# How to use excel named ranges in Tableau | Tableau tutorial

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2022-02-09
- **Format:** Video · 11 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data prep, Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Excel (named ranges); Tableau (prep)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-use-excel-named-ranges-in-tableau-tableau-tutorial
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5VUqMIcr2I

I show how Excel named ranges can rescue a messy spreadsheet that has multiple tables crammed onto a single sheet. I demonstrate defining named ranges in Excel, then connecting to them as separate data sources in both Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep, and unioning them into one clean data set.

## Key takeaways

- Named ranges let you define discrete tables within a single Excel sheet by setting the top-left and bottom-right cell boundaries via Formulas > Define Name.
- Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep both read Excel named ranges, showing them with a distinct icon and treating each as a separate connection you can union, join or relate.
- If a named range that already exists isn't a formatted table, just highlight the range and define a name; an unnamed range borrows the first column's value as its name.
- Tableau can cache Excel files, so close the workbook and reconnect, restart Tableau, or save under a new filename to force the freshest data through.
- After a union, Tableau adds a Table Name field so you retain context on which named range each row originated from.
- Named ranges are best reserved for dynamically updated Excel files with no better source; otherwise prefer pulling from the raw data, Tableau Prep or Alteryx.

## Chapters

- 0:00 The messy Excel data problem
- 1:30 What named ranges are
- 3:09 Defining a new named range
- 4:03 Connecting named ranges in Tableau Desktop
- 4:59 Refreshing data and cache issues
- 6:40 Unioning ranges into one clean set
- 7:51 When to use named ranges
- 8:51 Named ranges in Tableau Prep

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-use-excel-named-ranges-in-tableau-tableau-tutorial

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena