Tableau will showcase beta version 9.0 of its data visualization and analysis software to a large group of customers today, touting features that include drag-and-drop analytics as well as data-preparation features that formerly had to be done outside the application. Customers were invited to a “virtual user group” meeting this afternoon to see the latest version, which has been in beta since mid-January. Version 9.0 also features a new analytics tab making it easier to see and use data-analysis functions, a “data interpreter” designed to figure out where column headers and data begin in an Excel spreadsheet, and one-click smart splitting of data within a column, such as data in “month-year” format. The data splitting does not require users to enter a field separator; instead, the software figures out what the likely separator characters are. Tableau Software Inc. Data preparation features such as easily going from “wide” to “long” key-value pairs have been built into Tableau 9.0 beta. The goal, said Francois Ajenstat, Tableau’s vice president of product management, is to let customers “answer questions at interactive speed.” For example, while it is already possible to generate forecasts in existing versions of Tableau, the new drag-and-drop feature makes it easier — and also allows users to select an area of a visualization with forecast to get a forecast trend just for that data. Work was done to speed performance as well as add new features. One customer-sought function not yet implemented: Dynamic parameters, which would allow options for a parameter to be defined based on a data source. In a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session yesterday, Ajenstat responded: “We have been debating the use cases for dynamic parameters for a while. We wanted to understand what scenarios you needed Dynamic Parameters for. ” Another user asked for easier migration of workbook and published data sources — “the primary ‘gotcha’ I see from an enterprise deployment perspective.” “Yep, I hear you on that one,” Ajenstat responded. “We are going to make this easier in a future release. In the meantime, the REST API may provide a good interim solution.” In response to another question, Ajenstat said that statistical tests — mechanisms for checking out the validity of data — will be coming to Tableau, although they are not in the current beta. “This year, we are likely to see stats objects that are composable in calculations, significant improvements to trendlines and forecasting and possibly a surprise or two,” he said. Other features that have been added to version 9.0: Tableau will now read binary data files from SPSS, SAS and R. The software supports Spark SQL, Amazon EMR and IBM BigInsights as data sources. Users can now type in calculation formulas in addition to the drag-and-drop options, saving time particularly for data sets with many columns. The application allows users to easily transpose data from wide to long, so that values spread across column headers can be pivoted to key-value pairs. This functionality was previously achieved with a Tableau add-in for Excel. Selections now support use of regular expressions. Tableau created a new interface for the Server (“internally called Vizportal) … where the developers took a look at every single screen and every single flow,” Ajenstat told Reddit users. Tableau last month announced quarterly earnings almost four times higher than analyst forecasts, according to Barron’s, with more than 2,600 new customer accounts. Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe