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I would like to read a data file saved in Tableau data format (*.tdsx) in R. I'm wondering whether it is possible in R or any other tools can do that.

My scenario is I have data saved in Tableau server and I connect via Tableau desktop. I make tableau visualizations from that data. But I also need to validate the measures/dimensions I create in Tableau by using another tool such as R (my favorite). So I have saved a local copy of the data that I saved, and want to open that using another tool. How can this be done?

JeanVuda
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Tableau Data Extracts are primarily write-only (or append-only) data sources to be read by Tableau. There is no public API currently for read or update operations. Extracts are great for speeding up access to read-only subsets of data, but they aren't meant to replace the original data source.

If you want a good data exchange format, why not pick something standard like CSV? Then R and Tableau both can read the CSV file, and convert it to a native format like TDSX for performance if desired.

Or keep your data in a database and point both R and Tableau at it.

Alex Blakemore
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  • Great suggestion @Alex. I was able to export the data to CSV and work on it. Issue I have is my data is big and I only exported a portion of it. Whenever I wanted to see another year or quarter I needed to change the data in R. I can live with that for now until I find a better alternative. – JeanVuda Apr 07 '16 at 19:26
  • The next step up from CSV is a database like PostgreSQL, MySQL or SQL Server. Tableau can point directly to the database, so no need to export anything. – Alex Blakemore Apr 08 '16 at 04:43