Mixed Deck — All Tableau Topics Flashcards

What is the key difference between a FIXED LOD expression and an INCLUDE LOD expression in Tableau?

Answer: FIXED ignores view filters (except context filters); INCLUDE adds dimensions to the view's level of detail

FIXED computes at a specified granularity regardless of view dimensions, while INCLUDE adds extra dimensions to the existing view level.

Which shelf must a field be on to create a small-multiple grid of separate charts?

Answer: Rows and Columns

Placing dimensions on both Rows and Columns creates a grid of small multiples.

Which is true about nested LOD expressions?

Answer: An LOD can contain another LOD expression inside it

Tableau supports nesting LOD expressions, where an inner LOD feeds an outer one.

What does a forecast in Tableau use to project future values?

Answer: Exponential smoothing models

Tableau forecasting applies exponential smoothing models to historical data to estimate future values.

What is the main goal of building a Tableau Story rather than a single dashboard?

Answer: To guide viewers through a sequence of insights as a narrative

Stories are designed to present analysis as an ordered, narrative sequence of points.

A colleague has asked you to share a Tableau workbook that includes all necessary data, custom images, and calculations so they can open and view the dashboard without needing access to the original data source. Which file type should you send them?

Answer: Tableau Packaged Workbook (.twbx)

A Tableau Packaged Workbook (.twbx) is a zip archive that contains the workbook (.twb) along with any local data sources (like extracts or Excel files) and background images. This makes it a self-contained file ideal for sharing with users who do not have access to the original live data connection.

Which chart type would be most appropriate for showing the trend of sales over time?

Answer: Line Chart

Line charts are specifically designed to display trends and changes over a continuous period, making them ideal for visualizing how a measure like 'Sales' evolves over time. The connected data points clearly illustrate the progression, direction, and patterns of the trend. This makes it easy to spot increases, decreases, or seasonality.

To prevent a floating object from overlapping awkwardly, you can control its stacking using:

Answer: The object's 'Floating Order' (bring to front / send to back)

Floating order controls which floating objects appear in front of or behind others.

To ensure a dashboard will be displayed with a consistent and precise layout of 1200 x 800 pixels when embedded in a company portal, which sizing option should the developer choose?

Answer: Fixed Size

The 'Fixed Size' option allows the developer to specify the exact height and width of the dashboard in pixels. This ensures that the dashboard maintains its exact dimensions and layout, which is critical for embedding into web pages or portals with specific size requirements.

In Tableau, what does the 'Show/Hide' button on a dashboard container do?

Answer: Toggles the container between visible and hidden states

The Show/Hide button allows viewers to toggle a container's visibility on and off during interaction.

Which Tableau analytic feature groups marks into segments based on similarity of their values?

Answer: Clustering

Tableau's clustering uses k-means to group marks into segments with similar characteristics.

What does Custom SQL allow in a Tableau connection?

Answer: Defining a specific query to shape the data at the source

Custom SQL lets you write a tailored query that Tableau treats as a virtual table.

A business analyst is working with a sales dataset in a wide format, where each column represents a different month (e.g., 'Jan Sales', 'Feb Sales', 'Mar Sales'). To effectively analyze sales trends over time, the data needs to be restructured so that all monthly sales figures are in a single column and the month names are in another. Which Tableau feature should the analyst use on the Data Source page to achieve this transformation?

Answer: Pivot

The Pivot feature in Tableau is designed to transform data from a wide format (crosstab) to a tall format (columnar). By selecting the monthly sales columns and applying a pivot, the analyst can create two new fields: one containing the column headers (months) and another containing the corresponding values (sales figures), which is the desired structure for time-series analysis.

What does enabling 'Ask Data' / a published data source's natural-language features require?

Answer: A well-prepared, published data source with clear field names and synonyms

Natural-language querying works best with a clean published data source featuring intuitive field names and synonyms.

What is the primary purpose of standardized procedures in Visualization Types?

Answer: To ensure consistency, safety, and quality across all practitioners

Standardized procedures ensure that all practitioners deliver consistent, safe, and high-quality outcomes.

Which setting in a Tableau extract allows you to keep only the most recent N rows of data, useful for rolling-window dashboards?

Answer: Incremental Refresh with a date filter

Incremental Refresh configured with a date-based condition lets you continuously add only new rows since the last refresh, maintaining a rolling window of recent data efficiently.

Which view type is best for showing the distribution of a single continuous measure across bins?

Answer: Histogram

A histogram groups a continuous measure into bins to display its frequency distribution.

Which LOD expression is best for computing total sales per customer regardless of the date dimension in the view?

Answer: {FIXED [Customer]: SUM([Sales])}

FIXED [Customer] pins the aggregation to the customer level only, ignoring the date dimension.

What does data blending in Tableau allow you to do?

Answer: Combine data from different sources on a common field

Blending links separate data sources on a shared dimension at the aggregate level.

Which is true about a 'Highlight' action on a dashboard?

Answer: It dims unrelated marks while emphasizing related ones without filtering data out

Highlight actions emphasize related marks visually while keeping all data visible.