Making MySQL query result visualizations using Tableau Public (free)
The first search for this exact phrase led me to the realization that this feature was only available in the paid versions of Tableau. However,as I gladly discovered, there exists a loophole.
The first step to it is to save the result of the execution, whether by exporting the result as a CSV for Excel or saving it as a view, that can be pulled up on demand for exporting. This is available on the MySQL interface:
Personally, the view is dear as it allows re-use of the same result without having to rerun the query each time.
To export the result , ensure that the ‘Format’ section is set to ‘CSV for MS Excel’ and proceed to download the semicolon delimited file
Armed with your data in hand, it is time to make the connection to your BI platform, in this case Tableau Public.
Add a new Data Source and connect to a ‘Text File’ . Upload the delimited file you downloaded in the previous step and you have your query result, ready to viz viz away.
While this method is absolutely free, it is admittedly very repetitive and would fail on efficiency when visualizing multiple result sets but in case you are looking for a quick fix, by all means.
