A Quick Way to Reengineer Worksheets & Workbooks for New Data – 

Imagine you are receiving updated versions of the same or similar set of data.  Possibly, you are sent an excel file each week with the current market data, or perhaps a colleague that works for your company, within a different business unit, would like to copy your analysis in Tableau using his or her data set.  IE – How do I easily update this worksheet or workbook if the data changes exist within an entirely different data source?  If you wish to utilize existing worksheets and workbooks with new or different data, you may do so by editing the data connection within Tableau.  This very simple process will allow you to apply new data against an existing analysis without having to completely reengineer the view.

The steps are as follows:

1 – Build a worksheet, or open an existing worksheet.

2 – From the Data menu select:  Data > “Name of Your Data Connection” > Edit Connection

3 – Select the new/different data file you would like to run as the existing worksheet source file (Note- You can also rename the connection under “Step 4” within the dialog menu, as it will maintain the existing data connection name Ex- “Example Data 1”)

4 – Replace references for any field name changes:  Right Click on “Field Name” > Replace References
(*If field names are identical this step is not required)

5 – Select the corresponding field name and Tableau will now recognize the new field. (“Number of Units” to “Units Sold”)

The worksheet has now been updated to reflect the changes within my new data set.

ORIGINAL

FINAL

(Note- The addition of fields does not require additional steps Ex- “Cost”)

For any questions or comments regarding this post or general topics, please feel free to leave a comment or send an email.