# Ask data date range enhancements

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2020-12-15
- **Format:** Video · 5 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, AI & ML
- **Tools:** Tableau (ai, cloud)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/ask-data-date-range-enahncements
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/YYFUje7A05g

I demonstrate Tableau's Ask Data feature in Tableau Online, using the Superstore dataset to type natural-language questions and build visualisations. I focus on the new relative date range slider that makes picking and tweaking date ranges much easier, and show how to change chart types, dimensions and orientation on the fly.

## Key takeaways

- Ask Data lets you type a plain-language question into Tableau and returns a table or chart in response
- Build questions in stages so you can confirm Ask Data interprets each step correctly before moving on
- The new date range slider lets you tweak start and end dates directly in the view after building a chart
- You can swap chart types, dimensions and orientation after the fact, and either click options or type them in
- Investing time in metadata such as synonyms, meanings and data roles makes Ask Data work well on your own datasets, which you can then embed for others to query

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/ask-data-date-range-enahncements

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena