Tableau Prep Parameters: New in Tableau 2021.4

0:00Hey, Tim here. In Tableau 21.4, Tableau

0:02have added the parameter capability to

0:04Tableau prep. Let me

0:05show you how this works. I'm going to use

0:07the sample flow over here on the bottom

0:08left hand

0:09side. It can work with any flow. So we're

0:11just going to open this up and we're going

0:13to use this

0:14workflow as the default workflow. I'll also

0:17package this workflow and publish it up to

0:19server once we're able to publish prep

0:21flows to server. That will come at some

0:24point next year,

0:24but for now, if you're watching this video

0:27before that feature is available, I'll put

0:29a link to

0:29this flow in their Dropbox folder so you

0:32can try it out. Now, if I go to the top

0:34left here,

0:35you can see there's a new icon here with

0:37this sort of abacus looking sort of element

0:41here. And if I go

0:41in there, I can obviously create a

0:43parameter here. And this is the interface

0:45to create a new

0:46parameter. Now a few things to note before

0:48we get stuck in parameters exist throughout

0:51the entire

0:52prep flow. So you can use this anywhere in

0:54the prep flow, where essentially a

0:56calculation window

0:57can be created, or you can use it as an

0:59item in the output step. So in the output

1:01step,

1:02you can also use this. Essentially, what I

1:04'd say to you though, is don't stick to that

1:07as the way

1:07this works. Essentially, anytime you see

1:09this little abacus icon, know that you can

1:12use a

1:12parameter in that instance. And also if you

1:14click on this abacus icon, anywhere you see

1:17it, you're

1:17normally able to edit the parameter right

1:19there, or change the parameter right there

1:21as well. So

1:23let's go ahead and sort of set things up

1:25and get this working as we should. So let's

1:27go ahead,

1:28I'm going to actually make a segment

1:29parameter. Essentially, this will allow us

1:31to choose a

1:31parameter to then control the data set. I

1:34'll go ahead and I will set a value. So I'll

1:37just say

1:37Home Office. I know this data set fairly

1:40well. So I'll just set that for now. And

1:42now that I've done

1:43that, you'll see that I get this sort of

1:45area up here at the top left hand side,

1:47which allows me

1:48to sort of see where the prep parameter is

1:51actually used over here. You can see it's

1:54not

1:54being used at all. I can edit the parameter

1:56there. And I can of course go ahead and

1:58create another

1:59parameter if I wanted to. I can use

2:00multiple parameters in this particular use

2:02case. What I

2:03will do though, is I'll just go ahead and

2:05go to Clean 2 here, which is where I sort

2:07of think this

2:08is going to be the best place to implement

2:10this. Because of course, at this point, I

2:12actually used

2:13the wrong annotation here. At this point,

2:15this is where you intersect and go off to

2:18these two

2:18outputs. So essentially, I think I can use

2:20this as a pretty good place to intersect

2:22and have the

2:23parameter affect both outputs. Now, the

2:25segment thing I'm trying to match here is

2:27actually over

2:28here. So let's go across. The segment is

2:30just there. So you can see consumer,

2:32corporate and

2:33Home Office are all coming through as

2:35normal. So what I'll do in this clean step

2:37is I'll create a

2:38new calculation to basically check this

2:40parameter. So what I'll do is I'll go up

2:43here to create a

2:44calculated field. Let's go ahead and create

2:46that field. And what I will do is I'll

2:47actually just

2:48type in segment equals segment parameter.

2:51So there's our parameter, it's now working.

2:54And when

2:54I actually let me just name this before I

2:57get confused myself segment, param. And now

3:00that I've

3:01done that, I'm going to hit save. And you

3:03can now see that this parameter has popped

3:06in just there.

3:07Now, if I try and click on this little icon

3:08, unfortunately, here, it doesn't work.

