Forum Discussion
Break out Multi-Select field into Slicer
Hello GabeFig,
Thanks for sharing the sample data.
I have reproduced your scenario using the sample data you shared and implemented the required filtering logic based on multi-valued Categories and Features columns (with delimiters like ;).
Output:- When “Application” is selected from the Categories slicer:
You will see only rows where “Application” is one of the multiple categories. - When “AI-Enabled” is selected from the Features slicer:
You will see only rows where “AI-Enabled” is one of the feature values.
For your reference, I’m attaching the .pbix file.
Best regards,
Ganesh Singamshetty- When “Application” is selected from the Categories slicer:
I went through your steps as well as refreshed but the data seems to be the same. I do not see any new columns to use in the Slicer.
Maybe this has to be rebuild rom scratch
Community SupportHello GabeFig,
Thanks for the follow-up.
The issue might be due to the field being split into columns instead of rows, or possibly a modeling step was skipped. Let me walk you through the approach again, this time with clarity on creating a slicer-ready field:
- In Power BI, go to Transform Data to open Power Query Editor and Select your Categories column.
- From the top ribbon, click Split Column > By Delimiter and Choose delimiter: ; (semicolon) also note that in the dialog, select Split into Rows, not columns.
- Repeat the same for the Features column (if needed) and Click Close & Apply to update the data model.
- After applying changes, return to your Power BI report canvas and drag the now “flattened” Categories column into a slicer visual.
Best Regards,
Ganesh singamshetty.
Thanks Ganesh for the more detailed instruction BUT that seems to be what I did.
I could not tell there was anything different even after the original slicer was removed and recreated w/ Category field that was split (by rows).Below are some screenshots of what was done with the existing MS BI.I wonder that this needs to be done completely from scratch to work.
Both Catefory & Feature were done. The split was done by Row.
I also checked to see if there was a hidden CR or LF or CRLF but there were none.
- v-ssriganesh
Hello GabeFig,
Thanks for sharing your detailed screenshots and you’ve done a great job applying the split correctly. I now suspect the issue is not with the split step itself, but with how Power BI handles row-level filtering from slicers in a 1-to-many relationship scenario.To make the slicers work properly without affecting or duplicating your main data table:
- Duplicate your main table in Power Query call it CategoryMapping and Keep only ID and Categories columns.
- Apply Split Column by Delimiter Into Rows on Categories and Rename the result column to Category. Repeat same steps to create a FeatureMapping table.
- Create Relationships between CategoryMapping[ID] >> MainTable[ID] and FeatureMapping[ID]>> MainTable[ID]
- Then Use CategoryMapping[Category] in the Category slicer and FeatureMapping[Feature] in the Feature slicer
If the issue persists, try to share your .pbix file or sample data so I can better understand the scenario and give you the necessary solution.
Thank you.