Pivoting data is a crucial technique in data analysis that allows you to transform your data from a wide format to a long format or vice versa. This transformation can make your data more suitable for analysis and visualization in Tableau. In this section, we will cover the following:

1. Understanding Pivoting
2. Pivoting Data in Tableau
3. Practical Examples
4. Exercises

Pivoting is the process of transforming data from a wide format (where each variable is in a separate column) to a long format (where each observation is in a separate row), or vice versa.

• Wide Format: Each variable is a separate column.
• Long Format: Each observation is a separate row.

Pivoting data can help in:

• Simplifying data for analysis.
• Making data more suitable for visualization.
• Aggregating data in different ways.

1. Connect to Your Data Source:

   • Open Tableau and connect to your data source (Excel, CSV, database, etc.).

2. Navigate to the Data Pane:

   • Go to the Data pane on the left side of the Tableau interface.

3. Select the Columns to Pivot:

   • Select the columns you want to pivot by holding down the Ctrl key (or Cmd key on Mac) and clicking on the column headers.

4. Pivot the Data:

   • Right-click on one of the selected columns and choose Pivot from the context menu.

Let's consider a dataset with sales data in a wide format:

After pivoting, the data will be in a long format:

1. Connect to the Data Source:

   • Connect to an Excel file containing the sales data.

2. Select Columns to Pivot:

   • Select Q1 Sales, Q2 Sales, Q3 Sales, and Q4 Sales.

3. Pivot the Data:

   • Right-click and select Pivot.

4. Rename Pivoted Columns:

   • Rename the pivoted columns to Quarter and Sales.

Consider a survey dataset where responses are recorded in a wide format:

After pivoting, the data will be in a long format:

Task: Pivot the following sales data from wide format to long format.

Solution:

1. Connect to the data source.
2. Select Jan Sales, Feb Sales, and Mar Sales.
3. Right-click and select Pivot.
4. Rename the pivoted columns to Month and Sales.

The pivoted data should look like this:

Task: Pivot the following employee data from wide format to long format.

Solution:

1. Connect to the data source.
2. Select Skill 1, Skill 2, and Skill 3.
3. Right-click and select Pivot.
4. Rename the pivoted columns to Skill Number and Skill.

The pivoted data should look like this:

In this section, we learned about pivoting data, why it is important, and how to perform pivoting in Tableau. We also went through practical examples and exercises to reinforce the concepts. Pivoting data is a powerful technique that can simplify your data and make it more suitable for analysis and visualization. In the next section, we will explore data cleaning techniques to further prepare your data for analysis.