Product(s): Tableau Desktop, Tableau Public, Tableau Public Premium
Version(s): All
Last Modi䂃␀ed Date: 24 Mar 2016
Article Note: This article is no longer actively maintained by Tableau. We continue to make it available because the
information is still valuable, but some steps may vary due to product changes.
The 䂃␀rst step in exploring your data with Tableau is examining how the data is presented.
When an Excel data source (other than a cube) is already formatted as a cross-tabulation
or is otherwise aggregated, options for viewing, aggregating, and grouping in Tableau are
limited. Tableau cannot see underlying data points that have already been summarized
into a higher level group or order. To take advantage of Tableau's full functionality, you
need to normalize the data - that is, format it as raw data - before connecting to it from
Tableau.
For example, consider the two workbooks shown below. The 䂃␀rst one is a formatted report
with repeated headers, empty rows, grand totals, and so on. When you open the workbook
in Tableau, your data should instead be in a raw data table like the second one.
Incorrect - Formatted Report
Correct - Raw Data Table
Below are some tips for turning your formatted reports into a raw data table that is ready
for analysis in Tableau.
Remove or exclude introductory and other unnecessary text
The 䂃␀rst row in the entire 䂃␀le must contain your 䂃␀eld headers (or column names). Many
reports delivered as Excel workbooks have a block of introductory text at the top. This text
may be titles, color legends, descriptions, and so on. Remove all this information before
opening the data with Tableau.
Remove unnecessary information at the top of the 䂃␀le.
If you don't want to remove introductory text, you can alternatively create a Named
Range that contains just the data. When opening Excel workbooks in Tableau, you can
connect to an entire sheet or a named range within a sheet.
In Excel:
Step 1
Select the data.
Step 2
On the Formulas tab, in the De䂃␀ned Names section, select De䂃␀ne Name.
Step 3
In the New Name dialog box, in the Name text box, Excel o빽 ers a name based on the
content of the top left cell of the selected data range. Keep this name.
Step 4
In the Scope list, select Sheet1.
Step 5
When 䂃␀nished, click OK.
In Tableau:
Your named range is o빽 ered as a table when you connect to the Excel workbook.
Make sure each row contains only one piece of data
This example shows an Excel table that lists students and their grades in three subjects. In
a crosstab layout, you have a column for each subject. In this table, each row contains
three pieces of data: the student's grade in Math, grade in English, and grade in Science.
ID Gender School Math English Science
1
M
West
90
80
70
2
F
South
50
50
50
3
M
Central 90
80
90
4
M
Central 50
80
80
5
M
West
100
90
100
6 F
West
80
80
60
7
F
South
50
80
100
8
F
Central 80
50
100
South
80
80
9 M
70
Replace the columns Math, English, and Science with a single column: Subject. Now the
table contains three rows for each student, but each row contains only one grade.
ID Gender School Subject Score
1
M
West
Math
90
1
M
West
English 80
1
M
West
Science 70
2
F
South
Math
2
F
South
English 50
2
F
South
Science 50
3
M
Central Math
3
M
Central English 80
3
M
Central Science 90
4
M
Central Math
4
M
Central English 80
4
M
Central Science 80
5
M
West
Math
5
M
West
English 90
5
M
West
Science 100
6 F
West
Math
6 F
West
English 80
6 F
West
Science 60
7
F
South
Math
7
F
South
English 80
7
F
South
Science 100
8
F
Central Math
8
F
Central English 50
8
F
Central Science 100
50
90
50
100
80
50
80
9 M
South
Math
70
9 M
South
English 80
9 M
South
Science 80
Limit headers to a single row
Not only should the 䂃␀rst row contain your 䂃␀eld headers, but also this should be the only
row of headers. If you have headers that include some type of "categorical" breakdown
above them, create a new column that contains the category.
In this example, East is removed as a categorical header, and a new column, Region, is
added to the table.
Fill blank cells
If you have created a new column for categories, make sure to 䂃␀ll the blank cells so that
the information is repeated for each row of data, not just the 䂃␀rst occurrence. While this
seems redundant, it is important that each record (or row) has data across all the
columns.
Clean up aggregated and descriptive data
Make sure to remove the rows that do not contain raw data records. For example, an Excel
report may have rows that contain descriptive information and Grand Totals rows. You
can easily add totals in Tableau and do not need to calculate them in your data source.
Delete blank rows and duplicate headers
Remove any blank rows and rows that contain duplicate headers.
Add missing headers
If any column does not have a title, make sure to add one. Be descriptive when writing
your column headers.
Reshape the entire structure of your Excel data using Tableau's Excel
Reshaper Plugin
Even if you have followed all the suggestions shown above, you may still have data in a
format that is not ideal for Tableau, purely from an analytic perspective. For example, you
may still have a column for each month of business data, which Tableau interprets as
separate columns, making month-to-month comparisons di䂓䰀cult.
You can use the Tableau plug-in for Excel to reshape your data. You still need to follow
any/all of the steps in this article. Download the plug-in from the Installing the Tableau
Add-in for Reshaping Data in Excel knowledge base article.
Alternate Search Terms:Excel, data reshaping
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