Filter Drop Zone

The Filter drop zone is primarily used to add 'slicers' or data driven filters to the query. A slicer comprises a list of member elements from a model hierarchy and is used to filter the query by one or multiple member elements at runtime. For instance, if you add the Country hierarchy, you can filter the query by any country in that hierarchy via the slicer selection.

Filters can also be used with measures to drive a slightly different mechanisms. This includes:

• a "switching" effect, where the measure can be swapped out using the measure slice. These are known as variable measure sets.
• a "parameterization" effect, where a VALUE filter can be built using a given measure to numerically filter the query. (see below for more)

Filters vs Parameters

Filters and parameters are highly related objects. All filters are really parameters, which are built directly using the Filter drop-zone. However, parameters, can be built and deployed using multiple other avenues and offer far greater analytic and visualization power (for example the numeric filters described below).

Slicer Types

• Drop Down: adds a drop down list, from which one slice can be selected at a time.
• Multi Select Drop Down: adds a drop down list, from which multiple slices can be selected simultaneously.
• List Box: adds a single-select list within a box container.
• Multi Select List Box: adds a multi-select list within a box container.
• Text Box: adds a textbox with drop-down.
• Buttons: adds single-select buttons, rather than a list.
• Multi Select Buttons: adds multi-select buttons.
• Multi Select Tree: supports 'regular' hierarchies in both cube and SQL models. Adds a multi-select tree list; navigate through the tree to find and select relevant elements.
• Single Select Tree: supports 'regular' hierarchies in both cube and SQL models. Adds a single select tree list; navigate through the tree to find the relevant element.
• Combined Elements: filters the query by all the elements in the hierarchy that was added to Filters (rather than filtering by a specified slice).
• Date-Time Picker: the date-time picker is a specialized slicer visualization is designed to make it easier to use date-time hierarchies and their associated calculations.

Background Chips

When a single element is added to the query, it is added as a background chip.

• The chip is hidden from the filters drop zone by default. You can use the filter drop zones menu to show the chip instead.
• If more than one item is selected, the background chip is automatically switched to a slicer visual as per above instead.
• Background selections are shown on the canvas in Discover. You can hover over these items and then drag them to drop zones like a regular chip if needed. In Present, background selections are only shown in the breadcrumbs of the visualization.

Value Filters

Unlike classic slicers which are built off member elements found in hierarchies, value filters are built using numeric or text values. As described in more detail here, value filters generally limit data by specifying limits on values while slicer filters generally limit data by limiting element selections. Value filters can be added via the context menu (see Quick Filters), through a more advanced and comprehensive Filter Wizard; through building more sophisticated element lists; and finally via the Filter drop zone, described in this topic.

• Click here to learn more about value filters with parameters.
• Click here to learn more about these functions in the PQL documentation.

Adding Filters

Adding Classic Element Slicers

To add a slicer, simply drag the relevant member hierarchy to the Drop Zone called Filters. By default, a drop-down slicer will be added to the page. You can also create a measure slicer on the fly, by adding multiple measures to the Values drop zone, and moving the Values chip to the Filters drop zone.

You can select a different slicer type by dropping the chip onto one of the options in the Filters zone menu.

Position the Slicer

• The slicer can be dropped into four docking zones on the canvas: right hand side (default), left hand side, top, and bottom
• To move your slicer to another docking zone, hover over the slicer title - the cursor will show as a move pointer (four arrows)
• Click and drag the cursor to one of the four docking zones
• When the docking zone displays a blue highlight, drop the slicer

Edit a Slicer

Click the slicer's context menu and select Settings to open the Slicer Settings dialog.

Adding Value Filters via the Filter Drop Zone

Drag a (orange) value chip to the filter drop zone. The choices in the drop zone fly out will show a different list to the one for blue hierarchical element filters. From here, select which type of value filter to apply to your data set.

Note: That all value filters built using the drop zone technique is automatically parameterized, allowing the user to further tweak the filter settings.

Example