I'm working in R and need to transfer some tabular data into Tableau.
I can export the data in a variety of file formats (e.g., csv,.xlsx,.rda, etc. ), but I'm curious whether there is a recommended file format for reading data into Tableau.
When I export a dataset from R to a csv, for example, the missing values are coded as "NA" character strings. These columns are thus misinterpreted by Tableau as character columns. I can prevent this mistake by recoding missing data in R as NULL values, however this experience made me question if Tableau prefers a certain file format for import.
Should I use the rtableau package to export the data from R into a Tableau Data Extract (.tde)?
EDIT: Rtableau is only compatible with Linux and Mac computers, and it does not appear to be regularly developed, which is unfortunate for me.
Connecting Tableau to a.rda file via the Connect > Statistical File interface may be the most efficient method (more info here).