Creating a native query

In the last section, we learned how to create custom questions using Metabase's notebook editor. As we saw, the editor is quite powerful. With it, you can do all of the standard analytical database operations, such as filtering, summarizing, grouping, transforming, and joining – all by clicking. This is incredibly useful, both for a seasoned data analyst and for someone new to data. I find that it's also useful as an educational tool for those new to analytics and curious to learn more. It's easy to open a saved question and flip to the editor to see the "recipe" and learn how it was created.

Of course, as powerful as the editor is, there will always be some questions that it can't answer. The Metabase team is constantly adding features to cover more and more use cases, but addressing every single function for every supported database is a tall order. But for every use case that the editor cannot address, Metabase offers...