3:10But what you should notice is that this

3:13calculation creates a Boolean outcome. So

3:15you

3:15can see here that it's created this Boolean

3:17outcome called segment param. So what I

3:19need

3:20to do if I want this to actually work, if I

3:22want this to actually filter something is I

3:24can actually

3:25keep just the values that are true in this

3:27particular case. So if I keep any of the

3:29values

3:29that are true, then essentially, what's

3:31actually happening is these two steps are

3:34responsible for

3:35filtering the data to match my parameter,

3:37the first one sets the parameter and tags

3:39the data,

3:40the second one does the filtering. So now

3:42that that's done, if we go across to our

3:45segment column,

3:46we should see that we only have one segment

3:48and that should be the home office segment.

3:50And you

3:50can see that working nicely there. Now, one

3:52of the things we'd like to do is to

3:54obviously set this

3:55parameter so you can change it. So I'm

3:57going to show you a trick over here, if I

3:59just click back

4:00on a previous step, I'll actually get to

4:02see the data as if I was running it from

4:04that point. So

4:05I don't have to undo anything, I can just

4:07click back three steps here, and I actually

4:09get to see

4:10my previous segments, then I'll go back to

4:12the parameter here and edit the parameter,

4:14you notice

4:15this is a modal window. So I can actually

4:17have this open whilst looking at my data, I

4:19think

4:20that's really, really key. It's really nice

4:22touch, I think. So let's go ahead and make

4:24this a list.

4:25Now, of course, it says the current value

4:27is home office. Interestingly, that value

4:30doesn't

4:30pre-populate here. So I think we do have to

4:33type it in again. So let's do that. I would

4:36expect that

4:36to pre-populate if it's already one value,

4:39but all you have to do is click on the next

4:42line,

4:42and then you can type the next one. So

4:46consumer, and then we're going to say

4:49corporate,

4:53and that's pretty much it. And then now

4:54when I go to my drop down, you can see that

4:56it matches up,

4:57and we can actually choose different things

4:59, and that's going to work absolutely fine.

5:00So let's

5:01just set this to consumer, click OK. And

5:04now that we've done that, the parameters

5:06changed, I can

5:07obviously go back to this, I can close this

5:09. And now if I go to my filter parameter, we

5:12'll see that

5:12this is running. And if I go back to my

5:15segment column, we should see that this has

5:19changed,

5:19indeed, to consumer. And again, if we check

5:22up there, you'll see that that's matching.

5:24So that's the sort of first way you can use

5:26parameters as variables throughout your

5:28data set.

5:28And don't forget, of course, you can create

5:30multiple parameters. So maybe you've got

5:32a sales percentage that needs to be applied

5:34to a set of values, you can set that as a

5:36parameter,

5:36then when the salesperson runs the flow,

5:38they can set their own percentages or

5:40values

5:41and have that run through. This is great

5:43for scenario modeling. Maybe you want to

5:44create a

5:45flow that just basically runs a bunch of

5:47scenarios, the user can come in set a bunch

5:50of parameters,

5:51and boom, the flow generates the scenario

5:53for that user as a data set. And they can

5:55start

5:55modeling that or looking at that, or even

5:58having that pipe into a specific data set

6:00specifically

6:01for that person. Imagine if this parameter

6:04also let you, for example, pull in the

6:06server username,

6:07and then you could create or append a row

6:10of data to a data source that had the

6:13scenario for that

6:14person. So they could have a date and time

6:16they run the scenario, and they can have a

6:17filter and

6:18a dashboard. So every time they run this

6:20scenario in prep, it would run, publish up

6:22the data source,

6:23and then when they connect to their work

6:24book, they can go in and sort of look at

6:26this stuff.

6:26It's a really sort of interesting use case,

6:28you can definitely try for this. But

6:30nonetheless,

6:31let's go ahead and show you the next way

6:33you can use parameters inside a Tableau

6:35prep.

