Filtering Data in a Quick Dashboard

You can filter the data displayed in a Visual Insight quick dashboard, to display only the information that you require. For example, a quick dashboard displays sales data for several different product categories, from 2010 to 2014. You can filter the data in the grid to only display sales data for books and movies in 2014.

You can filter data based on:

The elements of an attribute: The elements of a business attribute are the unique values for that attribute. For example, 2013 and 2014 are elements of the Year attribute, while New York and London are elements of the City attribute. You can filter based on a list of attribute elements belonging to an attribute. For example, the attribute Customer has elements which are individual customer names. For a report containing the attributes Region, Customer, and Income Range, you can use an attribute element list qualification on the attribute Customer to obtain income data for only those customers you specify in your filter's list.
The value of a metric: You can filter data by restricting the attributes in the set based on the value, rank, or rank percentage of a metric associated with the attributes. For example, a store manager wants to see sales numbers for products whose current inventory count falls below a certain level. A metric set qualification lets the manager restrict data based on a set of attributes, in this case certain products, based on a metric value, rank, or rank percentage, in this case, inventory count below a certain level.

When you filter data in a quick dashboard, your selections are applied to every visualization on the layout tab currently selected in the quick dashboard. For example, a quick dashboard contains a Grid visualization and a Heat Map visualization, which both display sales data for a series of regions. Both are displayed on separate panels and are located on the Sales layout tab. If you select to only display data in the Grid visualization for the Northeast and Southeast regions, both the Grid visualization and the Heat Map visualization will be updated to only include data for Northeast and Southeast.

You can also filter data in a single visualization, without affecting the data displayed in any other visualization. For steps, see Filtering, sorting, and drilling on data in a visualization.

Selecting attribute elements in a filter also restricts the choices available in the Page-by area. For example, a quick dashboard contains revenue data grouped by the Category attribute, allowing you to display the revenue for Books, Movies, Music, and so on. If you filter the data to only display revenue information for the Books and Movies categories, only Books and Movies will be available as options in the Page-by area. For background information and steps to group data in a quick dashboard, see Grouping data in a quick dashboard.

Note: If the Filters panel is not displayed in the quick dashboard, click the Show Filters icon in the quick dashboard toolbar to display it.

Task	Steps
Filter data by selecting elements in an attribute	In the Filters panel, locate the section that contains the attribute you want to use to filter. If the section is collapsed, click the arrow icon next to the name of the attribute to expand it. Select the attribute elements you want to use to filter data, or select All to choose all of the elements at once. If the filter contains many items, a search field is displayed. You can narrow the list of attribute elements in the filter. Type the name of an attribute in the field, then select attribute elements from the list of results. Note: You can only select a single element if the elements are displayed using the Radio Button or Drop-down styles. For the Radio Button and Check Boxes styles, if a large number of attribute elements is displayed in the filter, you can type the name of the elements in the search box to filter the choices displayed. Click Apply to filter data using your selections. If the designer has created the document to automatically apply selections in the filter, your selections are automatically used to filter data.
Filter data by selecting metric values from a slider	In the Filters panel, locate the section that contains the metric you want to use to filter. If the section is collapsed, click the arrow icon next to the name of the metric to expand it. Do one of the following: To filter the metric values by selecting a general range, click and drag the endpoints of the slider to cover the range of values for which you want to filter data. The selected value range is automatically highlighted in blue. To filter the metric values by typing a specific range of values, press CTRL and click on the endpoint of a slider. Type the value you want to use as the new endpoint of the value range, then press ENTER. Click Apply to filter data using your selections. If the designer has created the document to automatically apply selections in the filter, your selections are automatically used to filter data.
Filter data by defining a qualification on a metric	In the Filters panel, locate the section that contains the metric you want to use to filter. If the section is collapsed, click the arrow icon next to the name of the metric to expand it. Hover over the metric name and click the arrow icon to the right. Click Display Style and choose Qualification. Click Greater than. From the drop-down list, select the operator you want to use to compare data, such as Less Than or Equals. In the field, type the value you want to use to filter data, then press ENTER. Click Apply to filter data using your selections. If the designer has created the document to automatically apply selections in the filter, your selections are automatically used to filter data.
Filter data by searching for elements	In the Filters panel, locate the section that contains the Searchbox-style filter you want to use to search for elements. If the section is collapsed, click the arrow icon next to the name of the metric to expand it. If the search box is not displayed, Hover over the attribute name and click the arrow icon to the right. Click Display Style and choose Search Box. In the search field, type the name of the element you want to use to filter. From the drop-down list, select the name of the element. The element is added to the list of elements included in the filter. Repeat the steps above to add additional elements to the filter. You can remove an element from the filter by clicking the x icon next to the element you want to remove. Click Apply to filter data using your selections. If the designer has created the document to automatically apply selections in the filter, your selections are automatically used to filter data.
Clear all selections in the Filters panel	Hover the cursor over the Filters panel, then click the arrow icon displayed in the top right of the panel. A list of options is displayed. Select Clear All Filters. All the selections in the Filters panel are cleared and all data is displayed.