Apply Slicing, Filtering And Sorting

Introduction

Power BI Desktop provides three tools that you can use to edit and configure interactions between the visualisations that you add to your report: slicers, filters, and sorting.

The process of filtering allows you to remove all the data that you don’t need, so you can focus on the data that you do need. You can apply filtering directly by using the Filters pane or by adding and using a slicer. Slicers and filters are similar – both let you filter out unnecessary data. Experiment with both options to see which one is the best mechanism for your report situation.

Add Slicer

A slicer is a type of filter that you can add to your report, so users can segment the data in the report by a specific value, such as by year or geographical location. Slicers narrow the portion of the dataset that is shown in the other report visualizations.

To apply a slicer, select the Slicer icon in the Visualizations pane. Then, in the Fields pane, select the fields that you want to include in the slicer or drag them into the slicer visualization.

The visualisation then changes to a list of items (filters) with check boxes that you can use to segment the data. When you select an item’s check box, Power BI will filter (slice) all the other visualisations on the same report page, as illustrated in the following image.

• Single select – This option is Off by default. It ensures that only one item can be selected at a time.
• Multi-select with CTRL – This option is On by default. It allows you to select multiple items by pressing the Ctrl key.
• Show “Select all” – This option is Off by default. If you turn on this option, a Select all check box is added to the slicer. You might want to add this option so that you can quickly select or clear all items in the list. If you select all items, selecting an item will clear it, allowing an is-not type of filter.