Tableau 10 Business
Intelligence Cookbook
Create powerful, effective visualizations to help analyze
your data with Tableau 10 by your side
Donabel Santos
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Tableau 10 Business Intelligence Cookbook
Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
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except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
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Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: November 2016
Production reference: 1241116
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78646-563-4
www.packtpub.com
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Credits
Author
Donabel Santos
Reviewer
Sneha Vijay
Project Coordinator
Nidhi Joshi
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Commissioning Editor
Veena Pagare
Indexer
Aishwarya Gangawane
Acquisition Editor
Vinay Argekar
Graphics
Disha Haria
Content Development Editor
Production Coordinator
Manthan Raja
Arvindkumar Gupta
Technical Editor
Danish Shaikh
Copy Editor
Safis Editing
Cover Work
Arvindkumar Gupta
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About the Author
Donabel Santos is a self-confessed data geek. She loves working with data, writing queries
and developing reports on her SQL Server databases, and exploring and visualizing data with
Tableau.
She is the principal and senior Business Intelligence Architect at QueryWorks Solutions, a
Tableau Learning and Alliance partner in Vancouver, BC, Canada providing consulting and
training services. She has spent years in consulting and has developed a variety of solutions
for clients in different verticals—finance, manufacturing, healthcare, legal, higher education,
and local government.
Donabel is a multi-year Microsoft Data Platform MVP (previously known as SQL Server
MVP) and has extensive experience in SQL Server in different areas, such as development,
administration, data warehouse, reporting (SSRS), tuning, troubleshooting, XML, CLR,
integration with ERPs and CRMs using PowerShell, C#, SSIS, and Power BI.
One of Donabel's passions is teaching and sharing her love for data. She is a Tableau Certified
Professional and a Tableau Accredited Trainer, delivering Tableau public and on-site client
training. She is also the lead instructor for a number of courses at British Columbia Institute
of Technology (BCIT), including Applied Database Administration and Design (ADAD) and
Applied Data Analytics (ADA) programs. She teaches SQL Server Administration, Development,
Integration (SSIS), Data Warehouse Foundations, and Visual Analytics with Tableau.
Donabel has also authored three other books with Packt Publishing: SQL Server 2012 with
PowerShell V3 Cookbook, PowerShell for SQL Server Essentials, and SQL Server 2014
with PowerShell V5 Cookbook. She also contributed a chapter in Manning Publications'
PowerShell Deep Dives. Her blog is located at www.sqlbelle.com and her Twitter handle is
@sqlbelle.
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Acknowledgements
To Riley, you have made Mama and Dada's lives so much more beautiful, so much more
meaningful. We are so very thankful and blessed that you came into our lives. We cannot
imagine life without you.
More than anything, we want you to be happy. We want you to follow your dreams and be all
that you want to be. We want your journey to be beautiful, meaningful, and full of happiness.
Mama and Dada will always be by your side, supporting you, loving you, and giving you the
best that we can.
We love you forever. You will always be our baby, and we will always be Mama and Dada.
Let me borrow some of the lyrics of your favorite lullaby, for these words reflect what Mama
and Dada feel every time we see you, hold you, think of you:
And at last I see the light
And it's like the fog has lifted
And at last I see the light
And it's like the sky is new
And it's warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once everything looks different
Now that I see you
To Eric, you are my ray of sunshine. I am so blessed to go through this journey with you. Now
we have a little one to share our crazy adventures with, and I am looking forward to each one
of them. I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times… In life after life, in
age after age, forever.—Rabindranath Tagore
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To Papa and Mama, I am forever grateful for everything that you've done and everything that
you've sacrificed to give us a better life. I love you both very, very much. To JR and RR, no
matter what happens, you will always be my baby brothers, and I will always be your big sis,
and I will always be here for you.
To my nieces and nephews—Chiyo, Jayden, Kristina, Tim, and Evan—now that the book is
done, Tita/Agim has more time to play! Let's go!
To my in-laws, I am very thankful to be part of your families.
To my BCIT family—Kevin Cudihee, Elsie Au, Joanne Atha, Vaani Nadhan, Cynthia van Ginkel,
Charlie Blattler, Bob Langelaan, Paul Mills—thank you. My special thanks to Kevin Cudihee.
Thank you for giving me that first chance to teach at BCIT. More than a decade later, I still love
every minute that I teach. And to Elsie Au, for the friendship all these years.
To my UBC family—I am fortunate to work in a great place with great, smart, fun, passionate
people who I deeply admire and learn from. To my teammates, co-workers, acquaintances,
and friends, especially Joe Xing, Min Zhu, Jason Metcalfe, Tom Yerex, Jing Zhu, George Firican,
Shirley Tsui, Lynda Campbell, Cindy Lee, Pat Carew, Stan Tian (our Tableau Server superhero
at UBC!), Ana Maria Hobrough, and to my truly wonderful director and mentor, Pradeep Nair: it
is a privilege to work with all of you.
To the Packt team, to Vinay Argekar for that e-mail asking if I was interested in authoring a
Tableau book, and to Siddhesh Salvi and Manthan Raja, for really supporting me throughout
the writing process, thank you. A huge thank you to Sneha Vijay as well for reviewing the book
and providing a lot of feedback and nuggets of wisdom. Thank you for helping me make this
book better.
To the Tableau family, it is so amazing to be part of your community. So many smart and very
passionate professionals—so many data geeks!—how could I not feel at home? Thank you to
Dan Murray, who was my instructor when I took my first Tableau course and who encouraged
me to attend my very first Tableau conference. You've truly helped change the direction of my
career. To Jonathan Drummey and Joe Mako—whom I met at that first TC conference (and
who probably don't remember me), who have been so gracious and helpful—I didn't even
realize they were THE rockstars! To George Gorczynski—Tableau Picasso—whom I have had
the privilege of meeting in Vancouver—I owe you for helping me with my course. To Ramon
Martinez, whose visualizations set the bar for healthcare (which I showcase a lot, especially
for healthcare training). Special thanks to Molly Monsey for giving me the opportunity to teach
the Tableau courses for Tableau (I love teaching Tableau!), and to Meagan Corbett for your
constant and very timely help on the TFT (Tableau for Teaching) side—my students appreciate
your help a lot!
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I have learned so much from so many, and this space simply isn't enough. Thank you to
everyone who has helped me, taught me, and inspired me.
And most importantly, thank you Lord for all the miracles and blessings in my life.
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