Using union

In this recipe, we will combine a number of comma separated value (CSV) files into a single data set in Tableau.

Getting ready

To follow this recipe, download the business license files from the City of Vancouver's website from http://data.vancouver.ca/datacatalogue/businessLicence.htm:

Download the CSV version, and save all the files in a local directory in your computer:

How to do it...

Here are the steps to prepare the data files:

1. Click on New Data Source icon and connect to business_licenses.csv which contains the most recent year's records:

   

2. Drag New Union to just underneath the business_licenses.csv until you see the Drag table to union message:

   

3. Select all other CSV files from the Files pane and drag them to the Union window:

   

4. Click on OK after you confirm that all the files have been added to the Union window:

   

5. Add a new sheet and create your visualization using this data set.

How it works...

A union operation allows multiple sets of data to be appended to each other, that is, new records...