LogoLogo
About UsCustomersResourcesGet Started for Free
  • What is Select Star?
  • 🏁Getting Started
    • 1. Data Source Setup
    • 2. Mark Service Accounts
    • 3. Hide Unwanted Datasets
    • 4. Invite Owners
    • 5. Add Documentation
    • Next Steps
  • 🔄Integrations
    • Snowflake
      • Using Key Pair Authentication
      • Using Password Authentication
      • Snowflake Tag Sync
      • Snowflake Key Pair Rotation
    • Databricks
      • Databricks on AWS
      • Databricks on Azure
    • BigQuery
    • AWS Redshift
      • Manual setup
    • Microsoft SQL Server / MS SQL (beta)
      • Query Logs
    • MySQL (beta)
      • Query Logs
    • Oracle (beta)
      • Query Logs
    • Salesforce (beta)
    • DB2 (beta)
    • PostgreSQL
      • AWS Aurora PostgreSQL
      • AWS RDS PostgreSQL
      • PostgreSQL on-prem
    • AWS Glue (beta)
    • dbt
      • dbt Cloud
      • dbt Core (open source)
      • dbt Tags
      • dbt Tests
      • dbt docs Sync
        • Github dbt docs Sync
        • Bitbucket dbt docs Sync
      • dbt Impact Report
      • dbt Project Dependencies
    • Apache Airflow (beta)
    • Tableau
      • Tableau Cloud
      • Tableau Server
    • PowerBI
    • Looker
    • Metabase
    • Fivetran (beta)
    • Mode
    • Sigma Computing
    • Sisense / Periscope (beta)
    • Looker Studio (beta)
    • ThoughtSpot
    • QuickSight (beta)
      • Event Logs
    • Hex (beta)
    • Slack
    • Monte Carlo
    • Private Network
    • Request an Integration
  • ✨Features
    • Search
    • Table Page
    • Database Page
    • Dashboard Page
    • Data Lineage
    • Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
    • Queries & Joins
    • Tags
    • Teams
    • Discussion
    • Downstream Notifications
    • Documentation
      • Pages
      • Metrics
        • Metrics Generation
      • Glossary
    • Automated Documentation
    • User Analytics
    • Chrome Extension
    • Source Tables
    • Cost Analysis
    • Schema Change Detection
    • AI Features & Settings
      • Ask AI Chatbot
    • Request a Feature
  • 🧭Data Discovery
    • Where's my data?
    • Where's my dashboard?
    • How can I get the full context of this data?
    • My dashboard looks off
    • Change management
    • I'm new to the team
    • I have a data question
  • 🗃️Data Management
    • Add Documentation
      • CSV Metadata Upload
    • Collections
    • Tags
    • Data Ownership
    • Sensitive / PII Data
    • Automated PII Detection
  • 📚Learning Data
    • Getting Started: Looker
    • Getting Started: Mode
    • Getting Started: Tableau
    • Getting Started: Snowflake
    • Getting Started: Databricks
    • Getting Started: Data Warehouse
    • Getting Started: BigQuery
      • Nested Fields
    • Getting Started: Sigma
    • Getting Started: ThoughtSpot
  • 🛠️Data Source Management
    • Manage Data Sources
    • Connect Data Source Users to Select Star
    • Custom Attributes
    • Recent Queries
  • 👥User Management
    • Invite Users
    • Roles & Permissions
    • SAML SSO
    • Importing Roles and Teams (Okta)
    • Policy Based Access Control
    • Account and User Settings
  • 💻Select Star API
    • Overview
    • API Token
    • Getting Started
    • Rich Text Descriptions via API
    • Troubleshooting
    • API Examples
    • API Reference
  • 🔓Security & Compliance
  • ❓FAQ
    • Icon Map
  • 📰Changelog
    • April 16, 2025 - Semantic Models, AI Metrics, and More!
    • March 12, 2025 - Fivetran Integration, Tableau Updates and More!
    • February 6, 2025 - Collections, Slack App Published, Salesforce Formula Lineage and more!
    • December 10, 2024 - Hex Integration, Impact Score & Snowflake Key Pair Authentication!
    • November 13, 2024 - New Navigation, Airflow and More!
    • September 30, 2024 - Upstream Data Quality Issue Tracking & 5 New Integrations!
    • August 30, 2024 - Monte Carlo, dbt Cross-Project Lineage
    • July 31, 2024 - Glossary Import, Lineage Updates & more!
    • July 9, 2024 - Lineage Explorer 2.0, Slack AI and Notifications
    • February 29, 2024 - AI Chat, Schema Change Notifications
    • February 23, 2024 - Manual Lineage Creation
    • November 23, 2023 - Bulk AI Documentation
    • October 19, 2023 - Downstream Notifications
    • October 16, 2023 - New Homepage
    • October 13, 2023 - dbt Impact Report
    • Historical Changelogs
  • Security & Compliance
  • System Status
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • Lineage
  • Lineage Graph
  • Lineage Search
  • Filtering Data Lineage
  • Types of Data propagation
  • Lineage FAQs

