Discover Insights Faster with Explain Data
Explain Data in the Data Guide helps you to inspect, uncover, and dig deeper into the marks in a viz as you explore your data. You can use Explain Data to analyze dashboards, sheets, or selected marks for possible outliers and correlations in the underlying data. Explain Data builds statistical models and proposes possible explanations for individual marks in a viz, including potentially related data from the data source that isn't used in the current view.
For information on running Explain Data and exploring explanations, see Get Started with Explain Data.
Note: This topic describes how Explain Data works in Tableau 2021.2 and later versions. If you have a previous version of Tableau, read this topic in version 2021.1 of Explain Data help(Link opens in a new window).
As you build different views, use Explain Data as a jumping-off point to help you explore your data more deeply and ask better questions. For more information, see How Explain Data helps to augment your analysis. For information on what characteristics make a data source more interesting for use with Explain Data, see Requirements and Considerations for Using Explain Data.
Access to Explain Data
Explain Data is enabled by default at the site level. Server administrators (Tableau Server) and site administrators (Tableau Cloud) can control whether Explain Data is available for a site. For more information, Disable or Enable Explain Data for a Site.
Authors who can edit workbooks and have the Run Explain Data permission capability for a workbook can run Explain Data in editing mode. All users with the Run Explain Data capability can run Explain Data in viewing mode in Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server.
When allowed by site administrators, explanations can be shared in viewing mode via email or Slack with other Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server users. For more information, see Configure Tableau to allow users to share explanations via email and Slack.
Authors can use Explain Data Settings to control which explanation types are displayed in the Data Guide pane.
For information on controlling access to Explain Data, explanation types, and fields, see Control Access to Explain Data.
How Explain Data helps to augment your analysis
Explain Data is a tool that uncovers and describes relationships in your data. It can't tell you what is causing the relationships or how to interpret the data. You are the expert on your data. Your domain knowledge and intuition are key in helping you decide what characteristics might be interesting to explore further using different views. For related information, see How Explain Data Works and Requirements and Considerations for Using Explain Data.
For more information on how Explain Data works and how to use Explain Data to augment your analysis, see these Tableau Conference presentations: