Top 10 Jedi Tricks

1. Top 10 Jedi Tricks Marc Rueter Tableau Software

2. Top 10 Jedi Tricks • Totals on Bars • Putting Regions on a Map • Top n using Table Calculations • Nested Sorting • Making a view blank by default • Swapping a Datasource • Leveraging the Path Shelf • Enhanced Binning • Datetrunc to solve date problems • Publish Datasources

3. 1. Totals on Bars • Use a reference line to calculate the total • Format it to remove the line and center the text • Hide the duplicate field if needed

4. 2. Putting Regions on a Map • Use known positions as a proxy • Or use ‘user extensible geocoding’ for exact placement

5. 3. Top n using Table Calculations • Use the Running Sum of Min Number of Records • Table Calculations can be filtered • Bonus: Let end users chose the top n

6. 4. Nested Sorting • Sets allow complex sorting • Can be used in conjunction with Top n table calc

7. 5. Making a view blank by default • Activate the action at least once • Edit the Filter created by the action • Set the filter to ‘None’

8. 6. Swapping a Datasource • Create the new connection using the exact same name as the old • Create a bookmark • Add the bookmark to the old workbook and choose the ‘Replace existing data source with new data source’ option

9. 7. Leveraging the Path Shelf • It can be used any time the mark type is Line • Very effective on scatter plots

10. 8. Enhanced Binning with Calculations • Use a calc to truncate the ends, then bin • Use an IF statement to make arbitrary bins • Use an aggregation to bin results instead of raw data

11. 9. DATETRUNC() to solve date problems • Continuous Months across years • Better formatting control • More flexible date calculations

12. 10. Publish Datasources to Server • Use ‘CollaboratePublish Data Source…’ • ‘Import Data Source’ to new workbooks • Workbooks will inherit changes to the datasource