On day 2 of training, I was introduced to Tableau Prep for the first time, which seemed straightforward at first but actually took a little getting used to. The different order of steps you can take to clean data to reach a desired output was something I had to make peace with as someone who likes to know the "best" way to do things.
A learning opportunity arose when I was tasked with creating multiple outputs from a dataset. I initially created two separate flows before realising you can branch off from each step in the flow to be more efficient and have less files cluttering the computer. These flows allows for common cleaning procedures to be repeated for future datasets.
Having used pivots and aggregates in Tableau Desktop, I was surprised to find how easy it was to implement them in Tableau Prep. The dynamic visual displayed to show what was being done helped me to better understand the logic behind pivots and aggregates. A feature I was particularly impressed with was the Group Values by Pronunciation. Tableau Prep's ability to rectify human errors in data entry quickly and easily was something I had not seen before.
Knowing a few of these tricks certainly would have saved me a lot of time during my application for the Data School!