Visual Analytics

Question 1

2 ways to start analyzing data

Answer 1

1. Jump in and start exploring.

2. Ask questions about your data and attempt to answer them.

Question 2

Changing Mark Types

Answer 2

By double clicking 2+ fields, tableau will automatically create a view using those fields. You can change this view type if you want to.

Question 3

Aggregation

Answer 3

Tableau will sometimes aggregate data automatically. To disaggregate data, go to Analysis and uncheck aggregate. To see more marks, you can also bring another field out into the view to change the breakdown of marks.

Question 4

How to use dimensions to build the view?

Answer 4

The granularity is set by the dimensions and how they’re asked to interact with the marks. So dimensions define the number of marks. You can drag dimensions to the marks card (color, shape, etc).

Question 5

Level of Detail Shelf

Answer 5

Useful if you want to make marks at a certain granularity, but do not want to encode by color or shape.

Question 6

Drilling Down

Answer 6

Expanding out a hierarchy, thereby drilling down to the next level of detail. Alternatively, drilling down can mean going all the way down and looking at the raw data.

Question 7

Hierarchy

Answer 7

An arrangement where entities are related in terms of levels. You can create a hierarchy by dragging a lower level entry on top of a higher level one.
You can duplicate fields if you want them to have no drill-down capabilities.

Question 8

Date Fields

Answer 8

Date fields automatically have hierarchies. Dates are discrete by default, but you can change them to continuous.

Question 9

Sorting Methods

Answer 9

• Quick sort from axes.
• Sort from toolbar (useful if a field is not in either axes).
• Sort from field labels.
• Drag headers in the view or the legend (manual).
• Right-click the pill you want to sort and click sort (most control; you can even sort by fields that are not in the view).
• Nested sort (each pane is independent) vs comparative sort (each pane has same ordering).
• You can also clear all sorts (from clear sheet icon).

Question 10

Grouping

Answer 10

Grouping multiple members in a dimension into a higher category. You can control+click the members and group directly, or right click the field and create group. You can also group marks directly (Eg in a scatter plot).