Leveraging spatial functions

Tableau continues to add native support for spatial functions. At the time of writing, Tableau supports the following functions:

• Makeline() returns a line spatial object given two points.
• Makepoint() returns a point spatial object given two coordinates.
• Distance() returns the distance between two points in the desired units of measurement.
• Buffer() creates a circle around a point with a radius of the given distance. You may specify the units of measurement.

We'll explore a few of these functions using the Hospital and Patients dataset in the Chapter 12 workbook. The dataset reimagines the real estate data as a hospital surrounded by patients, indicated in the following view by the difference in Shape, Size, and Color:

Figure 12.10: A hospital (represented by the star) surrounded by patients

There are numerous analytical questions we might ask. Let's focus on these:

• How far is...