Tableau’s built-in geocoding supports only the following geographic roles:

Country

State / Province

County

City

Postal Code

Airport

Area codes

Congressional districts, etc.

Tableau does NOT natively geocode street-level addresses.

When a dataset contains street address fields, Tableau will not recognize them as geographic fields because:

Street Address 1 and Street Address 2 are not valid Tableau geographic roles.

Tableau cannot automatically translate street text (like “101 Random Place Rd”) into latitude/longitude.

Therefore, to plot street-level points on a map, Tableau requires:

Custom geocoding OR latitude/longitude fields.

Tableau documents that for exact address locations:

You must either supply latitude and longitude for each address, or

Use custom geocoding, where the user uploads a .csv with addresses matched to coordinates.

Why the other answer choices are incorrect:

B. Change the data type to Geographic role

Street address fields cannot be assigned a geographic role. Tableau will reject them or not map them.

C. Establish a hierarchy

Hierarchies help with drilldown but do not generate geographic coordinates for street addresses.

D. Add a map layer

Map layers allow visual overlays but cannot generate geocoding for address fields.

The only correct way to map street addresses is to custom geocode (or supply lat/long), which matches option A.

Tableau Geocoding documentation stating street-level addresses are not natively supported.

Custom Geocoding instructions for mapping exact address points.

Mapping best practices stating that lat/long or custom geocode files are required for street accuracy.