Filtering data

Often, you will want to filter data in Tableau in order to perform analysis on a subset of data, narrow your focus, or drill into detail. Tableau offers multiple ways to filter data.

If you want to limit the scope of your analysis to a subset of data, you can filter the data at the source:

• Data source filters are applied before all other filters and are useful when you want to limit your analysis to a subset of data. These filters are applied before any other filters.

• Extract filters limit the data that is stored in a TDE file (.tde). Data source filters are often converted into extract filters if they are present when you extract the data.

• Custom SQL filters can be accomplished using a live connection with custom SQL that has a Tableau parameter in the WHERE clause. We'll examine parameters in Chapter 4, Using Row-level and Aggregate Calculations.

Additionally, you can apply filters to one or more views using one of the following techniques:

• Drag and drop fields from the Data...