When you try to join two or more different datasets in Tableau you will see some handy join options in the form of Venn Diagram. But what do they really mean? Here’s a quick, handy guide.
Cross-Database Joins at a Glance
Don’t forget! Joining across databases joins at the row level. If you want to join on aggregated results then use Blending. You can read more about the difference on Rachel Costa’s blog.
First pick your individual Primary Data Source column headers and match those headers across to your Secondary Data Source column headers.
Inner Join
Picks up:
ONLY where the field names match in both datasets.
(i.e. you could fail to bring in some data if not careful!)
Left Join
Picks up:
ALL Primary field names and only those that match from the Secondary dataset.
Right Join
Picks up:
ALL Secondary field names and only those that match from the Primary dataset.
Full Outer
Picks up:
ALL Primary field names and ALL Secondary field names. You may find Nulls where things don’t match but all the data will be there.