Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help

Ask Data supports the core analytical functions of Tableau, including aggregations, grouping, sorting, and numeric and categorical filtering.

Note: Ask Data requires English analytical phrases but works great with non-English data. For example, you could ask “how many pedidos where fruta is manzanas” if you have Spanish data about orders of fruit for a grocery.

Aggregations

When using Ask Data, example aggregation phrases include “Sum of Sales”, “Average Profit”, or “Count of Customers”. You can also use common synonyms for these terms, such as “mean” for average or “cnt” for count.

• Sum

• Average

• Median

• Count

• Distinct count

• Minimum

• Maximum

Grouping

Grouping phrases include the word “by”, with examples like “by Region” and “by Sales”.

This expression is equivalent to placing a dimension or unaggregated measure on the Columns or Rows shelf while authoring a standard Tableau viz.

Sorting

Examples of sorting phrases include “sort Products in ascending order by sum of Profit” or “sort Customer Name in alphabetical order”. You can also use synonyms like “from smallest” for ascending order and “from largest” for descending.

• Ascending

• Descending

• Alphabetical

Numerical filters

Ask Data lets you filter data down to the numerical range you're interested in and then fine-tune that range as needed. Example phrasing includes “sum of Sales at least $2,000” or “prices between $10 and $20”.

• At least

• At most

• Between

Numerical limits (top and bottom values)

You can quickly see the top and bottom values of a field with phrases like “top 10 cars sold last year” or “bottom Region by average Profit”.

• Top

• Bottom

Ask Data also supports common terms that people tend to use with their data, like “low”, “high”, “lowest”, and “highest”. With currency-based fields, you can use synonyms for these terms, like “cheap” for low and “expensive” for high (for example, “show me the cheapest houses in Ballard”).

Categorical filters for text values

Categorical filters let you narrow data down to the specific text values you're interested in. Examples for each type of filter appear below:

• Is (for example, State is “Ohio”)

• Is not (State is not “Ohio”)

• Starts with (State starts with “O”)

• Ends with (State ends with “O”)

• Contains (State contains “O”)

• Does not contain (State does not contain “hi”)

Time filtering

Ask Data supports time filtering with phrases like “Sales in the last 10 years” or “Profit between 2012 and 2014”. You can also use synonyms of phrases below, like “starts in” instead of “starting at”.

• In (followed by specific date)

• Previous

• Last

• Following

• Next

• Between

• Starting at

• Ending at

Tip: You can also compare differences over time with table calculations.