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InterWorks Tableau Performance Checklist

The document provides a checklist of best practices for maintaining performance in Tableau, divided into seven categories: data, filtering, custom SQL, calculations, rendering, local computations, and dashboard layout. The checklist includes tips like using extracts, limiting custom SQL, avoiding unnecessary marks and images, and limiting dashboard size.

Uploaded by

Samaksh Kumar
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© © All Rights Reserved
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83 views3 pages

InterWorks Tableau Performance Checklist

The document provides a checklist of best practices for maintaining performance in Tableau, divided into seven categories: data, filtering, custom SQL, calculations, rendering, local computations, and dashboard layout. The checklist includes tips like using extracts, limiting custom SQL, avoiding unnecessary marks and images, and limiting dashboard size.

Uploaded by

Samaksh Kumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Tableau

THE

Performance
Checklist
Ideal for
Tableau v9.x
or earlier by InterWorks

Ask Tableau users what they love most about Tableau,


and they’ll likely say it’s the ability to create stunning data
visualizations quickly and easily. Tableau was designed
with usability in mind, apparent in its approachable
interface, yet behind that interface lies a powerful collection
of components capable of cranking out complex data
visualizations at lightning speed.

Unfortunately, users inevitably find ways to bog things down.


It’s easy to do, and we’ve done it plenty of times ourselves.
The good news is that we learned from these mistakes
and took the time to jot down a few ways to maintain
peak performance. We call it the The InterWorks Tableau
Performance Checklist. It’s full of performance-saving best
practices, and we hope it helps you as much as it’s helped us.
THE LIST
The InterWorks Tableau Performance Checklist is divided into seven main categories.
You’ll find those categories with their subsequent best practices in the master list below:

DATA
Keep analysis simple. Work with a subset of your data. Extract a sample if needed.

Bring in only the data needed for analysis. Consider adding a data source filter or using an extract. If
using a join, minimize the number of joined tables.

Use “Describe” to explore dimensions in new data sets without having to load them into a viz
(keyboard shortcut CTRL+E).

Remove unused columns (measures/dimensions) in order to minimize extract refresh time or custom
SQL query time.

Create a published TDS file for your business team to use, rather than each analyst creating their
own data source. This includes all metadata associated with dimensions, measures, calculated fields,
hierarchies, sets, parameters and naming conventions.

Use extracts wherever possible to accelerate performance. Hide unused and confidential fields. Roll
up data granularity by pre-aggregating or filtering. Break hierarchies to only visible dimensions.

FILTERING
Minimize the number of quick filters. Use dashboard filter actions where possible.

Avoid high-cardinality quick filters (multi-select or drop-down lists). High-cardinality quick filters are
slow to load and render.

Avoid quick filters or actions that drive context filters. These require reloading the context table and
should be avoided wherever possible.

Keep range quick filters simple. The more complex the range, the slower the query.

Replace quick filters showing “Only Relevant Values” with dashboard filter actions. They will cascade
as your user interacts, and they perform faster.

Don’t be lazy with user filters. Security by user filters can impact performance on Tableau Server as
the server cannot share connections and query caches if user filters are active. Consider building a
summary view that is a user-agnostic overview using a pre-aggregated extract with underlying data
hidden. For a detailed view, restrict it to specific users or active directory groups instead of user filters.

CUSTOM SQL
Limit custom SQL in live connections as they can be inefficient. Where possible, create a view on the
database server to implement your custom SQL and connect Tableau to your view.

Avoid parameters in custom SQL in Tableau. Tableau wraps the custom SQL in a subquery that
many databases don’t handle well. Consider building a view in the database or use a multi-table
join with filters.

Watch for useless clauses, e.g. ORDER BY. Tableau is going to re-sort the data once loaded anyway.

The InterWorks Tableau Performance Checklist is ideal for Tableau v9.x or earlier. www.interworks.com | 866.490.9643
CALCULATIONS
Use calculated fields carefully. Think about the data type as you code the calculation.

Number and Boolean > date > string calculations when it comes to performance.

Limit blended calculations. They require sequentially querying multiple data sources and can be
time-consuming. Where possible, create a view on the database server.

Avoid row-level calculations involving parameters.

RENDERING
Avoid high mark counts. More marks = longer rendering time.

Limit the use of detailed text tables with lots of marks.

Minimize the file size of any images or custom shapes where possible. As a general rule of thumb,
keep images under 50kb.

If using custom shapes, use transparent background PNGs instead of JPGs. Views will render
cleaner, and shape files will take up less space.

LOCAL COMPUTATIONS
Even if a workbook is published to Tableau Server, local computations still impact performance.
Leverage the power of Tableau Server whenever possible by limiting local computations such as groups,
hierarchies, reference lines, table calculations and blending.

Table calculations are powerful, but they can be slow. They are dependent on the local computation
engine and can require substantial memory.

DASHBOARD LAYOUT
Limit the number of worksheets on a dashboard. If you have more than four visualizations on a
dashboard, strongly reconsider.

Fix dashboard size relative to end-user consumption. Automatic sizing is less efficient than
specifying dashboard size.

Looking for more help?


Connect with the InterWorks team.

The InterWorks Tableau Performance Checklist is ideal for Tableau v9.x or earlier. www.interworks.com | 866.490.9643

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