Basic Categorical Filters

  1. Drag a field from the Data window to the Filters shelf. You can also right-click a field on any shelf and select Filter.

  2. Use the General Tab of the Filter dialog box to select the values you want to include or exclude.

Each option on the General tab is described below:
Show More/Fewer - The contents of the Filter dialog box is affected by the filters that are already set in the view. For example, two filters are shown below: Writing Utensils and Colors. When the Colors filter is set to Show Fewer Values, selecting Pen in the writing utensils filter modifies the Colors filter to only show Black and Blue. That's because the underlying data only contains black and blue pens. When the Colors filter is set to Show More Values, all colors in the underlying data are always shown regardless of what Writing Utensil is selected. The Show More/Fewer option includes and excludes data from displaying in the Filter so you can find what you are looking for quicker.
Colors is set to Show Fewer Values   Colors is set to Show More Values
 
Because the data only contains black and blue pens, the Colors filter only shows values that pass the Writing Utensils filter.   All colors in the data are shown regardless of what is selected in the Writing Utensils filter. In this case, changing the filter to exclude Red will have no affect on the view because there are no red pens in underlying data.
Values Selector - Use the Values drop-down list to choose a method of selecting values. Depending on the data source you are using and the type of dimension you are filtering, you can select from the following options:
  • Select from List - select from a list of the values (requires a database query to get the values)
  • Custom Value List - type explicit dimension member names into a text box to define a filter without querying the database. Use this option when you are using a large data source and queries are slow. If you know the dimension members you are interested in, you can type them into the text box or copy and paste them from another application. Make sure that each member is on its own line in the text box.
  • Use All - select all of the members in the data source. Sometimes you will want to define a condition or limit filter that is based on all the data, even if that data changes over time. Rather than selecting specific members to include or exclude from the filter, the Use All option always includes every member in the database as the input to the condition or limit.
Search Box - When you are working with a field that has a lot of members, you may want to search the values and quickly select the ones you are looking for. As you type into the search box, matching values show below the search box. Select the values you want. Each search adds to the selection.
Dimension Members - Select members from the list when using the Select from List mode. When in Custom Value List mode this area displays the list of dimension members you have typed in manually.

Selection Controls - These selection controls are available for multidimensional data sources and help you quickly select entire levels. Located at the top of the dialog box, the numbers indicate each level. The color shows what values are selected. The default color means no values are selected for that level, blue means all members on that level are selected, and gray means some members are selected.

Exclude Mode - By default, selected members when defining a filter will be included and deselected members will be excluded. However, sometimes it is easier to define what you don’t want instead of all of the values you do want to show. Select the Exclude option in the upper right corner of the dialog box to make your selections excluded from the filter instead of included.

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