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Tableau Prep

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description Tableau Prep Overview

Tableau Prep is designed to make data preparation easy and visual for Tableau users. It allows analysts to clean, shape, and combine data directly within the Tableau ecosystem, ensuring that the data is perfectly formatted for visualization. Its 'flow' view provides a clear, step-by-step look at the data preparation process, making it easy to identify and fix issues. While it is excellent for preparing data for Tableau dashboards, it lacks the advanced data engineering and pipeline orchestration capabilities of more robust ETL tools, making it best suited for specific BI-focused use cases.

help Tableau Prep FAQ

What does Tableau Prep Builder do that Tableau Desktop does not?

Tableau Prep Builder is focused on cleaning, shaping, joining, unioning, pivoting, and aggregating data before analysis. Tableau Desktop then uses the prepared data to build workbooks, charts, and dashboards, while Prep shows the process as a visual flow.

Can Tableau Prep combine Excel and CSV data and output a Tableau extract?

Yes. A Prep flow can combine files and other data sources, then output a Hyper extract, CSV file, or published data source depending on the connection and permissions. Tableau's Hyper engine is used to package Prep Builder flow output into an extract.

Is Tableau Prep Builder included with Tableau Creator?

Yes. Tableau's current licensing documentation says a Creator license includes Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder. Scheduled server or cloud flow runs are a separate concern and may require Tableau Prep Conductor or Data Management.

Can a business schedule Tableau Prep flows?

Prep Builder can run flows locally, while scheduled and centrally managed runs use Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud with Prep Conductor. The flow must be published and its data connections and credentials must be configured, so a desktop-only installation is not the same as scheduled automation.

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