Predicting the future is very valuable and it is something that is possible within both Tableau and Alteryx. This blog will focus a section of predictive analysis, Linear Regression, in the latter software.

What is Linear Regression?

The use case of linear regression is to be able to predict a dependent variable from one or multiple independent variable(s).

Alteryx Configuration

Below is a screenshot of the configuration of the tool in Alteryx with regards to Human Development data, which looks at important metrics for each country.

First is the model name, which is self-explanatory. The target variable is the dependent variable and for this example, we chose the urban population field. The predictor variables are all the independent variables in this example, we selected all bar the country as predictor variables. The country field is used since we want to break down the regression per country, hence there is no reason to select it.

The tool has three outputs: output, reports and interactive reports. The outputs give you the same reading in different ways with the output giving an output of the run, the report giving you a breakdown of the run with all the statistical results whilst the interactive report gives you an interactive version of that report. Below is a screenshot of the report to show you what you can expect.