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.

What are Slicers in Power BI?

Slicers in excel 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 click of the button we can filter the specific data easily.

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 dashboard use the following excel data by downloading it.

You can download this Power BI Slicer Excel Template here – Power BI Slicer Excel Template

Example #1

Now if you want to see sale, COGS and profit value for any specific product we have many options in this dashboard. By adding the Power BI Slicer option we will create one.

From “visualization” pane click on “Slicer” visual and it appears on the dashboard page.

Now for the field pane of slicer visual drag and drop “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.

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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 “LG” product from the slicer it is showing only “12.34 M” and similarly 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.

You can download this Power BI Slicer Template here – Power BI Slicer Template

Things to Remember

Slicers affect all the visuals in the dashboard.
Power BI slicers are very similar to pivot table slicers.
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.