The Blog

Ideas, inspiration, creativity & understanding

At The Data School we believe that sharing knowledge and expertise is key to driving innovation and growth in the data community. Posts cover all topics across the Tableau, Alteryx and PowerBI communities.

We make blogging a cornerstone of each consultant's time at The Data School with the aim to solidify their own learning while giving back to the community. Our goal is to empower you with the knowledge and skills you need to succeed in the ever-evolving world of data analysis. So, explore our blog today and join the conversation!

New York, US

Select Cohort

Select Author

Avatar
Mon 24 Feb 2025 | Amy Peacham
Makeover Monday 2024 Week 11: Exploring Housing Vacancies Across USA Metro Areas
This week, we took on the Makeover Monday 2024 Week 11 challenge, which focused on housing vacancies across USA metro areas. The dataset was sourced from an article by LendingTree, which utilised US Census Bureau data to create initial visualisations
Avatar
Mon 24 Feb 2025 | Gabriel Louks-Kirwan
Make Over Monday: 1 Hour Visualization Challenge
This week we were challenged to visualise vacancy rate data for the many homes across the U.S. that sit vacant. There are just over 5.6 million vacant housing units across the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas
Avatar
Mon 24 Feb 2025 | Victor Yuan
MakeoverMonday 2024W11
My attempt at a Makeover Monday
Avatar
Mon 24 Feb 2025 | Aronas Zilys
Makeover Monday 2024 - Week 11: Housing Vacancy Analysis
This week, I participated in Makeover Monday 2024 - Week 11, where we explored housing vacancy rates across various U.S. metropolitan areas. The dataset was sourced from LendingTree’s study on vacant homes, highlighting the percentage of empty properties across different cities
Avatar
Mon 24 Feb 2025 | Miffy Allen
Makeover Monday PowerBI: 2024 Wk11
My first attempt at Makeover Monday in PowerBI.
Avatar
Sun 23 Feb 2025 | Victor Yuan
Logical Functions... Makes sense right?
Logical Functions are extremely useful for dynamic data categorisation in Tableau. But what are they and how are they used?
Avatar
Fri 21 Feb 2025 | Aronas Zilys
Green and Blue in Tableau (It Rhymes)
Avatar
Thu 20 Feb 2025 | Victor Yuan
Box Plots Unboxed: A Simple Guide to a Powerful Tool
Box plots are powerful tools in data analysis, however tend to be misunderstood.
Avatar
Wed 19 Feb 2025 | Le Luu
Extracting Data from API with Tableau Prep Builder
I wrote two blogs about extracting data from API in Tableau Desktop. In the first part of that series, I introduced API, JSON structure, and how to parse JSON to extract data in Tableau Desktop (Part 1)
Avatar
Tue 18 Feb 2025 | Miffy Allen
Understanding Tableau: Blue and Green
One of the first things I learnt when exploring Tableau is that blue indicates a dimension whilst green indicates a measure. It’s Tableau 101. Except it isn’t.
Avatar
Tue 18 Feb 2025 | Amy Peacham
Data Before the Dashboards: Planning, Prepping & Proofing for Project Success
Stepping into my first week at The Data School, I quickly realised that the key to success in data projects starts long before the first dashboard is built. Understanding data—where it comes from, how it’s structured, and how to prepare it—lays the foundation for meaningful analysis
Avatar
Sat 15 Feb 2025 | Miffy Allen
Data Prepping: Splitting Columns
Before diving into analysis, data needs to be understood and cleaned. One option for cleaning is splitting columns.
Avatar
Sun 16 Feb 2025 | Victor Yuan
Stop Floating Around! Build Better Dashboards with Containers
Why are tiled layouts the better option for dashboards? How do you use containers instead?
Avatar
Fri 14 Feb 2025 | Aronas Zilys
Dashboard Design Fundamentals: A Quick Clean-Up Project & Reflection
Dashboards are powerful tools for data visualization, but they need to be designed thoughtfully to ensure clarity and usability
Avatar
Tue 11 Feb 2025 | Victor Yuan
Plan! Plan! Plan! (and Document!) – The first step as a Data School Consultant
When first looking at a dataset, I bet nearly everyone’s first instincts will be to open up their chosen analysis tool and jump straight into the task at hand. But is this what you should do?
Avatar
Tue 11 Feb 2025 | Aronas Zilys
Week 1 Of Being A Part Of The Data Team
Hi everyone! My name is Aronas Zilys, and I’ve just completed my first week at the Data School as part of DS49
Avatar
Mon 03 Feb 2025 | Annie Casey
building a data pipeline start to finish
