New in Tableau Prep: Hide columns, more ways to convert dates, and transparent error messages

Learn about new capabilities in Tableau Prep, including the ability to show/hide columns, one-click date conversions, and more detailed error messages.

In the May release of Tableau Prep Builder (2021.1.4), we’re excited to introduce new innovations and enhancements to enhance your data preparation workflow. You’ll be able to quickly hide columns that are already clean and focus on the columns that need the most attention. We’ve included enhancements to our existing quick cleaning operations, giving you even more ways to convert your date fields. Also included in this release are improvements to our error messages so you can quickly and easily debug your flow. Read on to learn more.

Hide fields to focus your data prep on dirty fields

Tableau Prep allows you to work successfully with data of all sizes. No matter how many rows or columns, you’re able to clean and combine data to get it ready for analysis. More often than not, when you’re bringing in hundreds of columns, you only need to clean a small subset. You want all the columns in your final table, but you don’t want to filter out the columns that are already clean. What you need is the ability to hide fields that are already clean so you can focus on the fields that need attention. Well, now you can do just that!
In Tableau Prep, you can now hide a field.

Now in Tableau Prep you can hide a field from almost any step. Simply select the fields you want to hide then right-click and select Hide from the menu. All hidden fields are tracked in a new profile card called Hidden Fields, letting you easily unhide any fields that you’d like to see in your table. In the field list view or on an Input step, you can simply toggle the icon to hide or unhide fields. Unlike removing fields, hiding fields keeps your data in your flow—it just doesn’t load the data for those fields until you are ready to output the flow. This helps you work with only the fields you care about as efficiently as possible, while retaining all of the data you need in your final output.

Convert your dates to weekday or month name with one click

You’ve told us that you love our one-click cleaning operations! A year ago we added the ability to convert dates in one click, and in this release we’re excited to announce that we’ve added even more options. Now you can convert dates based on the day of the week and month name. Find these new options in the Convert Dates menu.

Get more details from transparent flow error messages

One of the core tenets behind Tableau Prep is transparency. You can easily track your changes and understand impact throughout your entire workflow. In this release, we’ve made improvements to our error messaging system to provide you with clear and concise information so you can easily address issues in your flow. Instead of a generic “system error” message you’ll now be able to see specific details about the error in your flow!