What is Forecasting in Tableau?

Software Development
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Forecasting in Tableau uses a technique known as exponential smoothing. Forecast algorithms try to find a regular pattern in measures that can be continued into the future.
You typically add a forecast to a view that contains a date field and at least one measure.

Forecasting means predicting the future value of a measure. There are various methods for forecasting. However, in Tableau, the user can only use exponential smoothing.

Model Types

In the Forecast Options dialog box, you can choose the model type Tableau users for forecasting. The Automatic setting is typically optimal for most views. If you choose Custom , then you can specify the trend and season characteristics independently, choosing either None, Additive, or Multiplicative:

An additive model is one in which the contributions of the model components are summed, whereas a multiplicative model is one in which at least some component contributions are multiplied. Multiplicative models can significantly improve forecast quality for data where the trend or seasonality is affected by the level (magnitude) of the data:

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Keep in mind that you do not need to create a custom model to generate a forecast that is multiplicative: the Automatic setting can determine if a multiplicative forecast is appropriate for your data. However, a multiplicative model cannot be computed when the measure to be forecast has one or more values that are less than or equal to zero.

Forecasting with Time

When you are forecasting with a date, there can be only one base date in the view. Part dates are supported, but all parts must refer to the same underlying field. Dates can be on Rows, Columns, or Marks (with the exception of the Tooltip target).

Tableau supports three types of dates, two of which can be used for forecasting:

  • Truncated dates reference a particular point in history with specific temporal granularity, such as February 2017. They are usually continuous, with a green background in the view. Truncated dates are valid for forecasting.
  • Date parts refer to a particular member of a temporal measure such as February. Each date part is represented by a different, usually discrete field (with a blue background). Forecasting requires at least a Year date part. Specifically, it can use any of the following sets of date parts for forecasting:
    • Year
    • Year + quarter
    • Year + month
    • Year + quarter + month
    • Year + week
    • Custom: Month/Year, Month/Day/YearOther date parts, such as Quarter or Quarter + month, are not valid for forecasting. See Convert Fields between Discrete and Continuous for more details about different date types.
  • Exact dates refer to a particular point in history with maximum temporal granularity such as February 1, 2012 at 14:23:45.0. Exact dates are invalid for forecasting.

It is also possible to forecast without a date. See Forecasting When No Date is in the View.

Granularity and Trimming

When you create a forecast, you select a date dimension that specifies a unit of time at which date values are to be measured. Tableau dates support a range of such time units, including Year, Quarter, Month, and Day. The unit you choose for the date value is known as the granularity of the date.

The data in your measure typically does not align precisely with your unit of granularity. You might set your date value to quarters, but your actual data may terminate in the middle of a quarter—for example, at the end of November. This can cause a problem because the value for this fractional quarter is treated by the forecasting model as a full quarter, which will typically have a lower value than a full quarter would. If the forecasting model is allowed to consider this data, the resulting forecast will be inaccurate. The solution is to trim the data, such that the trailing periods that could mislead the forecast are ignored. Use the Ignore Last option in the Forecast Options dialog box to remove—or trim—such partial periods. The default is to trim one period.

Getting More Data

Tableau requires at least five data points in the time series to estimate a trend, and enough data points for at least two seasons or one season plus five periods to estimate seasonality. For example, at least nine data points are required to estimate a model with a four quarter seasonal cycle (4 + 5), and at least 24 to estimate a model with a twelve month seasonal cycle (2 * 12).

If you turn on forecasting for a view that does not have enough data points to support a good forecast, Tableau can sometimes retrieve enough data points to produce a valid forecast by querying the datasource for a finer level of granularity:

  • If your view contains fewer than nine years of data, by default, Tableau will query the data source for quarterly data, estimate a quarterly forecast, and aggregate to a yearly forecast to display in your view. If there are still not enough data points, Tableau will estimate a monthly forecast and return the aggregated yearly forecast to your view.
  • If your view contains fewer than nine quarters of data, by default Tableau will estimate a monthly forecast and return the aggregated quarterly forecast results to your view.
  • If your view contains fewer than nine weeks of data, by default, Tableau will estimate a daily forecast and return the aggregated weekly forecast results to your view.
  • If your view contains fewer than nine days of data, by default, Tableau will estimate an hourly forecast and return the aggregated daily forecast results to your view.
  • If your view contains fewer than nine hours of data, by default, Tableau will estimate an minutely forecast and return the aggregated hourly forecast results to your view.
  • If your view contains fewer than nine minutes of data, by default, Tableau will estimate an secondly forecast and return the aggregated minutely forecast results to your view.

These adjustments happen behind the scene and require no configuration. Tableau does not change the appearance of your visualization, and does not actually change your date value. However, the summary of the forecast time period in the Forecast Describe and Forecast Options dialog will reflect the actual granularity used.

Tableau can only get more data when the aggregation for the measure you are forecasting is SUM or COUNT. See Data Aggregation in Tableau for information on available aggregation types and information on how to change the aggregation type.