How to rename columns in a datasource for Tableau without braking the report?

Question

I am facing the challenge of changing a column in our data warehouse which affects one tableau data source which then affects multiple reports.
If I rename the column, the report itself claims that this column does not exist any more spits out an error. Having multiple reports attached to this data source would imply that I need to open up all the reports and change them manually.

+----------+----------+-----------+----------------+----------+

| column 1 | column 2 | change -> | column renamed | column 2 |

+----------+----------+           +----------------+----------+

| data 1   | data 1   |           | data 1         | data 1   |

+----------+----------+           +----------------+----------+

| data 2   | data 2   |           | data 2         | data 2   |

+----------+----------+           +----------------+----------+

| data 3   | data 3   |           | data 3         | data 3   |

+----------+----------+-----------+----------------+----------+

 Is there a smart way of doing a column rename without changing all the reports?

Answer 1

• In order to rename a column in your database where tableau is running an extract on (and uses it for reporting) - there is no "tableau" way without fixing all the reports (and its elements) manually.

• The only way I found so far is editing the workbook file directly. Tableau stores its workbooks in either twb or twbx files.

• You can open these files (which are nothing else than XML files) directly in any editor of your choice like sublime / Atom / notepad.

• Within these file you can find the columns which you want to rename in the DB. In the example I want to rename Column1 to column renamed.

• Like in a normal text editor just go for search replace and replace all occurrences of Column1 to column renamed.

• The last step is to save it (you should use a different filename to test if it works first) and open it in tableau. You adapted your tableau workbook to all the renamed columns without any force.

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