format, and remove the
analytic items that you have added, so you can experiment with
different techniques as you explore the insights your data has to
offer.
2.
Instant Analytics:
Instant
analytics provides an interactive experience or comparing summary
information about a subset of marks to all the marks in your view.
For example, you can compare the average for a few marks to the
average for all the marks. After you’ve added trend lines,
reference lines, reference bands, or distribution bands to your view,
select one or more marks to see the new analytical indicators appear
for the selection in addition to the analytical indicators for the
whole view.
3.
Ad-hoc Calculations:
Until
now, calculated fields could either be created via the Analysis menu,
by right-clicking on dimensions and metrics, or by right-clicking the
blank space in the data window. While this does suffice in terms of
usability. Ad-hoc calculations make it easy to add and edit
calculated fields for your analysis. Double--‐click an existing
field on the Rows, Columns, Marks, or Measure Values shelf to begin
editing. (Or) Double--‐click an empty area on a shelf to create a
new calculation. As you type, a list of auto—complete Options
appear in a drop down list, making it easier to find and pick the
right elements.
4.
New calculation editor:
The
calculation editor has been redesigned so that you can create
calculated fields faster, with fewer keystrokes, and greater
accuracy. Now you can:
- Move the editor window around the screen and see how the changes you make affect the view.
- Use auto complete.
- Drag and drop data fields from the Data pane directly into the calculation editor.
- Drag and drop portions of a calculation from the editor onto shelves or the Data pane to troubleshoot calculations.
5.
Level of Detail Expressions:
Level
of detail expressions support aggregation at dimensionality other
than the view level. With level of detail expressions, you can attach
one or more dimensions to any aggregate expression.
Unlike
table calculations, totals, or reference lines, level of detail
expressions are computed in the data source. On the plus side, this
lets you avoid the overhead of bringing all the data from the
database to your computer over the network. With large data sources,
this can be a huge performance gain. On the minus side, this can
cause Tableau to run more complicated queries (for example,
containing many joins), and if the underlying data source is slow,
performance can suffer.
Level
of detail expressions (which are sometimes also referred to as "LOD
Expressions" or "LOD Calculations") are useful for a
variety of use cases, including:
Cohort
analysis – comparing data for different subgroups
Totals
or averages across segments
Aggregates
of aggregates
Binning
aggregates
i.)Fixed
function:
Calculates
the aggregation at the level of detail specified by the list of
regardless of any dimensions in the view.
{FIXED
[Department] : AVG([Sales])}
The
above code calculates the average sales per Department, regardless
what other dimensions are in the view.
ii.)
Include function:
Calculates
the aggregation at the level of detail specified by the dimensions in
the view and the dimensions included in the code.
{INCLUDE
[Item] : AVG([Sales])}
The
above code calculates the average sales at the level of detail
defined in the view but includes the dimension Item, even if Item is
not in the view
iii.)Exclude
function:
Calculates
the aggregation at the level of detail specified by the dimensions in
the view, excluding any listed in the code.
{EXCLUDE
[Category] : AVG([Sales])}
The above code calculates the average sales at the level of detail defined in the view but does not include Category the dimension as part of the level of detail, even if Category is in the view.
The above code calculates the average sales at the level of detail defined in the view but does not include Category the dimension as part of the level of detail, even if Category is in the view.
iv.)REGEX
functions:
For
anyone who has struggled with string pattern matching and
less-than-optimal data sources, Tableau 9 has 4 new REGEX functions
that you can use in calculated fields:
REGEXP_EXTRACT(string,
pattern)
REGEXP_EXTRACT_NTH(string,
pattern, index)
REGEXP_MATCH(string,
pattern)
REGEXP_REPLACE(string,
pattern, replacement)
As
with the Excel Data Prep and the Split Fields, this was something I
often had to accomplish in Pentaho PDI prior to loading the data into
Tableau, regardless of data source. Hooray for one less data
manipulation step.
6.
