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Tableau Training

✏️ Exercise 1 - Connect to Data - The Input Step

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💡 Key Points

  • You can connect to a variety of on-prem and cloud-based data sources natively in Tableau Prep Builder using out-of-the-box connectors.
  • There are options to filter, hide or remove fields, change data types, update sampling logic, and many more transformations on the Input Step.
  • It’s a good idea to configure your Input Step to bring in just the data you need so that your Flow remains performant.

📙 Resource Quick Links

🎯 Your Task

As mentioned, you’ll be working with 4 files that represent 2 data sources: Orders (Orders1.csv, Orders2.csv, Orders3.csv) and Shipping (Shipping.csv). To get started:

  • Double click on the Prep Builder icon on your VM desktop to open the application.
  • We are going to build a flow from scratch, so you will click on the blue ‘Connect to Data’ button.
  • You can connect to a number of different data sources; because our data are in CSV files, you will select the ‘Text File’ option.
  • In the ‘Open’ window, navigate to the ‘Data Sources’ file on the desktop and select orders1.csv.

📝 Instructions

  • Step 1 – Create one Input Step for Orders that unions all 3 of the orders files. Use File Filters and syntax matching to bring in only the Orders files and not the Shipping file for the Orders Input Step. The files are in a folder called ‘Data Sources’ on the desktop of your machine.

  • Step 2 – On the Orders Input Step, add a relative date filter to the Order Date field that brings in only the data from the year 2023.

  • Step 3 – Create an Input Step for the shipping file. You do not need to make any changes to this Input Step.