Creating Filters

Filters are possible for both Dimensions and Measures and are made by dragging one or more fields into the Filters deck.

All the filters mentioned above can be shared with all or selected worksheets related to the same data source. To know about sharing filters, see Sharing Filters.

Dimension Filters

To generate a view with Dimension Filters you will edit the view from the Basic View to only show data for Currency Code GBP in Profit and Deck Type.

1. Begin by dragging Ship Method from Dimensions into Columns.

2. Then drag Profit into Rows. Notice the state of the chart.

3. Drag the Currency Code Dimension from the Data Pane into the Filters deck. Notice that to the right a new deck appeared displaying options in the Filter for each of the Currency Codes that exist in the data.

When your Filter is a Dimension, by default, you see check boxes you can enable to show desired categories.

Clicking the triangle to the top right of the Dimension Filter deck presents several ways of selecting which categories in a Dimension are part of the Filter:

Apply to Worksheets - Allows sharing filter with all or selected worksheets
Include Values - Displays the Values checked - default
Exclude Values - Hides the Values checked
Top N... - Displays only the top N values you select
Single Value (List) - Choose only one Value from a list
Single Value (Dropdown) - Choose only one Value from a dropdown
Multiple Value (List) - Choose multiple values from a list - default
Wildcard Match - Show only the Values that match a Wildcard expression
Show Apply Button - Allows you to add or remove multiple filter choices from the chart view in one go or reset the filter selection to previously filtered state view, without having Visual Analytics update the chart on every action you take in the Filter Deck.

Wildcard Match uses the following three characters as the wildcards.

'?' The question mark indicates there is exactly one of missing element. For example, colo?r matches "colour" but not "color" or "colouur".

'*' The asterisk indicates there are zero or more of the missing elements. For example, ab*c matches "abc", "abbc", "abdbc", and so on.

'+' The plus sign indicates there are at least one of the missing elements. For example, ab+c matches "abbc", "abdbc", but not "abc".

4. Uncheck every Currency Code except GBP. The View will change dynamically as you make modifications to your Filter.

Top N Filters

When a Dimension Filter is created, it is possible to select [Top N...] from within the Filter deck for that Dimension.

A filter with Top N (or Bottom N) limits the data included to only those items which are the indicated values for that Dimension. You can select the highest N values, the lowest N values, or both where N is a value you type yourself or pass the value using a parameter. The [Top N...] Filter dialog allows choosing between Top, Bottom, or Top & Bottom value or parameter, as well as selectively choosing a particular measure and aggregate function to be used for Top N. The bottom of the Dimension Filter deck will indicate the use and type of Top N filter.

Measure Filters (Continuous Filters)

To create a Measure Filter (or to create a Continuous Filter), drag a measure or continuous field into the Filters Deck. Continuous fields are always indicated by a green color or green background. Measure Filters produce sliders in a deck to the right of the view that allow filtering for:

A Range of Values
At Least a Value of
At Most a Value of

By default, any Measure field dragged and dropped into the Filters Deck is converted to a Continuous Dimension within the Filters Deck. It is possible to right-click and convert a Continuous Dimension back to a Measure while it is inside the Filters Deck to create a filter that takes into account its [Default Properties > Aggregation] such as SUM or COUNT or Std. Dev. You can also right-click a Measure field present in any deck except the Filters deck and choose [Show Filter] to have the measure's [Default Properties > Aggregation] used in a filter.

To create a view with a Measure filter for Freight:

1. Remove all of the Fields from the Columns, Rows, and Filters decks from our previous example.

2. Drag Ship Method to Columns

3. Drag Profit to Rows

4. Drag Freight to Filters. A dialog will appear asking for the type of Filter you would like to use from a list of possible Aggregate Filters. Choose All Values.

5. Notice the Freight Filter to the right of the chart. It contains a dual slider so that you can set the range of the Freight filter.

6. In the Freight Filter deck, drag the slider on the left toward the right.

7. Drag the slider in the Freight Filter deck on the right toward the left. Notice the changes in the chart.

8. You can change the Measure Filter from Range to [At Most] or [At Least] by clicking on the triangle at the top right corner of the Freight Filter deck then moving the single slider that appears.

Multiple Filters

It's possible to have multiple Dimension and Measure Filters active simultaneously. Simply drag the Fields you wish to filter on into the Filters Deck and additional Filter Decks appear on the right for each item, which allows you to modify them separately but with a cumulative effect on the view.

