Preface
The single most-common question I hear is, “What advice do you have for someone getting started with Tableau?” I’ve always said that Tableau is one of those tools that takes a day to learn but a lifetime to master. The book you’re reading now covers all the topics I wish I knew the first day I opened Tableau Desktop over a decade ago.
While I’ve covered many of these topics before in my first book, Practical Tableau, I have completely rewritten every chapter from scratch to incorporate everything I’ve learned along the way. My hope is that you find this book to be a rock-solid foundation and reference during your own Tableau and visual analytics journey.
Conventions Used in This Book
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
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Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.
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Constant width italic-
Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context.
Playfair Data TV
With a mission to create a comprehensive blended learning environment, Playfair Data launched its own on-demand Tableau training platform, Playfair Data TV. With more than 100 episodes covering many approaches developed personally by the instructor, Playfair Data TV is one of the largest and fastest-growing collections of Tableau video tutorials available.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people who went above and beyond what was asked to improve the quality of this book:
Brandi Beals, Ethan Lang, and Ken Flerlage for your technical reviews and patience as I refined my thoughts. Corbin Collins for your editing and meticulous attention to detail. Jason Penrod for lending your design and user experience expertise to the figures in this book.