Bulk rename fields in Tableau Prep: New in Tableau 2021.2

0:00In Tableau 2021.2 Tableau finally added

0:04bulk rename for Tableau Prep in Tableau

0:06Prep Builder

0:07and Tableau Prep in the browser through web

0:09altering. In this video I'm going to show

0:11you

0:11how it all works. Let's get stuck in. Okay

0:14so we're going to do this in Tableau Web Al

0:16tering

0:16to start with. Once we're in the interface

0:18everything's exactly the same in Tableau

0:20Prep

0:20Builder. I'm going to go over here to the

0:22explore tab, I'm going to find my flows by

0:24going to the

0:25top level projects drop down and actually

0:27selecting all flows. This will show me

0:29three flows,

0:30I've got two drafts, one that I haven't

0:32finished and a superstore as well. So I'm

0:35actually going

0:35to open this one, I built this back in

0:37April and you can see it's a very simple

0:39flow, it gets data

0:40from superstore sales from different

0:42regions and blends them into one data

0:44source. It's actually

0:45the sample flow in Tableau Prep. Now if I

0:47go ahead and edit this flow, annoyingly it

0:49opens up a new

0:50tab so we'll just go with this and once we

0:53're in you can see that this interface is

0:55pretty much

0:55exactly the same as Tableau Prep Builder

0:58for the desktop. Now one of the things you

1:00might do is you

1:02might rename fields that come from a

1:04specific database or that have been prepped

1:07in a specific

1:07way. Let's say you're doing a bunch of

1:09finance calculations and you know these

1:11calculations are

1:12only for finance, you might add a prefix or

1:14suffix to say fr or finance just to make

1:17sure that it's

1:18clear that those are finance related. So

1:20what I want to do here is actually add a

1:22prefix to

1:23all the things that are coming from our

1:25different regions. So if I just add a

1:27little plus here you'll

1:28see that I get a range of new drop downs.

1:30Now this list of drop down items is

1:32actually getting bigger

1:33and bigger and it's actually quite

1:35impressive because Tableau is really

1:37listening to feedback

1:38and they're adding features to Tableau Prep

1:40all the time. So what I'm actually going to

1:42do is add

1:42a clean step. Now a clean step is just one

1:44of these sort of slim bars and Tableau has

1:47this sort

1:47of visual design language here that's

1:49always the same. So clean steps are always

1:51these sort of

1:52long bars and as it just loads this data

1:54you'll see that again this is exactly the

1:56same as Tableau

1:57Prep. Now you'll see the option to rename

2:00fields just right here. So this is really

2:03important

2:03because before what you had to do is

2:05manually rename fields. What does that what

2:07I mean by

2:08that? Well what I'd have to do is I

2:09actually have to go over here to the right

2:11hand side

2:12and have to switch to one of these views to

2:14get the field list in a much more sort of

2:16usable way.

2:17So I think this one on the right hand side

2:18is actually a list of fields and then what

2:20I could do

2:21is I could double click on each of them and

2:22then manually rename them. Now

2:24that's fine if you've only got a few fields

2:27but if you wanted to rename everything that

2:29was coming

2:29out of a particular output that was a right

2:32pain. So now that we have this feature I'm

2:34actually

2:35going to go back to my clean step. I'm

2:36going to go back to the standard view. I'm

2:38just going to

2:39select rename fields and what it will do is

2:41actually give me this nice new interface. I

2:44just highlight it to you here on the left

2:46and we have a bunch of options. So the

2:49first one is

2:50we have the ability to do this for each

2:52field. I can replace text, I can do a bunch

2:55of other

2:55things as well. I can add a prefix and I

2:57can add a suffix. So let's say it's got the

2:59terminology id

3:01and you want to change that to identifier

3:03you can do that. So you can see here that I

3:05have

3:06row id and order id and if I go ahead and

3:08replace text I'm going to say that I want

3:11to find id and

3:12I want to replace it with identifier. You

3:16can see that it applies the change and it

3:19shows you what's

3:20going to happen in real time. So it's a

3:22really really nice feature, it's really

3:24nicely done

3:24and just doing that felt good. I can't tell

3:27you how many times I've had to do this

3:30manually

3:31and I also can't tell you how many flows I

3:33now need to revisit and make sure that they

3:35're using

3:35this rather than the manually renamed

3:37feature. The reason I want to do that is

3:40because it also

3:41automatically rename new fields that come

3:43through. So the problem with the way that I

3:45was doing it is

3:45if a new field came in I'd have to open the

3:47flow again manually rename it. Now we've

3:50got an

3:50automated way of making sure that happens

3:53every single time. So this is a big feature

3:56, like it

3:57should have been there from the start and

3:59Tableau prep is still relatively new. We're

4:01now into our

4:02third year of the product and yeah this is

4:04finally here and we can start using it and

4:06this is great.

4:07So it's a really really nice feature. Now

4:09you can do a bunch of other things, you can

4:10obviously

4:11change this. I haven't actually applied

4:13these changes, let's go back and I could

4:15say add a

4:15prefix and because I'd already typed

4:17identifiers it kept that in there and now

4:19you can see that

4:20it's applied it to everything. If I just

4:22use my square here, everything here in this

4:24row which is

4:25kind of nice and of course you can add a

4:27space to that and you can add a dash and

4:30you can do

4:30whatever you want and you can see it's

4:32dynamically changing the text. Suffix

4:34obviously goes at the

4:35end so in this case I might want to move my

4:37hyphen right to the beginning. If I just go

4:40over here and

4:41I just put that in front you can see that

4:43that also works too. So this is nice and

4:45now let's

4:46rename everything. I'm actually going to

4:48just close this and actually go back to

4:50replace text.

4:51I'm going to type in id and I'm going to,

4:53can I, oh no I'm going to type in

4:55identifiers here.

4:56Let's do this, identifiers, I think I've

5:01sparked that right and we're just going to

5:03rename them

5:04and I've ticked the box to automatically

5:06rename fields and so you can see that once

5:09it's renamed

5:09them we actually get this new set of icons

5:11that shows that we've actually renamed them

5:14and this

5:14is applied as a step change. So of course

5:17if we go back to our interface as normal

5:20you can see that

5:20we actually have this new step change here

5:23that applies and of course this can be

5:25brought into

5:25context with everything else. If you've

5:27done a bunch of other changes you can

5:29actually drag

5:30this rename fields up and down this list to

5:32have it come into effect sooner or later

5:35depending on

5:36when you want to rename fields. Bear in

5:38mind if you do that and you've been relying

5:40on those names

5:40prior to the name change then you change

5:42them before then you're going to break your

5:44calculation.

5:45So just think about that before you do that

5:47you might end up sort of bumping into new

5:49instances where things change but again if

5:50you're doing data prep you're probably used

5:52to that,

5:52it's nothing to worry about but it's just a

5:54nice quality of life improvement. Thank god

5:57it's

5:57finally here I can't wait to use it but my

5:59god are there a lot of flows we're going to

6:01have to go fix.

6:02Thanks for watching if you've enjoyed this

6:04video you know what to do subscribe, drop a

6:06comment

6:06below let me know what you like what you

6:08don't like and I'll catch you in the next

6:10video.

6:11[ Mike ]