In Tableau, when you load data with geographical locations, Tableau automatically generates Latitude and Longitude for these geographical fields. These Latitude(generated) and Longitude(generated) fields are used to create a Map. I will show you how to plot specific addresses on a map in Tableau.

These generated Latitude and Longitudes are good for Country, State, County and Zipcodes, but what if, you have address/location for which Tableau cannot generate Latitudes and Longitudes.

To explain this concept, Iam using  Places to visit in Ohio.

if you load this data, Tableau generate Latitudes and Longitudes for the City and Zipcode but not the Attraction’s physical address. If two attractions are listed in the same zipcode location, they cannot be appropriately plotted.

How to plot specific addresses on a map in Tableau

To plot the specific Attraction addresses on the Map,

use the Latitude and Longitude of the specific addresses. if you don’t have the coordinates of the locations in your data source, find them online. Use a site like http://www.latlong.net/, type in your address and get the Latitudes and Longitudes for your address.

I have used the same site, to get the coordinates for these attractions. My updated data set looks like

Once you load this data, use the latitude and Longitude in the data source, instead of Latitude(generated) and Longitude(generated)

These coordinates will plot your Attraction addresses perfectly.

I have used the shape from the Marks and used # of visitors to create the size of the location based on the # of Visitors to each location.

In this map you can see, even if the addresses belong to the same zipcode, they are still displayed.

In some cities, such as Cleveland and Cincinnati, you see multiple circles because multiple attractions are located in these cities.

If you have difficulty in viewing these locations due to overlap, you can always create a circle view

To learn more about developing dashboards using Tableau dashboards refer Tableau 10 for Beginners

To learn about deploying your dashboards on Tableau server refer Implementing Tableau Server