These shelves in Tableau provide a flexible and interactive way to construct visualizations and analyze data. By placing fields on the appropriate shelves, you can define the structure, layout, and appearance of your visualizations, and refine them based on your data analysis requirements.
In Tableau, shelves refer to the different areas within the Tableau interface where you can place fields and control the visualization's appearance and behavior. Shelves are essential for constructing and customizing visualizations in Tableau Desktop. By obtaining Tableau Training, you can advance your career in Tableau. With this course, you can demonstrate your expertise in Tableau Prep Builder, Tableau Desktop, Charts, LOD expressions, and Tableau Online. Real-life industry use cases in Retail, Entertainment, Transportation, and Life Sciences provide practical experience to create meaningful data visualizations and many more key concepts among others.
There are four primary shelves in Tableau:
1. Columns Shelf: The Columns shelf is located at the top of the Tableau interface. By dragging fields onto this shelf, you can define the dimensions or categorical variables that will determine the columns or X-axis of your visualization. For example, if you have a field representing different product categories, placing it on the Columns shelf will create separate columns for each category.
2. Rows Shelf: The Rows shelf is situated on the left side of the Tableau interface. Similar to the Columns shelf, the Rows shelf allows you to drag fields to define the measures or numerical variables that will determine the rows or Y-axis of your visualization. For instance, if you have a field representing sales figures, placing it on the Rows shelf will display the data as rows in your visualization.
3. Marks Shelf: The Marks shelf is positioned on the right side of the Tableau interface. This shelf allows you to control the appearance and behavior of individual marks or data points in your visualization. By dragging fields onto the Marks shelf, you can determine how data points are represented, such as bars, lines, circles, or symbols. Additionally, you can assign fields to properties like color, size, shape, or label text to further enhance the visual encoding.
4. Filters Shelf: The Filters shelf is located at the top right corner of the Tableau interface. As the name suggests, this shelf is used to apply filters to the data displayed in your visualization. By dragging fields onto the Filters shelf, you can define criteria to include or exclude specific data points based on certain conditions or values. Filters allow you to focus on subsets of your data and interactively explore different perspectives.