# Spatial support in Tableau Prep

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2020-12-15
- **Format:** Video · 6 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data prep, Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Tableau (cloud, maps, prep)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/spatial-support-in-prep
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/SAXvMIG5ZOM

I walk through two new Tableau Prep features in the browser: building flows online and connecting to spatial files. I show how to upload a zipped shapefile, join its geometry data to a Superstore output, run the flow, and then visualise the spatial data in a workbook built entirely in the browser.

## Key takeaways

- When uploading spatial files to Tableau Prep in the browser, you must use the zipped version since the server needs all the shapefile components in one go
- Connect spatial geometry data at the very end of your flow, after data prep, joining on the best matching field such as state name
- A left join keeps all your original records even when the spatial file contains extra regions that don't match
- Adding spatial files barely affected runtime, with the flow completing in around seven seconds either way
- Browser-based spatial files lose the link to a source file, so they won't auto-update from a SharePoint folder like a desktop connection might

## Chapters

- 0:28 Connecting to a spatial file
- 0:47 Zipped versus unzipped shapefiles
- 1:24 Joining geometry to Superstore output
- 2:34 Handling unmatched states with a left join
- 3:26 Tidying the flow and running it
- 4:52 Visualising spatial data in a workbook
- 5:40 Caveats and final thoughts

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/spatial-support-in-prep

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena