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Tableau | Data visualisation | Analytics

Ask data phrase builder: New in Tableau 2022.1

Ask Data's new Phrase Builder lets you build a chart with a few clicks and never type a single question.

Tim Ngwena •6 April 2022 •1 min read •3 min watch •2.7K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2022.1

Watch on YouTube

The Phrase Builder lets you ask questions in Ask Data by selecting fields and phrases instead of typing free text
You still need a lens, which scopes the data available to Ask Data, before you can begin
Adding a field prompts you for an aggregation (e.g. sum of sales) and progressively builds the chart as you go
You can swap chart types on the right-hand side and apply filters by selecting field values, such as a specific regional manager
Ask Data is now available to viewer and explorer licences as well as creators

0:00In 2021, Tableau have brought about some

0:01changes to R-Stata.

0:03This time they've introduced something

0:05called the R-Stata Phrase Builder.

0:07In essence, previously they found that

0:10users really struggle to put something into

0:12this box,

0:13essentially what do you type when you're

0:15faced with all the data in the world.

0:16People really struggle with that. So now

0:18you can see a subtle change here. You've

0:20now got the

0:21ability to add phrases here at the very top

0:23and here I'm actually starting out in a

0:26lens. You do

0:27require a lens to use R-Stata. Lens is

0:29essentially a way of scoping what data is

0:32going to be available

0:33when you use the capability of R-Stata. So

0:36instead of typing something here for using

0:38R-Stata,

0:38I'm just going to go ahead and select add

0:40field and you'll see that I get a list of

0:42fields that are available to me and when I

0:44click on any one of these things I'm

0:46essentially going to

0:46get prompted to go to the next step. So if

0:49I go ahead and select sales it'll ask me,

0:51hey what do

0:52you want to do with this aggregation?

0:54Instead I'll select sum of sales. If I open

0:56up advanced I do get

0:57the possibility to select some other

0:59variants but I'll just go ahead and add the

1:01field and you'll

1:02see that it immediately hops into the full

1:04R-Stata experience where I can then

1:06continue this

1:07particular line of inquiry. So you can see

1:09here I've got sum of sales. I can then say

1:11okay I want

1:12to break this down by category and it will

1:14obviously figure that out for me. So it

1:17will say

1:17you group by this field. I'll add that

1:19field and notice it's changing the chart as

1:21I do this and

1:22if I don't like the chart choice I can go

1:24over here to the right hand side maybe

1:25select a tree map so

1:26I get something a little bit more visual

1:28but then carry on with my questioning. So

1:30you'll see that

1:31it's added those three things here at the

1:33top. So I'm just clicking through R-Stata.

1:35I'm not having

1:36to sort of work too hard to sort of define

1:39the question. So this is more exploratory

1:41if that makes

1:42sense. So here I want to group these dates

1:44by year. Let's go ahead and add that field

1:46and it kind of

1:48breaks this down in a weird way. I would

1:49have liked to have had a year on the axis

1:51that would have made

1:52a little bit more sense but if that's not

1:54working here what I can do is I can go to a

1:55different type

1:56of chart. Let's go back to a bar chart and

1:58see what it does. That's a little bit

2:00easier to see

2:00and I can just keep going. So I can then go

2:03in and let's go select subcategory. I can

2:06do a few

2:07different things. I can count the number of

2:09you know subcategories but again I'm just

2:11going to

2:11group by this field. In my head I know what

2:14I'm trying to do but in essence you know

2:16Tableau is

2:17sort of making those decisions for me. Now

2:19the other thing is the filtering experience

2:20is also

2:21a lot cleaner so I can you know go into the

2:23people table and say look I just want to

2:25look at the

2:26sales from a specific regional manager. So

2:29let's select Chuck McKenzie and you'll see

2:31the chart

2:32changes. So in a very brief amount of

2:34clicks without ever typing anything I've

2:37built a very

2:38basic chart that I can then take off and

2:40use in the R-State experience and this is

2:42now available

2:43for everyone with a viewer or an explorer

2:45license alongside creators as well. So that

2:47's also

2:48something nice to see here but that's

2:49pretty much the change here. R-State the Ph

2:51rase Builder making

2:52it easier to ask questions in R-State

2:54without having actually to type or ask any

2:56questions

2:57which is a I think a nice quality of life

2:59improvement. You have now two ways of

3:01asking

3:01questions. If you've enjoyed this video you

3:03know what to do hit subscribe and we're on

3:05a march to

3:0550 000 subscribers we're at 25 000 right

3:08now so if you're actually one of the people

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3:21the next video.

Rollup

Tableau's Ask Data Phrase Builder lets you build a question by clicking fields and phrases instead of typing free text, which removes the guesswork of knowing what to type when facing an unfamiliar dataset.

Ask Data previously required typing natural-language questions, which many users found difficult when they didn't know the data. The Phrase Builder replaces typing with a click-driven interface for constructing the same questions.

The Breakdown

Start from a lens 0:21

You must begin from a lens before using Ask Data — a lens scopes which fields and data are available to the Phrase Builder, so it's a prerequisite rather than optional.
Add a field to start the question 0:41

Instead of typing, you click 'Add field' and pick from the list of available fields; selecting one (e.g. a measure) prompts you to choose an aggregation such as sum, with an advanced option for other variants.
Chart builds progressively as you add fields 1:02

Each field you add continues the line of inquiry and updates the chart automatically — for example adding a category field prompts Tableau to group by it and redraws the visual, so the chart evolves step by step rather than being defined all at once.
Swap chart types when the auto-choice doesn't fit 1:22

If the automatically chosen chart type isn't right — such as dates breaking down awkwardly — you can switch to a different type (like a bar chart) from the right-hand side at any point and keep building the question.
Filter by selecting field values 2:21

You can narrow results by picking specific values from a field, such as choosing one person from a list, and the chart updates immediately — a much cleaner filtering experience than typing filter conditions.
Now available beyond creator licences 2:40

Ask Data, including this Phrase Builder, is now available to viewer and explorer licences as well as creators, widening who can use it without needing to type questions at all.

Worth Knowing

Auto-generated chart types won't always match what you have in mind (e.g. grouping dates by year didn't put year on the axis sensibly) — switching chart type manually fixes this.
A lens is mandatory before you can use Ask Data at all, phrase-built or typed.

Use It When

Reach for this when you or your users need to explore a dataset in Ask Data but struggle to phrase questions in free text — it's a faster, more guided way to build the same kind of exploratory chart.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

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