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Joining Excel Worksheets
| You may have heard that Tableau supports database joins, but did you know that this means you can join tables in Microsoft Excel too? Let's say you have an Excel worksheet containing 10 fields describing order information. You can join 5 additional fields from a second Excel worksheet to the first worksheet and then analyze all of the columns as a unified whole. | |||||
Here's how it works.1. Begin by connecting to an Excel workbook. |
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| 2. Once connected to the first table (e.g. the first Excel worksheet or named range), you can add more tables by selecting Data > Tables. | |||||
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| 3. The Tables dialog box lists the tables you are already connected to. Click Add New Table. | |||||
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| 4. The Add Table dialog box opens. All of the tables available in the workbook are shown at the top. Select the table you want to add. | |||||
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| 5. In most cases, Tableau automatically suggests a join based on the structure of your data. The join is shown at the bottom of the dialog box. You can edit the join by switching to the Join pane. When finished, click OK. | |||||
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| 6. Tableau organizes the Data window by table so you can easily identify where each field is coming from. | |||||
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| Note:When you join Excel worksheets in Tableau you are essentially adding more columns to the data source. In essence you are making the first data source "wider" by joining in new columns. The join feature is not designed for appending one worksheet table to the bottom of another. If you have so much data in Excel that it doesn't all fit on one worksheet, the best thing to do is to export your data to a database program. | |||||
| The view shown below uses fields from both the Excel worksheets. It displays the returns for every customer and product with the return status indicated by the color of the mark. | |||||
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