6:36If we go to the output, we actually go to

6:38the output step here, you can see that we

6:41have this

6:42parameter icon over here on the bottom left

6:44available to use. And so this is really

6:46interesting,

6:47because of course, this allows us to

6:49parameterize both the name of the file and

6:52the location of the

6:53file. So this is kind of useful as well.

6:55And the thing about the location of the

6:57file is I sort of

6:58wish you were allowed to use not just the

7:00parameter, but the fields in the data

7:02source. This is

7:03something that Altrix has that I really

7:05like, I would love that to be added to this

7:07location

7:08area here. So you know, use a parameter or

7:11use a column in the data set would be a

7:13really nice

7:13option in that exact spot. But let's go

7:16ahead and add something. Let's append the

7:18segment to the

7:19file name. So we'll just do that. I put the

7:22space in the wrong place. There's a little

7:25bit of a

7:25weirdness here where the spacing sort of

7:27doesn't match where the highlighting ends,

7:28but nonetheless,

7:29that's fine. So the file will be called

7:31segment superstore sales. At the moment, it

7:34's a hyperfile.

7:34If I actually go browse, if I actually

7:37cancel and yeah, I think that's right,

7:39actually, if I go to

7:40browse and I just open up this view here,

7:43let's go to my desktop and let's just put

7:45something

7:46in here. This will have to do and then that

7:49will be consumer superstore sales. You see,

7:52it is actually pulling through the

7:54parameter already and hit accept. So that

7:56will work.

7:57And here, what you can actually do is you

7:59can click on this text and change that

8:01parameter

8:02right there. So you can even change that

8:04output right here. And when you hit set,

8:06it obviously runs the data through and

8:08checks everything through again. And you're

8:10pretty much

8:11good to go and it's going to do exactly

8:13what you expect. So that's that. Everything

8:15is set up now.

8:16What I can now do is I can of course run

8:18the flow. And of course, it will ask me to

8:21set the parameter.

8:22And this prompt is actually a tick box that

8:24you can enable. If I go over here to edit

8:27the

8:27parameter, you see prompt for value at

8:29runtime. If you do that and click OK, what

8:31will happen is

8:32when you run the flow, even on server, it

8:34will ask for this option. So you'll see

8:36that it's

8:37prompting me for the value. Set that value,

8:40hit run. And now the flow will run and it

8:43will process

8:44that parameter as it runs through the data

8:46set. Tableau Prep would like to write some

8:48files to

8:48my desktop. It's actually been able to do

8:50that. And there we go. It puts 7,000 rows

8:53or something

8:53through. But I actually know there's

8:55actually there's more than that. If I

8:57create a clean step

8:58just before here, you'll see there's 41,000

9:01. I'm actually looking over here for the row

9:03numbers. So

9:03before the step, it's 41,000. And here

9:07after the step after our prep parameter has

9:10been implemented,

9:11there's only 7,000 rows as you can see here

9:13. So that's pretty much how the parameter

9:16capability

9:16works. There's so many sort of useful

9:18scenarios here. It starts to bring Tableau

9:20Prep to life,

9:21actually, because I think this is a really

9:23nice way of starting to think of ways of

9:25making flows

9:26dynamic and really sort of well integrated

9:28to the ways we work day to day, but also

9:31using them to do

9:32really cool things, but maybe hinting to

9:33another point here, which is Tableau is

9:35really starting

9:36to add features and capabilities into Table

9:39au Prep that we've been asking for for a

9:41long while. And

9:42I'm glad this one's here. So yeah, this is

9:44very similar to Alteryx constants, if that

9:46makes sense.

9:47So constant in Alteryx is a value you can

9:49set and then you can call it inside of the

9:51flow. It's very

9:52similar to that. But in Tableau, we call

9:54those parameters. Thanks for watching this

9:56video. Check

9:57out the other videos on 21.4 release on the

9:59channel and hopefully I'll catch you in the

10:02next

10:02video soon. Thanks for watching.