Forum Discussion

New2PowerBI's avatar
New2PowerBI
Helper III
9 years ago

Advanced Attribute Slicer

Not sure how to address what I'm after. 

 

I would like to set up multiple tables/displays with columns of information that is pertinent to me, for example, a table with all "completed work" and a table with all "planned work" and so forth.  My vision is to have all of this on one dashboard/page and then build a slicer, similar to the attribute slicer, where a person would enter a term, like "HVAC" and all the tables on the dashboard/page would only bring up records where "HVAC" existed, in certain fields (not all the same fields as displayed on table). 

 

I think I'm looking for a Siri/Cortana type of search, where I just enter a term and it brings me all information with that term, or better yet, even a combination of terms, except inside Power BI...maybe not the best option?  Would appreacite some thoughts and/or experience from some who's worked with something like this. 

 

Thanks!

Need Help

7 Replies

  • v-yulgu-msft's avatar
    v-yulgu-msft
    Microsoft Employee
    9 years ago

    Hi New2PowerBI,

     

    Based on my understanding, you want to achieve such type of search that no matter which column contains the value entered by users, that relative records shoud be filtered, right?

     

    However, this is not possible in Power BI. Actually, we add a field into a slicer, it can only filter records inside this specific column being exactly matched with the selected values. Fuzzy inquiry is not supported now.

     

    Regards,
    Yuliana Gu 

    • New2PowerBI's avatar
      New2PowerBI
      Helper III
      9 years ago

      You are correct v-yulgu-msft; that is what I'm after.  Maybe something that could be developed in future.  Thanks for reviewing and replying.

      • v-yulgu-msft's avatar
        v-yulgu-msft
        Microsoft Employee
        9 years ago

        Hi New2PowerBI,

         

        You could sumbit your idea here. If it is mentioned by many users, our product team will consider adding it in future release. 

         

        Regards,
        Yuliana Gu

  • danextian's avatar
    danextian
    Super User
    9 years ago

    hi New2PowerBI,

     

    There is no such thing as as universal search in Power BI (maybe in the future). What I can think of, if your data is just in one table, is:

     

    • to add an index column to your table.
    • then create another query referencing to that table
    • unpivot all columns in the new query except the index column. This will create  two new columns where attribute is the name of columns unpivoted and value is the row contents of those columns. 
    • create a both-direction relationship between the new and old table.
    • use value as slicer.

    Please take note that this may dramaticallly increase the size of your original table. Here's the link to the tutorial: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Dynamic-Category-Using-a-Slicer/m-p/216971

     

    • New2PowerBI's avatar
      New2PowerBI
      Helper III
      9 years ago

      Thanks danextian;something to hopefully see in the future.  In my experience it seems that the more people have access to, the more the questions and that causes yet another build...hoping to reduce that. 

       

      I will look at your suggestion; I am afraid the data model will grow quite a bit as I'm dealing with a lot of records, but maybe I can try on a smaller scale with sample data just to see how it functions/performs. 

       

      Thanks again!