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Tableau | Data prep | Tool strategy

Tableau Prep input step enhancements | New in Tableau 2023.1

Pre-filtering your dates at the input step in Tableau Prep 2023.1 means a smaller subset and a far more performant flow long term.

Tim Ngwena •20 March 2023 •2 min read •5 min watch •2.5K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2023.1

You can now hold shift to select multiple fields at once in the input step and right-click to remove them
Removing fields applies a change to the step that you can view or undo via the changes column
You can pre-filter at the input step using either a calculation or relative dates by right-clicking a date field
Filtering dates at input rather than in a later clean step gives you a smaller data subset and a more performant flow long term
Salesforce data, with its hundreds of date fields, particularly benefits from input-step date filtering

0:00In Tableau 23.1 Tableau have improved a few

0:03capabilities with the input step in Tableau

0:05prep.

0:06If you want to follow along just open the

0:08sample flow and you open up Tableau prep

0:09and it will load

0:10up this particular flow. If I go to the

0:12orders input here at the top and I just

0:15bring this up,

0:16you might have noticed in the last few

0:17release that Tableau prep has been sort of

0:19getting a

0:19little bit of an enhancement in terms of

0:21the user interface, a few changes here and

0:23there.

0:24And but fundamentally in this release one

0:26of the things you can now do, this used to

0:28drive me

0:29absolutely crazy. You can now hold shift

0:32and select multiple items at once. So I don

0:36't know

0:36what I actually did there. I did something

0:38very different there. Let me just try that

0:39again. Let's

0:40select all today, hold shift, select

0:42customer id and it did. I did something

0:44then it selected

0:45the whole column. So maybe that's a small

0:47bug but nonetheless you can select a bunch

0:50of fields,

0:50right click and you can remove them. And

0:52notice when you remove them it crosses them

0:54out and if

0:56you're not familiar with Tableau prep,

0:57anytime you do anything like that it

0:59actually applies a change

1:00to the step. So you can see here there's a

1:02change. Let's go ahead and take a look at

1:04that and when we

1:05select that you can see the items have been

1:07removed. And if you want to undo that you

1:10can

1:10of course just go here and hit the x and it

1:12will basically remove those changes. The

1:14other way you

1:15could do that, let's say you select four

1:17and you only want to remove one. Let's go

1:19ahead and remove

1:19all four again. If I move my face to the

1:22left, if you go to this changes column what

1:24you can actually

1:25do is you can actually undo this change.

1:27But what this change does is it remembers

1:29everything that

1:30was done in that step. So if we right click

1:32and remove, notice it removes all the other

1:34four as

1:34well. That's not what I was expecting.

1:37Honestly I'd expect to just remove that one

1:39item from that

1:40change if that makes sense. But nonetheless

1:42maybe that's something coming in the future

1:44.

1:44So it's a really nice quality of life

1:45improvement. The other improvement in this

1:48release is with

1:49date. Actually if you go to the order date,

1:53what you can do is you can right click and

1:56you can

1:56filter. And there's two ways you can filter

1:58. You can do a calculation which allows you

2:00to type

2:00whatever calculation you want. And then if

2:03you right click order date, go back to

2:05filter, you can

2:05actually use relative dates. This is

2:07allowing you to essentially pre-filter

2:09based on a bunch of dates

2:11at input. Now the reason this is is because

2:13in essence up until now Tableau Pro, when

2:16you connect

2:16to any data source, let's say you connect

2:18to Salesforce. Salesforce is the big talk

2:19of the

2:20moment. Now Salesforce has literally

2:22benefits from this release in so many ways.

2:24If you've ever

2:25connected to the opportunity table in Sales

2:27force, it's just full of absolutely hundreds

2:30of useless

2:31fields. Some fields will never get used

2:32because an organization doesn't actually

2:34use them.

2:35And the other thing is there's just

2:36hundreds of dates. So like whenever you

2:38look at any Salesforce

2:39data set, there's just dates everywhere.

2:41There's history day, change day,

2:43opportunity creation date,

2:44last edit date, last modified date, last

2:47access date, just date galore. So depending

2:51on your

2:51criteria, what you want to be able to do is

2:53to filter to a specific time range. And

2:56what that

2:56does is that later on in the flow when you

2:58're working with your data, because you

3:00filtered at

3:01the start, you're working with a much

3:03smaller subset. So what this change has the

3:05effect of

3:06doing is it makes it easier for you to have

3:08a more performant flow long term because

3:11you're already

3:12filtering everything out at the very

3:13beginning, which means that Tableau prep

3:15doesn't consider it

3:16in the flow as it's processing your data

3:18set up until this change, people would have

3:20to essentially

3:22put in a clean step, which is what you've

3:24got here, the dual the data prep in the

3:26clean step,

3:26and then from then on, they'd go but at

3:28that point, the data is already all coming

3:30into the

3:31flow and it's already sort of slowing you

3:33down. So quick one 75% of people watching

3:36the video right

3:37now, at least in the last 90 days on

3:39subscribed over the last year, it's 80%

3:42even bigger. So I'd

3:44really appreciate your help hitting that

3:45sub button. So we can push forward.

3:47Unfortunately,

3:48the subscriber count is the measure that

3:50some organizations look at. And those

3:52organizations

3:53are going to help bring this content to

3:55another level. So I really want your help

3:57to help push

3:57this channel to the next level. Let's carry

4:00on. This is a really nice quality of life

4:02improvements

4:02specifically for the input step. I'm now

4:05going to make another video about the

4:07column row order. I'm

4:08going to do that as a separate video

4:10because it's it's a bit of a like a

4:12philosophical feature as

4:13well as this the new feature we should talk

4:15about. So go ahead and check out that video

4:17. And yeah,

4:18check out all the other videos that I've

4:20made on 23.1 and many other releases over

4:22the last

4:22couple of years. I'll catch you in the next

4:24one.

4:25Transcribed by https://otter.ai

4:35[ Silence ]

In this blog post and the video above, we take a look at the improved input step capabilities in Tableau Prep 23.1. These enhancements make it easier for users to manage and filter their data, ultimately resulting in a more streamlined and efficient flows due to optimisations at input.

On the left, multi select and on the right, the ability to use dates to pre-filter in Tableau Prep.

Selecting and Removing Multiple Fields:

One of the most significant improvements in Tableau Prep 23.1 is the ability to select and remove multiple fields at once. Previously, users had to remove fields individually, which was a time-consuming process. Now, you can simply hold the shift key, select multiple fields, right-click, and choose ‘Remove’. This will cross out the removed fields and apply the changes to the step. If you want to undo these changes, you can click the ‘X’ in the ‘Changes’ column.

Filtering Dates:

Another useful improvement in Tableau Prep 23.1 is the ability to filter dates more efficiently. Users can now right-click on a date field and choose the ‘Filter’ option. There are two ways to filter dates:

Calculation: This option allows you to type in a custom calculation for your filter.
Relative dates: This feature enables you to pre-filter your data based on a specific time range.

Filtering dates at the input step is advantageous because it allows you to work with a smaller subset of data, improving the performance of your flow. Previously, users had to perform filtering in a clean step, which would slow down the entire process.

These improvements in Tableau Prep 23.1 significantly enhance the user experience, especially in terms of managing and filtering data. The new features allow for a more efficient and streamlined workflow, ultimately making it easier for users. So, go ahead and explore these new features in Tableau Prep 23.1 and stay tuned for more updates and tutorials.

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