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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
3 years ago

Slicer not affecting any visuals

I have a slicer that isn't affecting any visuals, even though when I go to the source of the data (Excel) and apply the same filters to the data tables, it most definitely should have an affect.   ...
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v-yueyunzh-msft's avatar
v-yueyunzh-msft
Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
3 years ago

Hi , Anonymous 

It sounds like the issue might be related to the relationships between the tables in your data model. When you create a slicer in Power BI, it filters the data in the visuals based on the relationships between the tables. If the relationships are not set up correctly, the slicer may not filter the data as expected.

Here are some steps you can follow to troubleshoot the issue:

(1)Check the relationships between the tables in your data model. Make sure that the relationships are set up correctly and that they are active. You can check this by going to the "Manage Relationships" dialog in Power BI.

(2)Check the filter context of the visuals. Make sure that the visuals are not already filtered by another slicer or filter. You can check this by looking at the "Filters" pane in Power BI.

(3)For a one-to-many relationship, it is preferred to use the field of one end table as the parameter of the slicer.

(4)If Measure is used in other visual objects, you need to check whether the DAX code of Measure ignores the filter for the fields in the slicer.

 

It is difficult to find the problem immediately through a simple text description, you can try to troubleshoot the problem yourself, or you can create a sample .pbix [without sensitive data] to the OneDrive and share with the OneDrive link to me ! and save your The slicer of the problem tells us with a screenshot, and provides us with the output you want in the form of a table, so that we can help you better! ~

 

Thank you for your time and sharing, and thank you for your support and understanding of PowerBI! 

 

Best Regards,

Aniya Zhang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    3 years ago

    (1) The relationships are definitely set up correctly, from what I can tell. All tables are unpivoted and link back to the central table via UUID (many to one, both ways). What DOES work is if the columns I want to filter my tables by are simply included in the central table, rather than having the filter columns as their own seperate table. From this I can conclude that a feature (bug?) of Power BI is that it can't filter tables through indirect relationships. Now my goal is to look into a way of getting the slicer properties that I want, with the filter columns included in the central table.

     

    (2) Shouldn't visuals be able to be filtered by multiple filters and slicers? I can confirm this works for me.

     

    (3) and (4) I'm not entirely sure what you mean/why?

     

    I appreciate it's difficult to really diagnose this without providing a file. When I get time I will try to supply one.

     

     

    • v-yueyunzh-msft's avatar
      v-yueyunzh-msft
      Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
      3 years ago

      Hi , Anonymous 

      Thanks for your quick response , for the (3) and (4) , i mean that if you have a one-to-many relationship , and the it is not a Bi-directional relationship , the filter will just from one to many . If you put the fields on the fact table , it will not filter the other fact table util it have the Bi-directional.

      You can understand that relationships are all from one-side table to multi-side table by default, and can be passed.

      If it is a one-way relationship, some tables cannot be filtered after the relationship is broken.
      And for relationships, we recommend using one-to-many relationships.

      For more information, you can refer to :
      Bi-directional relationship guidance - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

       

      Thank you for your time and sharing, and thank you for your support and understanding of PowerBI! 

       

      Best Regards,

      Aniya Zhang

      If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        Not applicable
        3 years ago

        Ah I see. Yeah everything is bi-directional, so I don't think that's an issue. I suspect PBI has an interesting behaviour where visuals can't be filtered through indirect relationships.

         

        I'm now just including the columns I'm filtering by in the central table that all the other tables are related to. I'm trying to make a slicer that includes all these columns, but there doesn't seem to be a way to do that without them nesting. I tried making a field parameter slicer but it has no effect, and when I put a filter on this slicer to only select "Yes" values in the relevant columns, it still has no effect.

         

        How do I create a slicer that filters by values form multiple columns?

        i.e. a slicer containing multiple seperate categories.