Chapter 2: Extract and Load Processes
Tableau Prep Builder allows you to connect to a large variety of industry-leading data platforms.
When Tableau Prep was initially launched, the only outputs supported were flat files and Tableau native formats TDE and Hyper. However, since the 2020.2.3 release in August 2020, you can output to database platforms such as SQL Server as well, making Tableau Prep a much more appealing tool. It allows you to do the following:
- Ingest and output to flat files and a variety of database platforms
- Learn how to work with Tableau extracts
In this chapter, you will find recipes to ingest and output the data you require from and to a wide variety of data types:
- Connecting to text and Excel files
- Connecting to PDF files
- Connecting to SAS, SPSS, and R files
- Connecting to on-premises databases
- Connecting to cloud databases
- Connecting to Tableau extracts
- Connecting to JDBC or ODBC data sources
- Writing data to CSV and Hyper files
- Writing data to databases
- Setting up an incremental refresh
If you are connecting a BI tool such as Tableau Desktop to your data, selecting the appropriate output type may impact your Tableau workbook performance.
