FREE Tableau Mapping Geographic Data Questions and Answers

Question 1

An analyst is attempting to map customer locations using a field named 'Postal Code'.
When the field is dragged into the view, Tableau does not automatically generate a map.
In the Data pane, the field has an 'Abc' icon next to it.
What is the most likely first step the analyst should take to resolve this?

Accepted Answer

Right-click the 'Postal Code' field, go to 'Geographic Role', and assign it 'ZIP Code/Postcode'.

Answer

Create a calculated field to convert the postal codes to integers.

Answer

Drag the 'Country' field into the view before adding 'Postal Code'.

Answer

Change the data type of the 'Postal Code' field from 'String' to 'Number (whole)'.

Question 2

A city planner is creating a single map visualization to analyze public transportation usage. The goal is to show each individual bus stop as a point, overlaid on top of a filled map representing the population density by neighborhood. Which Tableau feature is the most efficient way to combine these two distinct geographic layers on one map?

Accepted Answer

Add the bus stop data as a new Marks Layer on top of the neighborhood map.

Answer

Create a dual-axis map by duplicating the Longitude pill.

Answer

Build two separate map worksheets and combine them on a dashboard.

Answer

Use data blending to link the bus stop and neighborhood population data sources.

Question 3

An energy company needs to map its proprietary pipeline segments, which are identified by custom names like 'Alpha-Line' and 'Beta-Spur'. These are not standard geographic entities that Tableau recognizes. To map these custom locations, the company has a separate file that links each segment name to its correct latitude and longitude. What should the analyst do?

Accepted Answer

From the Map menu, select 'Geocoding' and 'Import Custom Geocoding' to load the file with location data.

Answer

Assign the 'State/Province' geographic role to the pipeline segment field.

Answer

Create groups from the segment names and alias them to known cities.

Answer

Use the 'Edit Locations' feature to manually match each segment name.

Question 4

A user has a dataset with thousands of individual customer addresses plotted on a map. Because many customers live close together, the marks overlap significantly, making it difficult to see where the highest concentrations of customers are. Which of the following map types is best suited to clearly visualize these areas of high concentration?

Accepted Answer

A density map (heatmap).

Answer

A symbol map with size based on the number of records.

Answer

A filled map using county boundaries.

Answer

A spider map (origin-destination map).

Question 5

An analyst has a data source that contains two separate numeric fields: `[Customer_Lat]` for latitude and `[Customer_Lon]` for longitude. To plot these exact locations as points on a map, which Tableau calculation should be used?

Accepted Answer

MAKEPOINT([Customer_Lat], [Customer_Lon])

Answer

GEOCODE([Customer_Lat], [Customer_Lon])

Answer

SPATIAL([Customer_Lon], [Customer_Lat])

Answer

LOCATION([Customer_Lat] + ',' + [Customer_Lon])

Question 6

When mapping sales by city, a user notices a small indicator in the bottom-right corner of the map that says '12 ambiguous'. This occurs because a city name like 'Durham' exists in both the UK and the USA within the dataset. What is the most direct way to resolve this ambiguity within the view?

Accepted Answer

Add a higher-level geographic field, such as 'Country' or 'State', to Detail on the Marks card.

Answer

Filter out one of the countries.

Answer

Manually enter the latitude and longitude for each ambiguous city.

Answer

Create a separate map for each country and combine them on a dashboard.