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jscottNRG's avatar
jscottNRG
Icon for Helper II rankHelper II
8 years ago
Solved

Single date slicer to filter multiple date tables

I'm hoping this isn't actually so difficult, but I've had a tough time trying to figure out the proper setup. I'd like to use a single date slicer to filter multiple tables with dates in them. The ta...
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  • edhans's avatar
    edhans
    8 years ago

    Shouldn't your slicer be based on the dates in a Date Table where the Date field is related to all of the relevant date fields in your other tables?

jscottNRG's avatar
jscottNRG
Icon for Helper II rankHelper II
8 years ago

edhansAree  thanks again for your suggestions.

 

I created a Date Table and marked it as such on the Modeling tab:

 Calendar (Date Table)

 I tried to set up relationships between Calendar and RoughInspections and FinalInspections -- the first one went fine but I got an error on the second:

 

Relationship activation

You can't create a direct active relationship between RoughInspections and Calendar because that would introduce ambiguity between tables Calendar and Job_info...

 

I'm guessing that is causing this problem, that all records are included when the slicer is 'wide-open,' but when I restrict the range even by one day then the visuals go blank:

 

7/1/2016 - 6/30/20187/2/2016 - 6/30/2018

 

Any thoughts on what I've done wrong?

Aree's avatar
Aree
Icon for Resolver I rankResolver I
8 years ago

jscottNRG 

Hey Mate,

 

Can you upload a screen shot of the relationship diagram?

Also the calendar table becomes the focal point for all timephased data (all sources that have transactions by day).
Do not link other none timephased data to the calendar table. I believe this is what might be causing your ambiguity but I would need to see the relationship diagram to be certain. 

  • jscottNRG's avatar
    jscottNRG
    Icon for Helper II rankHelper II
    8 years ago

    Aree

    Sorry, I meant to include this in my reply yesterday.  Here is a screenshot of that part of my relationship diagram.  You can see the succesful relationship between Calendar and FinalInspections on the left but the relationship between Calendar and RoughInspections failed.

     

    • edhans's avatar
      edhans
      Icon for Community Champion rankCommunity Champion
      8 years ago

      What is the relationship between Job_info and RoughInspections?

      There is some other relationship in your model that is causing the Calendar to RoughInspections to be inactive.

       

      You can, of course, still use it. You just need to use the USERELATIONSHIPS() function in a filter, but that shouldn't be necessary in this case. usually it is when you have 2 or more relationships between 2 tables and you need to swich which realtionship. See this article for more info on that, but I'd still be interested to know what other relationships you have set up are causing the one you tried to go inactive.

       

      Here is an article on how you can create ambiguous relationships that will cause a relationship to go inactive like that as well.

      • jscottNRG's avatar
        jscottNRG
        Icon for Helper II rankHelper II
        8 years ago

        edhans

        Here is the relationship between RoughInspections and Job_info.  Thanks for the links with more info on correct relationship setup!

         

    • Aree's avatar
      Aree
      Icon for Resolver I rankResolver I
      8 years ago

      Hey jscottNRG

       

      The relationships that you are showing indicates that

      Calendar ->Final Inspection -> Job Info -> Rough Inspection

       

      So if you link Rough Inspection to Calendar it already has a relationship via the Job Info -> Final Inspection so you cannot create another active link where an active link already exist.

       

      As edhans would have indicated you can use CROSSFILTER to over come model relationships 

      OR

      you will need to restructure the data. If you can upload a redacted sample set that would be great.

       

      Here is a sample from a file I am working with.

      My focal table (fact table) is projects which has associated financial data (dim table) then i have other tables link to calendar. But part of your problem might be related to the fields you are using to from these relationships as well.

      In my instance my Financial take is linked to project by an ID but Financial is link to Calendar via Date. 

      Are you using the dates to form relationships other than between the Calendar and Final Inspection?

       

      • jscottNRG's avatar
        jscottNRG
        Icon for Helper II rankHelper II
        8 years ago

        I solved the issue where restricting the date range on the date slicer was causing visuals to go blank.  The problem was that the date fields in RoughInspections and FinalInspections were datetime, and my Calendar table was date only.  I thought I had dropped the time component but had only changed the display format in the Data view.  I had to go back to adjust the query settings like this:  

        Transform -> Date Only

         

        @ Aree and edhans were right about the relationship problem causing the deactivated relationship between Calendar and RoughInspections.  The existing relationship path from Calendar ->Final Inspection -> Job Info -> Rough Inspection meant there was a conflict when I tried to activate a relationship between Calendar and RoughInspections.  I fixed it by setting the Cross filter direction for the relationship between RoughInpections and Job_info to "Single."

         

        Thanks again to everyone who contributed for the help!