In Tableau Prep Builder, outputs refer to the result of a data preparation process. In other words, outputs are the result of all the cleaning and reshaping done to the input data imported into Tableau Prep Builder.
The output represents the state of the data after these steps have been performed and can be used as a foundation for further analysis and visualization, meaning it can also be used as an input for another flow in Tableau. This allows you to chain multiple flows together to create a more complex data preparation pipeline.
Outputs in Tableau Prep can be saved in different formats: Tableau Data Extract (.hyper), Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) or comma-separated values (.csv) file formats. Hyper files are optimised for Tableau Desktop. They have several advantages over other file formats, including improved query performance, better compression, and faster data extract creation and are optimised for large and complex data sets. Save as a .hyper file if you plan to use the data in Tableau Desktop for further analysis or visualisation. Save as .csv or .xlsx files if you want to use the data with different software tools or share with others.
Outputs can be saved as a local file on your laptop, directly to Tableau Server or Tableau Online, as part of a database where they can be used as a data source for analysis or published as a data source or to CRM Analytics (v2022 4.1). When saving locally, the default location to save outputs will be your 'My Tableau Prep Repository' folder which is automatically created when you install Tableau Prep, so change this as needed.
You can also choose how you want to create the output table - as a new table or you can append it to the existing data.
If at the begging of the prep process you selected the option to incrementally refresh your data, you will also have these write options for the incremental refresh.
