About Filters and Selection Steps

You use both filters and selection steps to limit the results in an analysis. For example, you might list the top ten sales performers, or the most profitable customers. A filter is applied to a column before selection steps are applied.

• Filters are applied directly to columns before the query is aggregated. Filters affect the query and thus the resulting values for measures. For example, suppose that you have a list of members in which the aggregate sums to 100. Over time, more members meet the filter criteria and are filtered in, which increases the aggregate sum to 200.

• Selection steps are applied after the query is aggregated and affect only the members displayed, not the resulting aggregate values. For example, suppose that you have a list of members in which the aggregate sums to 100. If you remove one of the members using a selection step, then the aggregate sum remains at 100.

About Prompted Filters

A prompted filter is a filter whose operator is set to is prompted. This operator is valid for a column that contains text, numbers, or dates.

When you select the is prompted operator for a filter's column, you flag the column as ready to be filtered by a prompt. When a prompt is used, results include only records where the data in the column that is prompted matches the user's choices.

The is prompted operator is required for columns that are included in prompts where no prefiltered values are wanted.