Advanced Analytics
Alexander Loth · 2019
Tableau's advanced analytics tools include distribution bands, trend lines, forecasts, and clustering. This chapter helps the non-technical business user to answer complex statistical questions using the Tableau Analytics pane. Line charts can sometimes be difficult to interpret when the data is very granular. Trend lines help the non-technical business user to see the pattern in their data, by tracing out the fundamental evolution of the measure in question. Tableau's forecasting tool uses exponential smoothing. They work reasonably well to capture both long-term trends and any potential seasonality that may be present in the time series. The clustering tool in Tableau uses the widely used k-means algorithm, a type of vector quantization developed originally in the field of signal processing. The chapter discusses the integration of the programming languages: Python, R, and MATLAB for more advanced analyses.