Using Parameters as Filters

by Hannah Millington

Last week I built a dashboard which included a worksheet that was operated by a parameter. I also wanted to use a filter on other worksheets included on the dashboard to allow the user more flexibility when analyzing the data.

Both my parameter and the filter were essentially doing the same thing. However I didn’t want the user to have to select the same option twice – once in the filter and once in the parameter. This could easily create confusion when using the dashboard, of which I wanted to avoid.

Unfortunately, you can’t drag a parameter directly onto the filter shelf, so I started to search how to make a parameter control a filter. I found this super helpful blog post by Ross Perez.

Essentially you drag field you want to filter by / the field you have used for the parameter onto the filter shelf. Then select the ‘Condition’ tab on the filter configuration window and choose ‘By Formula’. (I was previously unaware that you could filter by a formula and so my mind was blown after finding this out). Here you write a Boolean condition to say the field and your parameter are the same.

This will then pass the value you select in your parameter and subsequently filter the field by this.

This is a super handy tip to clean up dashboards which may have multiple filters/parameters with the same functionality!

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Hannah Millington

Wed 13 May 2020

Fri 08 May 2020