What Are Data Sources in Tableau?

To become proficient in any BI tool like Tableau, the first skill you need is to connect it to a data source. Once connected, you can access the data, import a portion as an extract, and start building your dashboards.

Tableau allows connections to various data sources — from local files (like Excel, PDFs, JSON) to cloud and server databases such as MySQL, SQL Server, Tableau Server, and more.

Tableau supports two main types of data sources:

File-Based Sources

Server-Based Sources

Connecting to a File in Tableau

You can easily connect Tableau to a variety of file formats stored on your system. These include:

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Access

Text Files

JSON Files

PDF Files

Spatial Files

Click on More in the file connection section to browse additional file types on your system.

📂 Tip: Tableau often directs you to its default repository where your previous projects are saved, but you can browse your entire system for files.

Connecting to a Server in Tableau

Tableau also supports a wide range of server and cloud-based data sources:

a. Relational Databases

Tableau Server

Microsoft SQL Server

MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL

IBM DB2, MariaDB

b. Cloud Platforms

Google Cloud SQL

Amazon Aurora

Cloudera Hadoop

c. Big Data Sources

Google BigQuery

d. In-Memory Databases

SAP HANA

e. Other Connections

Web Data Connector

ODBC/JDBC

💡 For these, you’ll typically need credentials like server address, username, and password.

Step-by-Step: How to Establish a Data Connection

Let’s walk through how to connect Tableau Desktop to a Microsoft Excel file:

Step 1: Open Tableau Desktop

Launch Tableau Desktop. You’ll see a welcome screen with a Connect panel on the left.

Step 2: Select a File Type

Click Microsoft Excel to connect to an Excel file.

Step 3: Choose Your File

Select a file from your system and click Open.

Step 4: View Data Source

Once loaded, you’ll enter the Data Source tab. Here you can:

View available sheets

Drag sheets to the central pane

Preview and manage tables

Step 5: Add More Data Sources (Optional)

Click Add in the data source tab or go to Data > New Data Source from the top menu.

Step 6: Explore Metadata

You can switch to List View to inspect and organize the columns and fields.

Step 7: Start Building Visualizations

Click the Sheet1 tab to begin working with your data. Dimensions and measures will appear on the left. Simply drag and drop to create your charts.

Note on Server Connections

Each server-based source has unique requirements. Refer to Tableau’s Supported Connectors documentation to learn what credentials or info you need for each.

Summary

To recap, Tableau supports two main data source types — file-based and server-based. In this tutorial, you learned how to connect to a local Excel file and get started with visual analysis. Keep exploring by trying out different connections to build your data skills with Tableau.