In a Business Intelligence (BI) tool, "drill" refers to features that allow users to explore data more deeply from a visualization. It enables you to "zoom in" on the data to understand what's behind an aggregated view.
📋 1. View as Table
❓What is "View as Table"?
The "View as Table" function allows you to view the same data displayed in a chart, at the same level of aggregation, but in a table format.
💡Example:
If a pie chart shows a 25% / 75% distribution, the table view will show two rows: one for 25% and one for 75%.
✅ Key Point:
No additional exploration is done.
It is simply another way of displaying the same data.
🕵️ 2. Drill to Detail (Accessing Detailed Rows)
❓What is "Drill to Detail"?
The "Drill to Detail" feature gives access to the list of raw data rows used to calculate a metric or aggregation shown in a chart.
✅ Key Point:
Available in many BI tools depending on the type of chart.
Enables row-level analysis to understand how a metric is constructed.
🧭 3. Drill By (Navigating a Hierarchy)
❓What is "Drill By"?
The "Drill By" function allows navigation through a hierarchy of dimensions within a chart, progressively exploring deeper levels of detail.
💡Example:
A visualization presents data by country → you can "drill" to show regions, then departments, etc.
⚠️ Important:
This feature is often available in BI tools, but requires specific configuration (not enabled by default).
🧠 Summary of Differences
Function | Level of Aggregation | View Type | Configuration Required |
View as Table | Same as chart | Table | None |
Drill to Detail | Row by row | Raw data | Depends on the chart |
Drill By | Hierarchical | Dimension navigation | Yes |