How to Join Data in Tableau with example?

Joins in Tableau plays a vital role in designing reports. In real-time, we usually create reports using a database or data warehouse, and we all know that the data present in the database is in normalized form. So, we can’t generate reports using a single table (mostly not, as per the business perspective).

For example, if you want to design a Tableau report for Country wise sales, Country information will be in Geography or territory table, and Sales will be in the Sales table. In these situations, we can use Tableau Joins to connect Geography and Sales tables.

Tableau Joins Example

The following screenshot will show the available Joins in Tableau to connect data

Inner: It returns the records (or rows) present in both tables If there is at least one match between columns. Please refer SQL Inner article to understand it better
Left: This Tableau Join returns all the records (or rows) present in the Left table and matching rows from the right. Please refer SQL Left article.
Right: It returns all the records (or rows) present in the Right table and matching rows from the Left one. Please refer SQL Right article to understand it better
Full Outer: This Tableau Join returns all the records (or rows) present in both the Left and the right table. All the Unmatched rows will fill with NULL Values. Please refer SQL Full article to know it better

How to Join Data in Tableau ?

In this article, we will show you how to Join Data in Tableau with a live example. For this Join, we are going to use the data present in SQL Server so, Please refer to Connecting to Server to understand the connection settings.

The data present in Employee

The data present in the Department

To describe how to join data in Tableau, we need at least two tables. First, Drag and drop the first table or left the table in the field region. In this joins example, we are using our Employee table as a left table

Add Two tables to establish Connection 4

Next, Drag and drop the second table or right table to the field region. When you dragged the Department, a pop-up window will be opened to select the Join type and Joining key, as shown below.

Tableau Inner Join Example

This example shows how to join data in tableau using the Inner.

As we all know, Dept ID in Employee table and Id in the Department table are the key columns we are going to use for Joining Employee and Department table. First, Select the Dept ID column from the Employee as shown below

Next, Select the Id column from department table as shown below

We created a simple table report with Occupation, Last name, Department name, First name on Rows and Sales Amount, and Yearly income on columns. Let us see the Inner report preview.

From the below screenshot, you can observe that Inner is producing 10 Rows, which includes all the matching records from Employee and Department table.

Tableau Left Join Example

This example shows you how to join data in Tableau using Left. For this, let us change the Join type from Inner to Left

Let us see the Left report preview. From the below screenshot, you understand that Left is producing 14 Rows. It includes all the records from the Employee and matching records from the Department. Remember, four non-matching records from Department will be displayed as Nulls

Tableau Right Join Example

In this Right Join in Tableau example, we show you how to connect data using the Right. Let us change the Join type from Left to Right.

Let’s see the Right report preview. From the below image, you can observe that the Right is producing 12 Rows. Output includes all records from the Department and matching records from the Employee table. Remember, two non-matching records from the Employee will display as Nulls.

Tableau Full Outer Join Example

This example explains to you how to join data in Tableau using Full outer or Full. For this, let us change the type from Right to Full Outer.

Let us see the Tableau Full Outer Join report preview. From the following screenshot, you can see that Full Outer is producing 16 Rows. It includes 2 Non-matching records from the Employee and 4 non-matching records from the Department.

NOTE: Using this method, you can connect more than two tables. Please be careful with complex Tableau joins, and it will be difficult to understand the data.