Tableau uses a collection of commonly used patterns to automatically detect and transform your data to make it easier for you to interact with. You can see an example of this when working with fields in the Data window. Tableau takes the data from your data source and automatically detects its type and divides it into dimensions and measures.
Beginning with version 8.1, Tableau takes this a step further by improving upon its ability to detect fields that should be treated as dimensions, and cleaning up field names by making them more readable. You will see these improvements only when the field names, which come from column headers in your data source, meet the patterns or conditions described below.
Note: Tableau never changes the data in the underlying data source.
Fields that are treated as a dimension
Field names that contain certain key words will be treated as dimensions, even if the values for those fields are numeric.
Keywords Code, Key, and ID
Field names that contain the following keywords and meet the conditions listed are treated as dimensions instead of measures.
Conditions:
- Contains keywords Code, ID, or Key.
- Keywords are either separated from other text in the field name by non-letter characters, all capitalized, or the first letter is capitalized in a field name that otherwise has mixed casing.
- Keywords are at the beginning or end of the field name, with leading or trailing non-letter characters. In traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, the key word must be located at the end of the field name.
| Language | Keywords |
|---|---|
| English | Code, Id, Key |
| Chinese (Traditional) | Id |
| French | Cle, Clé, Identificação, Identificador |
| German | Chiffre, Kennung, Kennnummer, Id, Identität, Schlüssel |
| Japanese | Id |
| Korean | Id |
| Portuguese | Chave, ID |
| Spanish | Clave, Id, Identificación |
Keywords Number, Num, and Nbr
Field names that end with Number, Num, or Nbr are treated as a dimension instead of a measure. For example, “Record Number” is treated as a dimension but “Number of Records” is not. In addition, the Korean field name must be four or fewer characters long.
| Language | Keywords |
|---|---|
| English | Number, Num, Nbr |
| Chinese (Traditional) | - |
| French | Nombre, Num, Nb |
| German | Nr, Num, Nummer, Zahl |
| Japanese | 番号 |
| Korean | 번호 |
| Portuguese | Número, Num, Nº |
| Spanish | Núm, N.º, Nro, Número |
Keywords related to dates
Field names containing keywords that are recognized as date parts are treated as dimensions. These field names can only contain only one additional word unrelated to dates to qualify. For example, “Fiscal Year” is treated as a dimension but “Fiscal Year Information” is not. In addition, traditional Chinese field names must be four or fewer characters long and cannot contain digits. Japanese and Korean field names must be four or fewer characters long.
| Language | Keywords |
| English | Year, Yr, Day, Day of Week, Week, Wk, Month, Quarter, Fy |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 年, 月 |
| French | An, AF, Annee, Année, Jour de la semaine, Jour, Mois, Semaine, Trimestre |
| German | BJ, FJ, EJ, GJ, Jahr, Jr, Quart, Quartal, Monat, Tag de Woche, Tag, Viertel, Woche, Wo |
| Japanese | 年度 |
| Korean | 년도 |
| Portuguese | Ano, AF, Dia da semana, Dia, Mês, Meses, Semana, Trimestre |
| Spanish | AF, Año, Día de la semana, Día de semana, Día, Mes, Samana, Trim, Trimestre |
Field name clean-up
Field names that contain specific characters or capitalized in a certain way will be renamed.
Field names with underscore and space characters
Non-leading and trailing underscore (_) characters in field names are converted into space ( ) characters. Carriage return or line feed characters in a field name are removed. However, field names that contain leading underscore characters remain unchanged. In addition, leading and trailing spaces in field names are removed.
Example 1: The field name “Country_Name” is converted to “Country Name”.
Example 2: The field name “_Days_On_Market” is converted to “_Days On Market”.
Note: Field names with multiple underscore characters in a row remain unchanged. For example, “Country__Name” remains as “Country__Name”.
Field names and capitalization
Field names that use all capital letters with non-letter characters are converted to all lower-case letters except for the characters immediately after the non-letter character.
Additionally, field names that use all lower-case letters are converted so the first letter in the field name is capitalized.
Example 1: The field name “PC1” is converted to “Pc1.” The field name “COUNTRY_NAME” is converted to “Country Name”. However, “Budget COGS” remains as “Budget COGS” .
Example 2: The field name “FDA” does not change. However, the field name “FDA_Sales” is converted to “Fda Sales”.
Example 3: The field name “age” is converted to “Age”.
Space characters are added to the case boundaries of field names that contain mixed casing with non-letter characters.
Example: The field name “ThisCase” is converted to “This Case”.
Field names that are two or three letters long
Field names that are two or three letters long that are part of a multiple word phrase are converted so that each letter in the word is capitalized, unless the two or three letter word contains a vowel (i.e., a, e, i, o, or u).
Example: The field name "Unit Qty" is converted to "Unit QTY". However, the field name "Sales Amt" remains as "Sales Amt".
Several three-letter acronyms will be converted to all upper-case. Examples of three-letter acronyms include the following:
| CIF | FDA | MPI |
| DMA | FOB | MSA |
| DOB | FTE | SKU |
| EIN | KPI | UPC |
| ESP | LOB | URL |
| USD |
The following field names will be converted to all lower-case letters unless the name occurs at the beginning of the field name:
| 1st | as | down | of | th (suffix following a number) |
| 2nd | at | for | on | than |
| 3rd | but | in | off | the |
| a | by | inclu. | or | to |
| an | de | into | over | vs |
| and | da | la | per | with |
Note: The casing of field names that are one letter long will remain unchanged.