2 Connecting to Data in Tableau

Tableau offers the ability to connect to nearly any data source. It does this with a unique paradigm that leverages the power and efficiency of existing database engines or alternately extracts the data locally. We'll look at joins, blends, unions, and the brand new object model in Chapter 13, Understanding the Tableau Data Model, Joins, and Blends. In this chapter, we'll focus on essential concepts of how Tableau connects to and works with data. We'll cover the following topics:

• The Tableau paradigm
• Connecting to data
• Managing data source metadata
• Working with extracts instead of live connections
• Filtering data

We'll start by gaining an understanding of the underlying paradigm of how Tableau works with data.