Hiding and Showing Filter Decks

Filter Decks can be hidden by either right-clicking a filter's name in the Filters deck or unchecking [Show Filter]. To show a Filter Deck once it's hidden, right-click on the Filter and check [Show Filter].

You can also hide a Filter Deck by clicking the triangle at the far right side of an individual Filter's Deck and choosing [Hide Deck].

Date Filters
In Visual Analytics, you can use date fields as filters by selecting a defined range or a period relative to a specific date. Visual Analytics supports Range filters and Relative date filters.

Range filters

Use this filter to specify a fixed date range. For example, if you want to project the sales for your products from March 1, 2015, to December 31, 2018. You can apply this filter only to continuous date and date and time dimensions.

To apply Range filters

In the Filters Deck, place a date or date and time dimension.
In the Filter field window, choose Range of dates. Visual Analytics displays the range on the right side of the chart view.

You can add an extra filter to the range of dates by defining a starting or an ending date. The starting dates let you modify the start dates in the range, but the ending dates cannot be modified. Likewise, the ending dates let you modify the ending dates in the range, but the starting dates cannot be modified. You can modify these dates by moving the slider.

Relative date filters
With Relative date filters, you can set dynamic filters relative to the current or specified date.

To apply Relative date filters

In the Filters Deck, place a date or date and time dimension.
In the Filter field window, choose Relative date.
Click on the Filter Card to view the date units.

Date Units
The Filter Card contains tabs for various date units. You can switch to the date unit tab to which you want to apply a date filter. You can apply a date filter to date units that are Years, Quarters, Months, Weeks, Days, Hours, Minutes, Seconds.

Date Range
You can apply a date range based on the previous, next, or current period. You can also manually set a range in the Last or Next combo box, or use the Month to Date option if you want to see the data from the first date of the month until the current date of your computer. The date range that you apply appears at the bottom of the Filter Card. In the following example, to view the sales report for the current and previous months, we have set Last as 2 months. The applied date range can be seen at the bottom of the card.

Anchor Relative To

By default, Visual Analytics applies filters relative to the date and time you last refreshed or extracted data source. However, when you set a date in the Anchor Relative to field, Visual Analytics applies a filter relative to the specified date. For example, to analyze sales targets for the last 4 quarters ending on March 31st, 2016; switch the date unit to Quarters, set Last as 4 quarters, and set Anchor Relative to March 31st, 2016. Visual Analytics displays the sales targets from April 1st, 2015 to March 31st, 2016.

When you apply a date filter relative to Last Refresh Time, save the workbook without generating an extract, and then reopen the same workbook, Visual Analytics applies filters as per the current date and time of your computer. However, when you save the workbook after generating an extract and then reopen the same workbook, Visual Analytics applies filters considering the date and time of the extracted data. For example, let’s assume today is December 6th and you reopen a workbook saved on December 1st. If you had generated an extract before saving the file then Visual Analytics applies filter relative to December 1st (date of the extract). If you had saved the file without an extract then Visual Analytics applies filter relative to December 6th.

Keep Only and Exclude Filters
The Keep Only and Exclude actions in Visual Analytics allow you to filter records from the chart view without manually adding any fields to the Filters Deck. To keep or remove records directly from the chart, highlight the specific records and then from the tooltip click Keep Only or Exclude.

Keep Only	Exclude

For Keep Only, Visual Analytics retains the selected records in the chart view and shows these records as checked in the Filter card. For Exclude, Visual Analytics removes the selected records from the chart view and shows them stricken out in the Filter card.

An alternative way of filtering records is via the Color and Shape legends. In color or shape legend, click the records you want to keep or remove from the chart view and then click Keep Only or Exclude from the tooltip.

If you have multiple dimensions in a chart view, and you click Keep Only, Visual Analytics displays an Inclusion filter in place of the usual filter. An inclusion filter lists the combinations of all records of the dimensions in use, with selected records as checked. For example, when you highlight the shipping methods with the highest freight value for each state and then click Keep Only from the tooltip, Visual Analytics keeps the highlighted records in the chart view and removes others. In the Inclusion filter, it shows all the highlighted records as checked.

Similar to the Inclusion filter, when you click Exclude, Visual Analytics shows an Exclusion filter with all the highlighted records stricken out from the Filter card.

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