1. Numerous Data Sources to Connect to
Tableau is a popular tool for those who participate in forums about BI. The primary reason it is an ideal choice and gaining the highest popular is its incredibly sophisticated capability to connect to standard sources of data using its built-in connectors. With such a wide array of data source connectors business intelligence analysts, or data analysts will appreciate the seamless connectivity. The data flow is better optimized, getting rid of the hassle of making manual connections to every BI tool. When it comes to visualization of data, there's no software that can ever be capable of replacing Tableau. This is the reason so many people are trying to learn to master Tableau with the most effective Tableau Certification that is available.
In other scenarios when data is needed, it can be an arduous process in which you'll need to write code using Python and R to get access to certain types of data. For alternatives to BI tools generally, they don't provide as many options in comparison to Tableau
2. Custom SQL querying
It's true, there are a lot of additional capabilities that are available about databases. After importing the data through pre-built connectors Tableau is able to provide simple drag-and-drop joining of tables and advanced custom querying capabilities in SQL.
If you're considering asking about SQL I'll beg you to pardon my use of the term "analytics.
Let me describe SQL also known as Structured Query Language is a widely used language used by BI analysts to choose what amount of information required in databases. In simple terms, it's the language used by data specialists to talk to databases.
What's exciting about Tableau is that the feature of making use of SQL to pick the correct information from your sources is accessible within the program.
3. A Variety of Charts to Select From
When we start up Tableau in addition to selecting the data we require the next step will be to visualize the data in a way that is insightful. In this case, Tableau would lead us to two options : use built-in charts or chart your own course (please understand out of the way) and then create custom, unique graphs by hand.
Let's begin by taking a take a look at the full chart options you can choose from to display your data.
Built-in Tableau Charts:
- Text Tables
- Heat Maps
- Tables of Highlights
- Symbol Maps
- Maps
- Pie Charts
- Horizontal Bar Charts
- Stacked Bar Charts
- Side-by-side Bar Charts
- Treemaps
- Circle Views
- Side-by-side Circles
- Continuous Line Graphs
- Discrete Line Graphs
- Dual Line Graphs
- Continuous Area Graphs
- Discrete Area Graphs
- Dual Combination graphs
- Scatterplots
- Histograms
- Box-and-whisker Plots
- Gantt Charts
- Bulletgraphs
- Packed Bubbles Chart
If you scroll this far I'm certain that you've realized that Tableau has a broad range of amazing options for data visualization. But, the capabilities don't stop there!
As an example, a popular alternative to pie charts are donut charts. Donut charts aren't available on Tableau and you might need to use one for your presentation.
4. Interactive Dashboards
A lot of times, insights gained from data comes through playing around with the data. I like "playing using data" or what some may call interfacing with data.
Interactivity, a feature sought-after by many, is typically found in BI software, but not in programming languages unless you've developed web applications for it.
In the majority of instances, dashboard reports derived that are based on analysis should include interactivity. Tableau provides you with interactions that allow you to filter through the selection of the data points in a chart as well as filtering based on input.
5. It is available on Common Operating Systems
This is an extremely important one. You'd not need a BI software that's not compatible with the machine you're using. Similar to the majority of laptops and desktop notebooks of today they should be running Microsoft Windows or a Macintosh operating system (OS).
You'll be happy to learn that Tableau is available in both OS kinds. I was sure when I first heard about it.
I have two personal computers - one running one Windows OS and the other using an Mac. The ability to edit my data on one of my computers was very much appreciated!
If you select Tableau as your primary BI tool, you'll be able to enjoy greater flexibility. Based on your personal preferences or business's needs Tableau could be worth a look to increase the flexibility of OS types.
