Everyone in the analytics field wants to learn at least one data visualization tool like Tableau, Power BI, Sisense, etc. Tableau is one of the best data visualization tools ever. So, everyone is learning as well as practicing more and more on this tool. So, everyone must know some terms in Tableau worksheet. There are many Tableau Terms to be understood by each to get hands-on experience on Tableau.
Here in above picture you can see there are different terms used daily while working on Tableau.
- Dataset: On Tableau worksheet, there is always this section at the first. To make data related changes or data refresh or extraction, this section is very much important.
- Dimensions section: This is useful and well-known section in worksheet. In Dimensions section there are many dimensions which are just like attributes names of data are present. For example, customer name, Order date, Region, etc. This section also contains measure names which contains the names of the measures.
- Measure Section: Contains the numerical data type fields like sale, profit, quantity, etc. Also contains measure values field which contains the values of measure names present in dimensions section. This section also has number of records fields which by default 1.
- Sets section: Sets are the group of data where it can be changed dynamically. Sets are updated once data gets refreshed. When set is created then it may be automatically coming under this data pane section.
- Parameter section: If I created a parameter or if there is a parameter present already then, that field will comes in this section of data pane. Parameters are used for dynamic selection of user defined data values which makes our dashboard dynamic.
- Pages shelf: This shelf is used for creating transitions to visuals or motion charts in Tableau. Pages shelf allows to see dimensions in flips or switches between data breakups.
- Filters Shelf: If you are applying any dimension or measure into filter, then it will come into filters shelf.
- Marks Card: Marks cards contains color card, size card, label, details, tooltip and path cards. If I want to aggregate my data with respect to level of details and then show the analysis in visuals, then will put the data field into the marks card.
- Legends shelf: Legends shelf contains how the data is encoded into the marks cards like color, shape, etc. There are different legends for different marks cards.
- Columns shelf: Columns shelf will make data values to be plotted on x-axis or it will make different columns. This shelf contains green pills as well as blue pills depending on the data types either discrete or continuous data.
- Rows Shelf: Rows shelf used to plot y-axis on graph which will creates rows in the chart.
- Workspace: Workspace is where I can plot my data or view different charts or data points. Workspace of worksheet is where one can do visual analysis and present it in the form of visuals and use it in reports or dashboards.
- Pills: Pills are the data fields present in the views are either green or red depending on the behavior of data whether data is continuous then green pills or data is discrete then it is blue in color.
- Data points in workspace: The bubbles in above image are data points in the view. I can change the shape or views of these data points in workspace just by changing the shape of data or changing the chart types in marks cards.
- Show me section in Tableau: The show Me section in tableau is located at top-right corner of the worksheet. If I open this section, I can see there are 24 chart types grayed. When I select any data fields from either dimensions or measures then in show me section some of the charts gets grayed and some are enabled. If I hover over any chart, then it will show the description about that chart as what it is required to build. Like how many dimensions and how many measures are required to build the specific chart.
These charts are very much useful if anybody is creating his first chart in Tableau. Show me section provides easy way to create multiple charts quickly. I can create these charts manually but If you are learner or if you don’t know how to create a simple visual easily, then you can take help of Show me section in Tableau worksheet.
Finally!
We hope you enjoyed this article about understanding the terminologies in Tableau worksheet. This will help you to design interactive charts and making dashboards dynamic. Some of the above terms are helpful to avoid time consumption.
