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Tableau | Data prep

Suggested steps in Tableau Prep Builder

Tableau Prep now gives first-time users a helping start by suggesting a clean-up step the moment you drag in a data source.

Tim Ngwena •16 September 2020 •1 min read •2 min watch •680

Part ofTableau Prep Builder tutorial Jan-2020

Watch on YouTube

Dragging a data source into Tableau Prep triggers a suggested 'view and clean data' step you can click to add to the view
The suggestions aren't applied automatically, but you can open the recommendations panel to apply changes such as setting a data role to city
Setting a data role adds intelligence about the field that carries through when you export to Tableau
Suggested steps currently only appear for the first step, not for subsequent actions like pivots, joins, or custom splits

0:00Hey, it's Tim here.

0:01In today's video, I'm going to be showing

0:03you

0:03a new feature in Tableau Prep that

0:05basically suggests

0:06steps for new users who are

0:07opening up Tableau Prep for the first time.

0:10In order to do this, I'm going to open up

0:11the data pane here on the left-hand side,

0:13and then I'm going to click on the sample

0:15flow here on the bottom left.

0:16Once in, I'm also going to delete

0:19everything in the view.

0:20I need to just make sure that I'm starting

0:21with a fresh Tableau Prep workflow.

0:23The reason I open that flow though is

0:25because I

0:25want these data sources available to me.

0:27I'm going to go ahead and click on the

0:29Orders table here,

0:30and then I'm going to drag in the Orders

0:33table.

0:34What you'll see is that you get

0:36this suggested step to view and clean data.

0:39What you can do is you can just click on it

0:41and

0:41actually goes ahead and brings that step in

0:43view.

0:44Now, at this moment,

0:45it doesn't yet suggest

0:47those changes here on the left-hand side,

0:48it doesn't apply them,

0:49but you've always got the capability to

0:51click on

0:52the recommendations and see

0:53some of the suggestions it's suggesting.

0:55For example, I can change the data role to

0:58city.

0:59If I click on that, it will actually

1:01go ahead and specify that.

1:02What that will do is when you export this

1:04to Tableau,

1:08it actually gives it a little bit of

1:09intelligence about what that field is doing

1:12.

1:12That's pretty much the feature in a

1:14nutshell.

1:15Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be

1:16working for subsequent steps.

1:18For example, if I wanted to go to the next

1:20step here,

1:20it's not suggesting anything like

1:22pivots, joins, or custom splits just yet.

1:25But I assume this is functionality

1:27that might be added in the future.

1:28But again, it's just a nice way of

1:30allowing users who are dragging

1:31in data sources for the first time.

1:33I just drag the connection

1:35harder than the data source there.

1:37It allows users who are dragging

1:39in connections for the first time,

1:40just to get that little bit of a helping

1:42start,

1:42just so that they're not

1:44unfamiliar with how things work.

1:46I would personally prefer if they actually

1:48showed you how to add all the different

1:49tools,

1:50so by clicking on the plus icon.

1:51But of course, if you're a new user,

1:53you've likely watched the video and you

1:56know roughly how to find

1:57these options just by clicking the plus

1:58icon.

1:59It's a fairly simple interface to use as it

2:01is.

2:01But that's pretty much it. There's not much

2:03to the feature.

2:04If you've enjoyed the video, you know what

2:05to do.

2:06Thanks for watching and I'll catch you in

2:08the next one.

2:09[BLANK_AUDIO]

Rollup

Tableau Prep Builder now offers a suggested first step when you drag a data source into a new flow, giving first-time users a quick prompt towards cleaning and understanding their data.

Tim starts from a fresh Prep flow with a data source available (using Orders as the example) to show what happens the moment you drag it into the canvas.

The Breakdown

Drag in a data source 0:20

When you drag a table into an empty Tableau Prep flow, Prep automatically offers a suggested 'view and clean data' step rather than leaving you to build one yourself.
Click to accept the suggested step 0:42

Clicking the suggestion adds the view and clean data step to your flow, but at this point none of its recommended changes are applied yet — it's just brought into view.
Why setting a data role matters 1:01

Applying a suggested data role adds semantic intelligence to that field, which carries through when you export the flow into Tableau — useful for things like geographic recognition.
Suggestions stop after the first step 1:20

This feature currently only triggers on the very first step of a flow; adding subsequent steps like pivots, joins or custom splits gets no suggestions, so don't expect ongoing guidance through the whole build.

Worth Knowing

Suggestions aren't applied automatically — you always have to open the recommendations panel and action them yourself.
The feature only fires once, on the first data source you drag in, not on later steps in the flow.
Tim would prefer the tool also taught new users how to add other steps via the plus icon, since that's not covered by this suggestion feature.

Use It When

Reach for this as a first-time or occasional Prep user wanting a quick nudge on cleaning up a newly added data source, not as a guide for building out the rest of your flow.

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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