Hexbin support:
Hex
bin is a good approach to displaying large numbers of data points,
with higher information density than the current rectangular heat
maps..Although possible in Tableau as shown in the post linked above,
it would a powerful addition to Tableau. In Tableau 9.0 has two new
formulas that enable hex bin support.
HEXBINX(x,y)
HEXBINY(x,y)
7.
Enhancements to web authoring:
Drag
and drop analytics, ad-hoc calculations, auto complete, new
calculation editor and selection tools Are available when using web
authoring.
Additional
user experience enhancements include:
1.
Tool tips
stay shown until you move your mouse, rather than dropping off after
a few seconds:
In
current versions of Tableau, a tool tip only stays alive for 8
seconds and then it disappears. Tool tips stick around for as long as
you leave your mouse in place. Furthermore, tool tips are now super
responsive, populating with new data for whichever mark you’re
hovering over in real-time. And if you don’t like this, there’s
even an option to disable it in the tool tips window.
2.
The tool tip
window now has a “Show tool
tips” tick box:
Staying
on the same theme, tool tips now have an on/off switch, many times
when I didn’t want to show a tool tip on a particular sheet in a
viz, and I ended up having to manually delete all the text in the
tool tip box, but even then this doesn’t get rid of the Upper tip,
so I then had to look at overlaying the sheet with a blank, or text
box. This will save absolutely tons of time during the build process.
3.
Color Picker:
In previous versions
we Add custom Color to Tableau
By
Creating Custom Color code in "Preferences.tps
Navigation: Documents -->
My Table Repository -->Preferences.tps
Add
custom color code
Note:
In tableau 9.0 version we have color picker option
New
design and especially the ability to pick a color on screen.
4.
Thumbnail Previews:
Hovering
over Tabs and View names will now show a detailed thumbnail of that
element, so that mysterious ‘New View 3’ you forgot to re-name
can be easily located and identified as you scroll through a Workbook
(or) assemble a Dashboard (or) Story.
Data
Preparation:
1.
Data interpreter:
Reading
Loosely Structured Excel files: If you’re used to
dealing with messy Excel spreadsheets, first thing you’ll notice is
the “data interpreter”. Data interpreter is a nifty tool. If your
spreadsheets are perfectly clean, you probably won’t even notice it
is there. It will do a first pass through the data as it loads to
populate the preview grid and run a light-weight version of the
interpreter to see if spreadsheet contains anything that it can fix.
If your data types and column lengths seem to not make sense or you
seem to have multilevel headers as in the example below.
A
loosely structured Excel spreadsheet
It
will offer you help without getting in the way. Look for a gray bar
at the bottom of the join diagram that spans its entire width.
You
turn it on, it starts looking for areas of the sheet that can be
converted into well-structured tables. Many properties of the sheet
are used in this process from formatting elements such as color and
borders to whether cells are empty or not and if not what their data
types are. Based on this information, it will automatically discard
the header/footer text and flatten multilevel table headers, remove
inline comments… For the example above, you’d get something like
this.
For
comparison this is what it would look like with the option turned
off. Big improvement.
2.
Pivot:
Now
that your data looks like a table, another common problem is that
most reference data come as cross tabs since they’re intended to be
consumed as reports as opposed to input for further analysis. Now you
can pivot them in tableau 9 version.
Many
text and Excel files have column names that are actually useful data
values. For example this data has years and months as the field name.
For
the best analytic experience, this data should have a column named
“Date” and another with the data value instead of dozens of date
columns. In other words we need to pivot part of the data set. Simply
select the columns of interest and choose “Pivot” to get this:
If
your data changes and after creating the workbook and you realize you
have a new column with one more year of data, you can simply add it
to the existing pivot.
To
avoid potential confusion, it is worth mentioning that even though in
the data analysis world this operation is often referred to as pivot,
in database terminology it is called unpivot.
In
9.0 pivot is only supported when using the new Excel and Text
connectors (not with Jet), calculated fields cannot be pivoted and
pivoted fields cannot be used for joining tables (but they can be
used when blending data sources).
