Blending

Data blending in Tableau Desktop is another method of combining data from multiple data sources in a side-by-side structure via common fields that does not create a physically joined single table. Blending functions differently to both joins and relationships in Tableau in that the data is not actually joined directly. Each source is aggregated separately and then presented together in the view.

The benefit of blending over relationships or joins is that multiple connecting fields can be established between data sources, and these can be toggled on or off with each view in a workbook. This makes them much more dynamic and therefore suitable to problems that require multiple conflicting connections at different levels of aggregation between two Tableau data sources. For example, a Sales data source with values by Country and Product Category could be blended with a Sales Target data source, also broken down by Country and Product Category. Instead of fixing a join or relationship...