Set header and data start row for CSV/Text Files in Tableau Prep | New in tableau 2023.3

0:00Hey, it's Tim here in 23.3. You can set the

0:03start row or the header for CSV or text

0:06files inside

0:07a Tableau prep. This is such a great

0:08quality of life improvement. It's been on

0:10the waiting

0:11list for some time to find out how this

0:12works as ever. Let's get started. Okay, so

0:15here I have a

0:16CSV file, I've opened it up in Excel that

0:19can sometimes confuse people. But it's a

0:21CSV file

0:22in Excel. And you can see there that I've

0:24just gone and added some rows to the very

0:27top of the

0:27file, just 123 rows of entry that we can

0:30use. And my data actually starts on row

0:32four. So that's all

0:33you need to know about this file is a

0:35pretty standard sort of file that you'd get

0:37from the

0:37internet. I'm not going to go into the

0:39context of the data because it doesn't

0:40really matter for this.

0:41So let's go over to Tableau prep because I

0:43actually think there's quite a few nice

0:45things

0:45about the way this has been implemented. I

0:47will come back to a few things that aren't

0:49so nice.

0:50But anyway, let's go ahead, let me go to my

0:52start folder here. And on my desktop, I'm

0:55just going to

0:56drag in a file into Tableau prep, you can

0:58see I've got it right here, I was going to

0:59go ahead and drop

1:00it in. And there we go, we've dropped it in

1:02. And what it does immediately is it loads

1:04up the input

1:05step. And you can see a couple of things,

1:07let me annotate these for you. So we can

1:09see that we get

1:10a preview of the columns. And you can

1:12immediately see that it's calling the

1:14columns f one, f two,

1:15whatever. The reason it says first rows,

1:17because that's obviously the top of my data

1:19. If you recall,

1:20that was the very first column in my data

1:22set. And you've got f two and f three for

1:25all the other

1:25columns that don't have a header. So this

1:27is all based on this information, which is

1:29obviously new

1:30in this particular release before Tableau

1:32prep actually used to use this information

1:35from the

1:35very first round, it was kind of a pain

1:36because you had to do some work around with

1:38pivots and

1:39all that jazz. But here we are, you can set

1:41the header row and you can set the start

1:43rate. So

1:44what I'm going to do is I'm going to first

1:46change the start rate just to show you this

1:48because I

1:49think they've done something really nice

1:50here. So as I change the start rate, you'll

1:52see nothing

1:53changes because that's really not where the

1:55information is. But what I want you to do

1:56is pay attention to this area here and see

1:59what happens as I toggle the header rows.

2:02Okay, so if

2:03we go forward one, you can see that the

2:05columns change. And you can see it just

2:07changes this

2:08title here. And this is nice because you're

2:10getting real time feedback as you're doing

2:12this.

2:12It's so nice that I actually when I when I

2:14did this, I was like, Oh, this is nice. I'm

2:17not used

2:17to seeing this in something like Ultra

2:19because all tricks, you normally have to

2:20run the data first

2:21to get the input. But this is constantly

2:23running the data through for you, there is

2:25no run button

2:25to hit. And so you can see here on row

2:27three, we're at the header row, but it's

2:29still not

2:30working. So let's go ahead and hit it to

2:32row four. And did you see that it not only

2:34did it get the

2:35right columns, but again, I'm going to go

2:37back one and just get you to pay attention

2:39to what happened

2:39here. It's a very small thing, easy to miss

2:41. But I just think it's so nice that they've

2:43done this.

2:44If I set the header row to the same as the

2:47data start rate, it shifts the data start

2:50row one.

2:51So they didn't just leave it there to kind

2:53of crash on you look at this, if I hit that

2:55one more time,

2:56it increments the next one and that changes

2:58as well. So just some really nice little

3:01finesse

3:01is there that just make this so enjoyable.

3:03I don't know maybe I'm a nerd and this kind

3:04of stuff

3:05excites me. But nonetheless, I think that's

3:07nice to see. The rest of it is pretty

3:09straightforward.

3:10You know how to work with CSV files and

3:11tablet prep. If you don't check out my

3:13tablet prep crash

3:14course. You can find that on YouTube or in

3:16the playlist as well. So the rest of it

3:18just works

3:19as you would expect. The other thing to

3:21remember here is that we've got the source

3:22row number

3:23specifically for CSV and text files. And

3:25some of you are going to ask, hey, can I do

3:28this with

3:28Excel, you cannot do this with Excel. I don

3:31't know why. But I do know this, whenever

3:33you work

3:33with Excel file is always just not as easy

3:36to get stuff out of it as you'd think. And

3:38I think it

3:39might be to do with the way that Excel

3:40works with something called the jet engine

3:42in the background.

3:43But I don't understand enough about how

3:45tablet prep is built for why that would

3:47cause a problem

3:47because I know in something like all tricks

3:49, you can actually change the header and

3:51start row

3:51and play around with that as well. So that

3:53would be a nice feature to come maybe it's

3:55coming in a

3:56future release. And there's still some bugs

3:57, they're still ironing out. But that's

3:59pretty much

3:59it. You can do this with CSV and text file.

4:02So again, great quality of life improvement

4:05. So good

4:05to see this in tablet prep. I just think of

4:07all the flows in the past that I've had

4:09this issue.

4:10And now I'm going to be going back to

4:11tablet prep on neck the next big challenge

4:13I have with tablet

4:13prep, it's going to be such a joy to use.

4:15Because also in this release, there's been

4:17some enhancements

4:18to other features, specifically multi row

4:20calculations as well as a couple of others.

4:23I've already covered them in my playlist,

4:25go ahead and check that out. But as ever,

4:27I'll catch you in the next video.

4:28Transcribed by https://otter.ai

4:38[ Silence ]