Query builder

Get answers in a few clicks with the query builder

The query builder makes it easy for anyone - even your less data-savvy teammates - to put together questions with just clicks, prompts, and, menu choices. No data expertise or SQL needed.

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Analytics for everyone

Point-and-click tool to self-serve data for those who don’t know SQL (and a mental-shortcut for those who do).

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Filters and summarizations

Click and select custom parameters to narrow down and group data from a dropdown menu.

Joins

Use joins to ask questions about data split across multiple models or tables.

Custom expressions

Go beyond basic questions with custom expressions (they’re like formulas in spreadsheets, e.g., a CountIf formula).

Multi-level aggregation

Get a bit fancier with multi-level aggregation to stack more filters and summarizations step-by-step.

Preview results

Check your question as you’re adding filters and summarizations without running the whole query, and make adjustments as you go.

Question history

Let anyone edit questions while keeping track of the question’s history. Metabase keeps the fifteen most recent versions of each question.

More about asking questions in Metabase

Documentation

How to ask a question with the query builder

At the top-right corner in your Metabase, click New > Question to open the query builder. You can also get to the query builder by clicking Filter and/or Summarize at the top of a table or model, or clicking column headings and individual cells.

Select a table or a model or table you want to query, e.g. the Orders table from the sample dataset that ships with Metabase.

Click into Filters and select Created at. Select Last 12 months.

Click + to add another filter. This time select # Total, then from the dropdown menu, select Greater than, and enter 20.00 in the text box.

Next, click into Summarize and select Sum of… and select Taxes from the menu.

The by box next to it is where you’re going to group your results. First select Product > Category.

To further group these results by month, click + and select Created by, and choose month from the menu.

Hit the Visualize button. You’ll see a chart that shows how taxes are split across product categories on orders month over month.