Tableau Certifications and Badges and Trainings
One way to prove to yourself and others that you know Tableau is through certification and badges. Tableau has 3 levels of desktop certification. (There are also server certifications).
| Exam Title | Exam Price | Prereq | Expiration |
| Specialist | $100 | None | None |
| Associate (Desktop) | $250 | None | 2 Years |
| Profesional | $600 | Associate | 3 years |
I’ve been using Tableau for several years now. So I’ve been considering either the Professional or Associate Exam. The professional exam requires the Associate exam. So I would need to start with the Associate exam.
Tableau has a Prep Guide about all the topics one should know before completing the exam. I tried the e-learning Tableau offers when it was free a few month’s ago. It’s now offered for $120 for a full year subscription. I didn’t see an option to speed up the videos. They also offer bootcamps currently for $3,500. One wouldn’t be able to speed up a live class either, but I’d expect it to be more interactive. With the e-learning you can also earn badges for Linkedin and social media.
The least expensive option is the e-learning as the badges are included. It would be a way of showing Tableau knowledge too.
Another training option is the free learning videos
Broken down into Creator, Explorer, Viewer, and Admin. There isn’t any credential but is a credential necessary?
Current goal is to complete the Creator videos before end of October. I suspect some of it will be a review, and some of it new. I will post progress and some of my favorite lessons.
Pigeon Waste complaints in NYC
Many consider NYC is an awesome place. If you want to know a city (or anything) better look through its data. Data will NOT always tell a complete picture, but one might find some insights and unexpected info. The 311 dataset has numerous complaints from NYCers. From crime, sewage, rodents, loud music, social distancing, and parking… and pigeon waste. This data is just the complaints – you are not hearing about all the amazing things the city offers.
After digging through 311 data a couple months ago I discovered pigeon waste. Who knew New Yorkers complained about pigeon waste? I knew people complained about rodents. Turns out there are even specific rules for reporting pigeon waste complaints. These complaints are about the Pigeon poo. “It is not illegal to feed or keep pigeons” (NYC Health). I guess it makes sense, many pet owners have cats, birds and dogs. Pigeons are birds. There are also complaints about dog waste, so why not pigeon waste?
Just the fact that complaining about Pigeon Waste ‘is a thing’ is illuminating. It was interesting that there were around the same number of complaints in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Around 1,600 , 1,500 , 1,700 respectively.
If you now feel the need to complain about Poo (or many other things about NYC) there is even a website to take your complaint.
Social Distancing Complaints in NYC
Complaints via 311 in NYC for individuals not social distancing. Data doesn’t indicate if people aren’t wearing masks, or keeping 6ft.
There are a couple things to note about this analysis:
- Data collection – As per NYC 311 website there could be delays in reporting data. This could skew the data.
- Time period/Data completeness – At time of the data was extracted June was only 1/2 of a full month.
- Complainers – Do certain zip codes, or Boroughs complain more?
Illegal Fireworks in NYC
Several publications (New York Times, NBC) have mentioned an increase in illegal fireworks complaints in NYC. Looking into the 311 data there was a surge of complaints in June 2020 and we are only slightly more than 1/2 through the month. The data was pulled from NYC’s open data portal on Monday, June 22nd. The drastic spike reminded me of the chart of un-employment claims on the front of the New York Times a few months ago. See the page on Fast Company.
SQL ‘Group by’ example
Example:
Find all the cost of acquiring a customer of customer type ‘business’
Select sum(cost), cust_type
From sales_table
where cust_type = ‘business’
group by cust_type
Aggregate SQL Functions
Count
Sum
Avg
Max/Min
Examples:
Count
Count the number of records in a column or table. Examples:
- Select count(*) from table;
- Select count (column) from table;
Count (*) will give you count of all rows – even if some values are null. Counting the column won’t count the null ones
Sum
Sum, or add all the values in the column.
- Select sum(column) from table;
Avg
Calculate the average.
- Select avg (column) from table;
Max
Find the maximum/highest/ biggest #.
- Select max(column) from table;
Min
Find the minimum/ smallest/lowest #.
- Select min(column) from table;