What are Slicers in Power BI?
Slicers in power bi are very similar to what we use slicers in ms excel, slicers are used to filter out some specific data from a report, but these filters are visible in the data itself and using these slicers user can select any values they want to be displayed in the report.
Slicers in ExcelSlicers In ExcelSlicers are a handy feature in excel to use multiple auto filters in a data table. However, it involves many clicks to use a filter on every column to find a date. A slicer makes it easier as it can be done with a few clicks.read more are visual filters that enable us to see the summary only for the selected data sets. A slicer is an alternative way of filtering the data in the Power BI dashboard. With just a click of the button, we can filter the specific data easily.
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How to Add Slicers Filter in Power BI?
For example, look at the below image of the dashboard in Power BI.
The above dashboard has many visuals with a summary of the entire data.
To create this power bi dashboardCreate This Power Bi DashboardDashboards tells the story in a single page view. Being an interactive tool as well, it is best suited to create such kind of interactive dashboards. So we will show you how to create an interactive sample sales dashboard in power bi.read more, use the following excel data by downloading it.
Example #1
Now, if you want to see sales, COGSCOGSThe cost of goods sold (COGS) is the cumulative total of direct costs incurred for the goods or services sold, including direct expenses like raw material, direct labour cost and other direct costs. However, it excludes all the indirect expenses incurred by the company.read more, and profit value for any specific product, we have many options on this dashboard. By adding the Power BI Slicer option, we will create one.
- From the “visualization” pane, click on the “Slicer” visual, and it appears on the dashboard page.
- Now for the field pane of the slicer, visual drag and drop the “Product” column.
- This should insert the product name to the slicer.
From this slicer, we can choose any of the products available, and the whole dashboard will show numbers only for the selected product. - I will choose “LG” from the slicer and see its impact on the overall dashboard.
As you can see above, overall sales were showing “99.37 M” since we have selected only the “LG” product from the slicer. It is showing only “12.34 M,” and similarly, the rest of the visuals are showing values only for the selected product (LG).
Example #2 – Add Multiple Slicers
We can add more than one type of slicer to our Power BI dashboard. Now we have added a slicer for “Product” similarly, add a slicer for “City” as well.
- Now choose any one city and anyone product and see the magic with dashboard numbers. I have selected the city as “Bangalore” and the product as “Redmi.”
- Below is the dashboard for selected items.
So, the overall total sale value for the city “Bangalore” for the product “Redmi” is “2.92 M”.
Power BI Slicers Formatting
Once the slicers are added, it is important to know how you play with your Power BI slicers. Below are some of them.
#1 – Select Multiple Items
In order to select multiple items from the Power BI slicer, you need to hold the Ctrl key and keep clicking on the values that you want to select.
- You can also design the selection option under the format tab of a slicer. Go to format and click on “Selection controls.”
#2 – Insert Underline for Each Value
If you want to show underline for each item in the slicer, then this can be done under the “Item” section from the “Format” tab. Select “Bottom Only” Option from the “Outline” to add underline.
From this section, you can also change the font color of each item in the slicer, font size, background color, font name, etc.
#3 – Show Drop Down Instead of List
If you don’t want to show a Power BI slicer in the selection list like the above and instead want to show a drop-down list, you can do this by clicking on the down arrow key of the slicer. This will show the option of “List” or “Dropdown.”
Based on the selection you make, it will start to show the slicer accordingly. I have chosen “Drop Down,” and my power bi slicer looks like this now.
#4 – Change Orientation
One more thing you can do to fit in your slicer is you can change the “Orientation” of the slicer to either “Horizontal” or “Vertical.”
Since I have chosen “Horizontal” as the “Orientation” type, my slicer will look like this.
Note: Power BI dashboard file can also be downloaded from the link below, and the final output can be viewed.
Things to Remember
- Slicers affect all the visuals in the dashboard.
- Power BI slicers are very similar to pivot table slicersPivot Table SlicersPivot Table Slicer is a tool in MS Excel to filter the data present in a pivot table. The data can be presented based on various categories as it offers a way to apply the pivot table filters that dynamically change the view of the pivot table data.read more.
- You can insert as many slicers as you want to be based on the data columns.
- Power BI Slicers works like visual filters for visuals in the dashboard.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to Slicers in Power BI. Here we discuss how to add & format a slicer to filter the data in the Power BI dashboard with the help of examples and a downloadable template. You can learn more about Power BI from the following articles –
- How to Share Reports in Power BI?
- Power BI vs Tableau
- Power BI Tooltip
- Use Power BI Conditional Formatting
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