Was this helpful?

  1. Features

Data Lineage

PreviousDashboard PageNextEntity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

Last updated 7 months ago

Was this helpful?

Lineage is an important part of understanding your data ecosystem, in this page you will learn how to:

  • Understand how different parts of your data relate to each other

  • to upstream or downstream data sources

  • Filter your data lineage by Data Type, Search Term, and by Excluding your Search Term

Watch this video for detailed information on using the lineage feature, or continue reading for an overview. Or skip to the next section to read about Lineage in more detail.

Lineage

Select Star can show you column-level lineage for your data assets. The lineage view is designed to show where the data is coming from and where is it flowing towards, so you can find dependencies of each table, column, or dashboard, and see how changes to your assets would impact your data environment.

When you connect a data source to Select Star, Lineage is automatically generated by parsing the SQL statements that ran in your data source.

There are 4 different views of lineage we show out of the box:

  1. Upstream: Shows the immediate upstream dependencies in a tree hierarchy

  2. Downstream: Shows the immediate downstream dependencies in a tree hierarchy

  3. Downstream Dashboards: Shows all dashboard dependencies downstream with extended information like Top User, or dashboard Popularity.

  4. Explore: Shows an advanced lineage graph that allows to navigate the flow of data at a column level.

Lineage Graph

The Lineage graph shows the Upstream Sources and Downstream Targets of the data asset. You can explore the graph by (1) clicking on the tree hierarchy displayed on the left hand side, or (2) by clicking on each of the nodes and columns.

Please note that not all columns are shown in the lineage graph. Select star only shows columns that have any lineage. If a column has no lineage, it is not shown in the lineage graph.

Lineage Search

Search is available within the Lineage Graph too, so exploring tables that have a large number of columns is easier. Follow the instructions below to show the search.

  1. Pin any given node by clicking it

  2. Click on the magnifying glass icon

  3. Type the term you are looking for

The search is available wherever you can find a magnifying glass icon. If you want to do a wider search through the whole graph, you can use the tree hierarchy to search through all the nodes.

Filtering Data Lineage

If you need to narrow down results, use some of our filtering features on your upstream or downstream lineage:

  • Filter by:

    • Data Type

    • Search Term

    • Exclude Search Term

Note that you can layer the Data Type and Search Term/Exclude Search Term, but Search Term and Exclude Search Term are not able to be layered/applied simultaneously.

Open your 🔍 Filtering Options to get started:

From there, you can Search by Term:

Search by Term and Filter by Data Type:

And Exclude Search Term:

Types of Data propagation

When talking about lineage, we say that data is propagated downwards to downstream data asset (another table, view, dashboard, etc). Data can be propagated as follows

  • AS IS: The data in the target is identical in value and format to that in the source.

  • AGGREGATED: The data in the target has been aggregated and the value in target may be different from the one at source.

  • TRANSFORMED: The data in the target has been aggregated and the format and values might be different from the ones at source.

Lineage FAQs

How often does lineage refresh?

Lineage refreshes approximately every 24 hours, after metadata sync is complete.

How does Select Star detect updates to lineage?

Select Star looks at DDL statements (used to build and modify the structure of your database) and DML statements (used to query and modify the data in your tables) to identify the lineage of your data.

Select Star will add new relationships to lineage based on both DDL (e.g. CREATE) and DML (e.g. INSERT/UPDATE) statements, however will only remove lineage relationships if a new DDL statement is detected.

There are many ways to see lineage: Check out our , or click on a column from the Column view to start exploring more advanced ways.

When calculating lineage between your assets, we also automatically classify downstream propagation. You can see how a column is propagated by editing the column tags. Learn more about tagging in .

✨
Rest API
Tag Management
Evaluate impact of changes