Connecting to data

There is virtually no limit to the data Tableau can visualize. Each successive version of Tableau adds new native connections. Additionally, for any database without a native connection, Tableau gives you the ability to use a generic ODBC connection. With the release of the Extract API, first available in Tableau 8.0, any data source or sources can be programmatically combined and stored in a data extract for use in Tableau.

This section will focus on some practical examples of connecting to various data sources. We won't cover every connection, but will cover several that are representative of others. You may or may not have access to some of the data sources in the following examples. Feel free to follow them if you are able to or merely observe the differences.

You may have multiple data source connections to different sources in the same workbook. Each connection will show up under the Data tab on the left-hand side bar.

To add a connection, perform one of the following...