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!

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Fri 21 Feb 2025 | Aronas Zilys
Green and Blue in Tableau (It Rhymes)
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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
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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.
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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?
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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
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Thu 31 Oct 2024 | Le Luu
Extracting Data from API and Parse JSON in Tableau Desktop - Part 1
API stands for Application Programming Interface. According to the Postman page, API is a set of protocols where different software components communicate and transfer data. The client will send the request when they need to get the data
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Fri 13 Sep 2024 | Kate Crawford
Put Good In, Get Good Out: How to use Tableau Prep for Tableau Pulse
Tableau Pulse insights are enhanced by AI. But, is your data ready for Tableau AI? In this post, I’ll share tips and Tableau Prep steps for Tableau Pulse Metrics. What is Tableau Pulse? Tableau Pulse is a data interface available on Tableau Cloud
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Fri 18 Oct 2024 | Salome Grasland
Handling Quarter-Over-Quarter Calculations in Tableau
Check out the dashboard here. The Problem: Selecting Q1 and Getting an Undefined Difference Quarter-over-quarter comparisons are crucial for understanding business trends, but they can sometimes present challenges, especially when dealing with the first quarter (Q1) of a timeline
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Thu 26 Sep 2024 | Brenda Chavez
Tableau Thursday Tutorial: Dynamic Top N Filter
This tutorial uses Tableau's sample dataset, Superstore. For instructions on how to access this dataset, please see this guide. In Tableau, creating a dynamic "Top N" filter allows users to control how many top items (e.g., customers, products, categories) they want to display on a dashboard
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Wed 09 Oct 2024 | Vivian Ng
Can I Axis You a Question?
Can I axis you a question? How do you make an axis dynamic? We’re moving away from the Once More Unto the HIPAA Breach dashboard (HIPAA breach reviz) now, to other topics pertaining to other dashboards
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Mon 07 Oct 2024 | Le Luu
Extracting Words and Count Their Frequency from Sentences in Tableau Prep
As a data analyst, I usually work on the numeric data. However, the text data can also give me some insight. Specifically, most companies that sell products, want to hear feedback and reviews from the customer. The text data from the feedback and reviews are very helpful, and insightful
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