Introduction
Tableau can pass calculations to R to extend the functionality, but there is some setup involved.
R is a popular statistical language used to perform sophisticated statistical analysis and predictive analytics, such as linear and nonlinear modeling, statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering, etc.
- To develop content you will need to set up your own RServe to point Tableau Desktop at.
- When you publish content to the Tableau Server it will use its own RServe.
- The RServe instance that Tableau Server utilizes is not approved for PHI.
Instructions
What is R? (from the Using R and Tableau whitepaper)
R is a popular statistical language used to perform sophisticated statistical analysis and predictive analytics, such as linear and nonlinear modeling, statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering, etc.
The R-console primarily utilizes a command-line interface, but there are many GUI tools available for download to make it easier to write R programs (most of them are free). With R, users can create variables, formulas, functions, and graphs to visualize their analysis and predictions.
As a free, open-source language, there is a community of contributors who continually create new packages (extensions) for R that define advanced statistical functions that were not originally built into R. These packages can be downloaded into R to expand R's capabilities. Most of these packages are also developed and made available for free. It is for this reason that R has become so popular and why it continues to gain functionality over time.
How Can I Get Started?
To learn more about R and if it is something you should use Tableau has a good whitepaper on the subject. There are lots of great tutorials online for R and using it with Tableau. A good roundup of them is available here.
Using R isn't easy or straightforward since you will need to set up your own RServe instance to point Tableau Desktop at. The articles linked above cover how to do that.
R Packages
Most of the magic in using R comes from the available packages. Below is a list of packages If you need additional packages installed for the Tableau Server to use please create a ServiceNow ticket and have it assigned to the Analytics and Business Intelligence group.