Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Add a Tableau Table Viz Extension to your Worksheet.
- Format your Table Viz Extension.
- Add Conditional Formatting to your Tableau Table.
The Tableau Table Viz Extension isn’t as aesthetically wowing as the Sankey, but it’s just as powerful. It also appeals to a wider audience, and can be used with audiences of varying levels of expertise.
Why would you use a table instead of one of the many built-in graphs on Tableau? It depends on what kind of analysis you’re trying to do.
Tables work best to use your data to see exact values and compare individual values. Graphs work best to identify trends or relationships. In other words, graphs show the forest while tables show the individual trees.
Connect Your Tableau Public Account
If you haven’t already, or if your Tableau session has expired, log in to your Tableau Public account in the Playground window to the right. If you don’t already have a Tableau Public account, sign up for one now, and be sure to activate your account before starting this interactive unit. You can find more detailed instructions in The Tableau Data Model badge.
The playground resets if your Tableau Public login session expires or if you refresh the page before completing the unit. We recommend completing this unit in one sitting.
- In the window to the right, you should see the Tableau Add a Viz Extension workbook in Tableau Public for Trailhead. The worksheet is named Table.
- From the Marks card, expand the Mark type dropdown menu.
- Under Viz Extensions, select +Add Extension.
- In the Add an Extension dialog that appears, filter Features by Built by Tableau + Salesforce
- Select Tableau Table.
- Click Open.
The Viz Extension loads in the view, and the mark type changes to Tableau Table.
Build the Table
For the Tableau Table, notice that the encoding boxes are different from the ones on the Sankey. The encoding boxes are made by the developer of the extension. They can change from extension to extension.
For the Tableau Table, the encoding box options are Detail and Tooltip.
- From the Data Pane, drag Passenger Class onto Detail.
- Next, drag Gender onto Detail.
- Next, drag Survived onto Detail.
- Finally, drag Passenger ID (Count) onto Detail.
Be sure to choose the Passenger ID (Count) field that is a measure, not a dimension. You can tell it's a measure because it has a green number icon next to it. The passenger field that is a dimension has a blue number icon.
It’s important that you make sure that the Passenger ID measure aggregation on the Marks card is set to Distinct Count, not Sum.
- Hover over Passenger ID on the marks card and expand the context menu.
- Hover over Measure, and make sure that Count (Distinct) has a check mark next to it. If it doesn’t, select Count (Distinct).
Congratulations! You have successfully built a Tableau Table.
Format the Extension
If you click Format Extension like you did with the Sankey, you’re presented with options for formatting the extension as a whole—not the marks on the viz.
Click Format Extension and look at the options. From this dialog, you can show (or hide) the Toolbar, Column Filters, Search, Tooltips, and the Excel Download option.
For this exercise, you play around with column-level filters.
- In the Format Extension dialog, toggle the Show Column Filters option to on.
- Close out of the Format Extension dialog by selecting the X in the top right corner.
Format the Table
Now that you have the formatting options set at the extension level, it's time to format the table. Formatting the Tableau Table is done at the column level.
Highlight a column and the formatting options in the toolbar is accessible. Alternatively, you can expand the arrow next to the column title and choose Format. There are more formatting options available in the Format context menu than there are in the toolbar.
- In the Passenger Class column, in the Enter filter value box, type
third.
- Select the Gender column, change the font to Tableau Regular, and make the font type bold.
- In the Survived column, open the context menu, and select Sort Ascending.
Filters created at the column level with this extension aren’t saved when publishing a workbook. If you want to apply a filter at the worksheet level that saves upon publishing, drag a field onto the Filters shelf. For more about building filters, see Tableau Help: Filter Data from Your Views.
Before you format the final column, let’s rename it.
- Select the down arrow next to CNTD(Passenger ID) and click Rename.
- Clear the text box and rename it
Count of Passengers. - Hover your pointer over the line at the end of the column and drag out the column so that the entire column name is showing.
- Click the down arrow next to Count of Passengers again and select Format.
- Under Formatting Type, expand the menu and select Color Scale.
- Under Palette, choose the Orange Color Palette.
- Close out of the column formatting box.
Conditionally Format the Table
One of the biggest benefits to using the Tableau Table Viz Extension is the ability to use conditional formatting to analyze your data.
- Select the down arrow next to Survived.
- Select Format.
- Under Conditional Formatting, expand the arrow next to Select a condition.
- Choose Text Contains.
- In the Value box, enter
no.
- Under Shading, change the fill color to
Red.
- Add another rule by selecting Add Rule.
- Expand the arrow under Rule 2 Condition to Text Contains.
- In the Value box, enter
yes.
- Under Shading, change the fill color to
Green.
- Close out of the Column Formatting menu.
You have successfully formatted your Tableau Table. Scroll around the table and analyze it. Now, instead of seeing the big picture of passenger survival that you saw with the Sankey, you can see individual, precise values.
You now know how to build visualizations in Tableau using two Tableau-built extensions: The Sankey and the Tableau Table. Check out the Tableau Exchange for more innovative ways to see and understand your data.