Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help

There are two ways you can add new data to an extract: from a file or from a data source. However, to add new data, you must connect first connect to data and create a new data source, and the columns in the file or data source must match the columns in the extract.

Add data from a file

You can add new data to an extract from a file-based data source. Use this option when the file type of the extract is the same as the file type of the data that you want to add. Alternatively, you can add data from an extract (.hyper) file. For example, you may have text files that are generated for a task that is performed every day. To add each day's worth of information to your extract whose original data source is also a text file, use the Append Data from File command.

1. On the Data menu, select a data source, and then select Extract > Append Data from File.

2. Browse to and select the file that has the new data.

   Note: By default, the file format of the extract's original data source is used. To add data from a Tableau data extract, click the file format drop-down list, and then select Hyper Extracts (*.hyper).

3. When finished, click OK.

Add data from a data source

You can also add new data to an extract from another data source that's already open in the workbook. Use this option when the data from the data source that you want to add matches the extract data source before it was extracted. For example, you created an extract from a SQL Server database that has the past ten years worth of data. However, the maintained version of that data is stored on a different SQL Server database. You can add new data to the extract by using the Append Data from Data Source command.

Note: Joins or custom SQL should be specified in the data source before adding data to the extract.

1. On the Data menu, select a data source, and then select Extract > Append Data from Data Source.

2. In the dialog box, select the data source that you want to append.

3. When finished, click OK.

Using either option will add new rows to the extract. To see a summary of the number of rows that were added, select a data source on the Data menu and then select Extract > History.

Note: When you refresh this extract, the data will be replaced with the data from the original data.