Filters Shelf

The Filters shelf allows you to specify which data to include and exclude. For example, you might want to analyze the profit for each customer segment, but only for certain shipping containers and delivery times. By placing fields on the Filters shelf, you can create such a view.

This section presents a brief overview of filtering. Refer to Filtering for a complete description.

You can filter data using measures, dimensions, or both at the same time. Additionally, you can filter data based on the fields that make up the columns and rows of the table. This is called an internal filter. You can also filter data using fields that don’t contribute headers or axes to the table. This is called an external filter. All filtered fields display on the Filters shelf.
To illustrate the basic concepts of filtering, consider the following view.

Suppose you are not interested in the Small Business data. You can remove this column from the view by filtering the Customer Segment dimension. To do so, select Filter on the field menu or drag the Customer Segment dimension to the Filters shelf. The Filter dialog box opens. By default all members are selected. Clear the checkbox for Small Business to exclude it from the view. All selected members will be included.

As shown below, the view updates and the Small Business column is removed. The filter is indicated by the Customer Segment field on the Filters shelf.

Suppose you want to only view sales for products that were shipped in boxes. Even though the Container field is not used on the Rows and Columns shelves or on the Marks card, you can still add a filter. Drag the Container dimension to the Filters shelf. This is an example of an external filter because Container is not part of the view.
The Filter dialog box automatically opens. By default, none of the members are selected. Select the members you want to keep as part of the view. All cleared members are excluded.

The modified data view is shown below. The tooltip shows that the sum of the sales for the Consumer segment has decreased to $4,331,503. This number is derived by summing all the rows in the data source that are associated with the Corporate market and that use a box as a shipping container.

The order of fields placed on the Filters shelf does not affect the data view because the filters are independent. In other words, the result of filtering by customer segment, and then by container is the same as filtering by container and then by customer segment.