This blog will detail the various steps our data travels through in this example data pipeline and will additionally highlight which steps can be automated using Kestra to simplify and automate our data pipeline from start to finish
Avatar
Thu 23 Jan 2025 | Cecily Santiago
How To: Create a Music Player in a Tableau Dashboard
Recently, I worked on Mike Monsoon's Progress Journal, a project management/album progress tracker dashboard for the musician Mike Monsoon, who releases his music on SoundCloud
Avatar
Mon 27 Jan 2025 | Annie Casey
Snowflake Notebooks: SQL/Python made easy
Snowflake now has notebooks! I first taught myself the basics of python using Jupyter Notebooks which made it easy to run sections of code at a time and see the output for each step
Avatar
Fri 17 Jan 2025 | Annie Casey
Extract / Load : Airbyte / S3 / Snowflake
Here's an example of what tools you can use to extract and load data. Let's say you have events data from your Amplitude account, tracking events on your website, and you want to extract and load that data into a table in snowflake
Avatar
Fri 10 Jan 2025 | Annie Casey
Git Command Cheat Sheet
Here's a handy Git Command Cheat Sheet disclaimer: There's A LOT more commands to know but this is what we've utilized this week in data engineering! Git init * Initializes a local folder to be used with git (creates .git file) Ex
Avatar
Fri 10 Jan 2025 | Mel Niere
NYC’s First Registered Data Analyst Apprenticeship
Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 8, 2025 Media Contact: Mel Niere Marketing Manager mel@theinformationlab
Avatar
Wed 27 Nov 2024 | Le Luu
Parsing JSON and Flattening Data in Snowflake
In the previous blogs, I introduced how to retrieve data from API and parse JSON in Tableau using TabPy (Part 1, Part 2) or using the JSON Parse tool in Alteryx (blog)
Avatar
Mon 18 Nov 2024 | Le Luu
Exploring VizQL Data Service: A First Look at the Developer Preview
In the previous blogs, I shared how to extract data from API and parse JSON directly in Tableau Desktop. In those blogs, I talked about what is API, and JSON structure, and how to parse data from simple and complex JSON structures in Tableau Desktop. You can read it here (part 1, part 2)
Avatar
Tue 19 Nov 2024 | Salome Grasland
SVG to PNG Conversion with Wand and ImageMagick in Python
When working with vector graphics, SVG files are often the format of choice. However, situations arise where you need rasterized versions of these files, such as PNGs, for compatibility or performance reasons
Avatar
Fri 15 Nov 2024 | Kate Crawford
No-Code Solutions for Embedding Tableau in Salesforce
What are Salesforce Lightning Apps? Salesforce is an app-based platform that has several no-Code solutions for adding web components to its interface. This works similar to web objects on a Tableau Dashboard. There are two kinds of Salesforce apps: Classic and Lightning
Avatar
Tue 12 Nov 2024 | Cecily Santiago
Insight Out: Understanding Tableau's Admin Insights
Recently, I worked on a project for a client using Tableau's Admin Insights. The documentation provided by Tableau is sparse, so I had to experiment and investigate in order to understand the data sources I was working with
Avatar
Thu 07 Nov 2024 | Le Luu
JSON Parse Tool in Alteryx 2024.2
At the end of October 2024, Alteryx Designer updated the latest version to 2024.2. If you haven't updated it yet, click on this link to download and update Alteryx Designer to the latest version. Many of the updated features in this latest version are very helpful in preparing data
Avatar
Tue 05 Nov 2024 | Salome Grasland
Creating Buttons in Tableau to Control Dynamic Zone Visibility
Enhance your Tableau dashboards with interactive buttons to toggle between views using Dynamic Zone Visibility and custom shapes. Dynamic Zone Visibility introduced in Tableau 2022.3, allows you to show or hide dashboard elements based on user interactions
Avatar
Mon 04 Nov 2024 | Le Luu
Extracting Data from API and Parse JSON in Tableau Desktop - Part 2
In the first part, I introduced what is API and its process. I also walked through some main points about the JSON structure, extracting data from API in Python, and in Tableau Desktop with TabPy. However, the JSON structure in the first blog is simple. In Fig
Powered by The Information Lab
1st Floor, 25 Watling Street, London, EC4M 9BR
Subscribe
to our Newsletter
Get the lastest news about The Data School and application tips
Subscribe now
© 2025 The Information Lab