Connect to data

For this first guided tutorial, we are using the Tableau iconic dataset: Sample-Superstore. This dataset is an Excel file about supermarket sales in the United States, contained in your Tableau repository folder. It's easy to understand and use. The Excel file is composed of three sheets: Orders, People, and Returns.

When you open Tableau, on the left, in the Connect area, click on Microsoft Excel:

• If you're a Mac user, navigate to Documents | My Tableau Repository | Data Source | [Your Tableau Version] | en_US-US and open the file named Sample - Superstore.xls
• If you're a Windows user, go to My Documents | My Tableau Repository | Data Source | [Your Tableau Version] | en_US-US and open the file named Sample - Superstore.xls

After selecting the file, you are in the Data Source workplace. In the top-left, you can see the name of the Sample -Superstore file and, underneath it, you can see the three sheets in the Excel file: Orders, People, and Returns. 

For this example, we only use Orders, so follow Tableau's invitation and drag the Orders table into the middle of the page:

Once it's done, Tableau gives you a snapshot of the first 1,000 rows. You can also see that, preceding each column name, an icon indicates the data type defined by Tableau:

Bravo! You've built your first Data Source. In the next chapters, we'll see in detail the meaning of each data type and the other options when connecting to data. For the moment, keep everything as it is and, at the bottom of the page, click on Sheet 1.