# How to create a TDS & TDSX file in Tableau: Saving a data source.

> 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:** 2020-10-29
- **Format:** Video · 10 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data prep, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Tableau (data modelling, extensions, formatting, relationships)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-tds-and-tdsx-files
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/V8oMeay87jM

I walk through what TDS and TDSX files are in Tableau and how to create them. I show how a Tableau Data Source file stores metadata like hierarchies, data types and formatting, while a packaged TDSX bundles the data alongside that metadata, and I demonstrate building and reusing both.

## Key takeaways

- A TDS file is an XML file that stores only metadata about a data source — connections, relationships, hierarchies, number formatting and data types — while a TDSX packages that metadata together with the actual data (the hyper extract).
- Saved data sources live in version-specific folders on your machine, which is why items like Superstore Sales appear automatically on the Tableau start screen.
- Right-click a data source and choose 'Add to Saved Data Sources' to export a TDS, switching the dropdown to TDSX to save a packaged version.
- Dragging a TDS file into an open workbook adds it as a second connection and preserves the hierarchies and formatting you built previously, and you can still edit relationships afterwards.
- A TDSX is a compressed zip of the hyper file plus the TDS, so it can appear smaller on disk than the uncompressed TDS due to that compression.

## Chapters

- 0:00 What TDS and TDSX files are
- 1:03 Preparing a Postgres data source
- 2:17 Building formatting and hierarchies
- 3:38 Saving a TDS file
- 5:09 Inspecting the TDS as XML
- 6:14 Opening and reusing a TDS
- 7:27 Creating a packaged TDSX file

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-tds-and-tdsx-files

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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