Types of Variable in Tableau - Datatypes

Datahark April 25, 2020

There are seven primary Datatypes Available in Tableau.

1. String values
2. Number (Integer) values
3. Date values
4. Date & Time values
5. Boolean values
6. Geographic values
7. Cluster or mixed values

When we load our Data or Connect tableau with Data source then Tableau is Smart enough to detect the type of data automatically, Each column/variable is assigned with a different symbol of distinct data type and we can identify the datatype easily.
Tableau also provide the ability to change the datatype from the dropdown in Datapane as shown Below - 
Datatypes in Tableau

Let's understand Tableau data types and in detail here, and see its Icons in datapane.

1. Numeric Data Type

There are two Numeric Data types available in Tableau

i. Number(Whole) - It Can contain Number without decimal Values i.e. Whole Number

Whole Number

ii. Number(Decimal) - It can contain Numeric data with Decimal Values

Decimal Number
2. Date & Time 

Date & Time datatype contains timestamp value with so many different formats available in it, like dd-mm-yyyy hh-mm-ss. The time data can be any of decade, year, quarter, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, etc.

Date & Time

3. Date 
Date datatype only contains date in all formats available like  dd-mm-yy, dd-mm-yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy, etc. It cannot contain time value in it.

Date

4. String 

The string data type consists of zero or more characters meaning it is a text data type. A value is considered as text/string once it is enclosed in single quote(' ') or double quotes(" ").

String

5. Boolean 

As name suggest Boolean datatype can contains only true/false Value.

Boolean

6. Geographic Role 

The geographic data value is used in a map. Values such as country name, state name, city, region, postal codes, etc. automatically detected by tableau as geographic data type. The field with Geographical data type is denoted by a globe icon.

Geographic Role
 
7. Cluster or Mixed Data Type

 Sometimes our data has a Field that does not have a single data type and rather have a mixture of data types, This is known as cluster group value or mixed data value. In that case, you can manually handle such field by segregating values of different data types into the column or Tableau will take care of it automatically.


To Learn More about how to Change Data type of a Variable in Tableau, Click Here


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