3.
Splitting delimited text:
I
am sure you had to deal with composite strings in the past such as
e-mails, phone numbers, URLs. Extracting relevant parts of a string
could be a hassle but it doesn’t have to be if you have Tableau
9.0. Smart split analyzes a sample of your data to determine if it
can be broken into representative parts. Some well-known patterns
such as e-mails and URLs are recognized with their types and each
part is named appropriately. For example e-mail will be broken into
user name and domain.
If
data cannot be associated with a known type, Tableau will still break
the string into its parts but each part gets a generic name after its
token number. You can initiate this action in many different places
in Tableau.
As
you can see, this is not just a split operation. Tableau actually
removes what it determines to be constants (the repeating characters)
from the string hence when you apply smart Split on a string like RGB
color codes in the form (33,66,99) you not only get 3 numbers but you
also get rid of the parentheses.
If
you have an irregular pattern and smart split doesn’t succeed you
can use “Custom Split” to specify a delimiter, whether to split
from left or right and how many times to split. Both split options
automatically create calculated fields for you that rely heavily on a
new function in the calculation language called SPLIT.
SPLIT
function takes 3 arguments. Input string, delimiter
and token number. For example if you have customer names in the form
John. C. Doe. You can write the following calculation to get the
first name
SPLIT([Customer
Name], ‘ ‘, 1)
which
gives you the first token from the left after splitting on space.
Assuming
some people will have middle names and some don’t, if you’d like
to get the last name you can write the following.
SPLIT([Customer
Name], ‘ ‘, -1)
which
gives you the first token from the right after splitting on space.
4.
Metadata Grid:
When
preparing data for analysis, sometimes a list of fields is more
useful than a preview of
the data so we’ve added a “Metadata”
view of your connection. It’s now easier to see the
metadata that
your data is based on and quickly rename fields and perform bulk
actions.
This
new features are available in the data grid and metadata area menus,
so you can perform common actions such as rename a column, hide a
column, and change the geographical role of a column. You can also
initiate automatic and custom split and pivot actions from these
menus.
5.
Transform menu:
What
typically used to be a job for Excel, SQL, or a calculated field of
LEFTs and RIGHTs has now been made a one-click operation in Tableau.
Just right-click on the dimension you want to split, navigate to the
new ‘Transform’ menu and click Split. Tableau will automatically
try to figure out the delimiter and split the data accordingly, but
you can also choose Custom Split and specify the delimiter yourself
if you like
Smart
Maps:
I.
Pan is the new default
II.New
selection controls
III.Geographic
search
I.
Pan is the new default:
The
new default mouse-drag action is to pan the map. When you pan, you'll
notice that we automatically start drawing the map as you pan before
you let go of the mouse. Tableau had change in Tableau 8.2 for web
views, and now version 9 moved it to Tableau Desktop tooThis is one
change that gives maps a more responsive, web-like feel.
II.
Maps Get New Zoom Controls :
New
selection controls
The
new Zoom Controls now include two new selection types:
i.
Radial Selection
ii.Lasso
Selection
i.
Radial Selection:
The
Radial Selection zoom control allows your readers to select all marks
that fall within a circular area centered on the location you first
click on, and extending to the radius you click on next
ii.
Lasso Selection:
The
Lasso Selection feature allows readers to select all marks that fall
within an irregular area that they draw on the map:
And
we have keyboard shortcuts too. Hit Alt (or Option on a Mac) + A
(rectangle),S (radial), or D (lasso). You can also hold the Shift key
to lock those selection tools.
You'll
also see a new selection experience on mobile devices. The upper-left
corner now lets you change between pan and the three selection tools.
III.
Geographic Search:
New Geographic Search comes in handy. You'll find it in the upper left of any map, and it
works just like you'd expect. Type in any location you're looking for, Tableau will give you a
list of highly-probable options you want, and then will take you to said location.id location.
