Forum Discussion

kswain's avatar
kswain
New Member
2 years ago

Difference between Filtering with Dynamic Parameters vs. Slicers in Direct Query

I have a power bi dashboard that is connected to healthcare data via a direct query (due to size of the data source). I am using a dynamic parameter to filter by patient ID (via power query, advanced editor). I also have other slicers on the dashboard such as Date, service type, etc. 

 

I was wondering what is the difference from a performance standpoint of using the dynamic parameter vs. regular slicers. In what order does power bi query the database? Would it be better performance wise to make more of my filters parameters instead of slicers?

3 Replies

  • Excellent question. In my opinion dynamic query parameters are the equivalent of report level filters. Unbound slicers are page level filters.

     

    You would have to capture the queries that are executed against the Direct Query source to see if there is any material difference.

    • kswain's avatar
      kswain
      New Member

      Thanks for responding! So would power bi perform the report level queries first? and then perform page level filters on the now smaller subset of data?

      How would I capture those queries? (I'm pretty new to power bi). 

      • lbendlin's avatar
        lbendlin
        Super User

        Read about DAX Studio and SQL Server Profiler .  Ideally you would have access to the query log of your data source too.