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Getting Started with Tableau 2018.x

You're reading from  Getting Started with Tableau 2018.x

Product type Book
Published in Sep 2018
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781788838689
Pages 396 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Languages
Author (1):
Tristan Guillevin Tristan Guillevin
Profile icon Tristan Guillevin

Table of Contents (21) Chapters

Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
1. Catching Up with Tableau 2018 2. The Tableau Core 3. A First Dashboard and Exploration 4. Connect to Data and Simple Transformations 5. Build an Efficient Data Source 6. Design Insightful Visualizations - Part 1 7. Design Insightful Visualizations - Part 2 8. Create Powerful Dashboards and Stories 9. Publish and Interact in Tableau Server 10. An Introduction to Calculations 11. Analytics and Parameters 12. Advanced Data Connections 13. Deal with Security 14. How to Keep Growing Your Skills 1. Other Books You May Enjoy Index

Dimension and Measure


When you create a data source, the fields are split between Dimensions and Measures. The Measure is what you want to analyze, and the Dimension is the angle of analysis.

By default, numbers are Measures, and the other data types (Text, Date, Geographical Role) are Dimensions, but that's not always the case. Any data type can be either a Dimension or a Measure.

A Dimension contains qualitative information. It always splits the Marks and is never aggregated. 

A Measure is, by default, aggregated, contains quantitative information, and is almost always numeric.

Note

You can easily see whether a field is aggregated or not by looking at its corresponding pill when you use it in a shelf. If it is aggregated, the name of the field is in brackets, with the name of the aggregation at the beginning (for example, SUM(Profit)).

As you can see, it's hard to give an exact rule to discern Measure and Dimension. It's more a concept to understand and a useful way to arrange the fields. Yes...

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