Visualizing Data in My Sleep with Tableau
Quantified self visualizations predominantly focus on daytime activity, not sleep habits. Perhaps this is because it’s one of the most difficult things to accurately measure, or maybe it doesn’t seem like an interesting data set. But, anyone with a newborn in the house knows how sleep (or lack of it) can quickly become a major […]
The Tableau Performance Checklist: Custom SQL – Watch for Useless Clauses
Today we’re examining the following guideline: “Watch for useless clauses, e.g. ORDER BY. Tableau is going to re-sort the data once loaded anyway.“ Let’s get started! SQL Overview SQL, or Structured Query Language, is designed for managing data within a relational database. It is essentially composed of two parts: Data Definition Language (DDL) Data Manipulation […]
The Tableau Performance Checklist: Custom SQL – Avoid Parameters
Currently, we’re going through the best ways to employ custom SQL and what to avoid. Here’s what we’ll cover today: “Avoid parameters in custom SQL in Tableau. Tableau wraps the custom SQL in a subquery that many databases don’t handle well. Consider building a view in the database or use a multi-table join with filters.“ Let’s […]
The Tableau Conference 2015 Session Planner
The annual Tableau Conference (formerly known as TCC) is one of my favorite parts about working at InterWorks and being a part of the Tableau Community. I get to meet all sorts of new Tableau users and attend fascinating sessions and keynotes. Some of last year’s highlights included Neil deGrasse Tyson, Hans Rosling, Dr. John […]
Performance Monitoring your Tableau Server Environment
Why do you need to monitor the performance of your environment? Your Tableau Server is a key element within your Tableau world, and for many people this is all they see of Tableau. They don’t get to play with Tableau Desktop, but they are the consumers of reports either through a web browser or mobile […]
Data Viz: 2015 Fantasy Football Draft Kit
Fantasy Football has become an incredible phenomenon in the United States. According to FSTA, over 56 million people will participate in some form of fantasy sports in 2015 with 73% playing fantasy football. I first started in 2007 as a means to socialize with coworkers at a new job. At the time, I didn’t even much […]
Data Viz: Wildfires in the USA
There’s been a lot of coverage of wildfires in the United States this year, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where some of the largest fires are consuming hundreds of thousands of acres. To bring some context, I scraped data from the US Forest Service’s website for 2015. The site also includes links for historical fire […]
8 Years on the Inc. 5000: A Closer Look at What Keeps Us Growing
A week or two ago, we received notice from the folks over at Inc. that InterWorks would again be listed on the annual Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies. For those counting, this will be our eighth year making the cut, and we came in at #2,600. That’s pretty significant and definitely worth sharing. […]
Exploring NYC Vehicle Crash Data in Tableau
Approximately 8.2 million people live within the five boroughs that make up New York City. Every year, thousands of accidents occur due to a multitude of contributing factors. NYPD collects information about each of those accidents and provides it for public use on nycopendata.socrata.com. We decided to explore the crash data to see if there […]
The Tableau Performance Checklist: Custom SQL – Limit in Live Connections
The rule that we’ll cover today is: “Limit custom SQL in live connections as they can be inefficient. Where possible, create a view on the database server to implement your custom SQL and connect Tableau to your view.“ In other environments and in other tools, using your own custom SQL connections would be a way […]