Data Source Page

Before or during your analysis, you may want to make changes to the Tableau data source. You can do that on the Data Source page. Tableau takes you to the Data Source page after you establish the initial connection to your data. You can also access the Data Source page by clicking the Data Source tab from any location in the workbook. the Data Source page generally consists of four main areas: left pane, join area, preview area, and metadata area.

Left pane area

The left pane of the Data Source page displays details about the data that Tableau Desktop is connected to. For file-based data, the left pane might display the file name and the worksheets in the file. For relational data, the left pane might display the server, the database, and the tables in the database. 

NOTE: The left pane does not display for cube (multidimensional) data.

Join area

When connected to most relational and file-based data, you can drag one or more tables to the join area to set up your Tableau data source.

When connected to cube data, the top of the Data Source page displays the available catalog or queries and cubes to select from to set up your data source.

Preview area

Use the preview area to review the fields and the first 10,000 rows of your data contained in the data source. You can also use preview area to make general modifications to your data source, such as hiding or renaming a field, or changing its data type.

To select multiple fields in the preview area, click a column, and then drag the mouse to select more columns. To select all fields, click the area in the upper-left corner of the preview area like in the example, below.

Note: The preview area does not display for cube (multidimensional) data.

Metadata area

The metadata area displays the fields in your data source as rows so that you can quickly examine the structure of your data source and perform routine management tasks, such as renaming fields or hiding multiple fields at once.

When connected to cube data, the metadata displays by default.