Stopping slicers from showing impossible combinations

[DavidWaters100]

Hi,

I have many slicers on my report but if you apply interactions on each, you are locked out of changing some until others are changed for something that exists.  Conversely if I only have some filters interacting, then I am allowed to select combinations which cause blank visuals since the combination is not possible.

Example below:

Type A and Loc FR do not exisit in the same row, but I can't stop this combination unless both slicers interact with each other.  When they do interact, I can't select  US unless I am on Type A.  When there are dozens of options, it then falls on the user to have to know which Type to select to free up the other slicer.  Hope that made sense - is there a trick to improve this please does anyone know?

thanks

[Icey]

Hi @DavidWaters100 ,

So what kind of result do you want? I can't think of how to improve the phenomenon you proposed.

If stop slicers from showing impossible combinations when disabling interaction, what's the difference between enabling interaction and disabling interaction? I don't quite understand.

Best Regards,

Icey

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[DavidWaters100]

Hi @Icey 

Thanks for your reply.  What I am trying to avoid is a blank report temporarily being visible when changing slicers.  A client wants all options on the Sub-Type to be available for selection - in the example below I had selected B and UK, but when I change to US, the report is blank because B is not in US.

The ideal solution would be if "Type" changed to a default which did exist for US?  Is there any workaround which could achieve this?

The other option is to make both slicers interact, but then I can't see US at all, until I change the Type to one that exists for US - when there are dozens of options this is not a good result for the user...

[Icey]

Hi @DavidWaters100 ,

When the two slicers don't interact, the selection of Sub-Type slicer won't affect the values of Type slicer. So, in your scenario, Type slicer can't change to A automatically.

When the two slicers interact, if a Sub-Type slicer is selected first, the Type slicer values will automatically changed to the available ones. For example, if you choose Sub-Type "US", the Type slicer will just show "A" when the two slicers interact. 

In Power BI, there is no concept of main slicer and sub-slicer. It is not necessary to set the value of Type slicer before setting the value of Sub-Type slicer. Change the order of setting slicers' values to get the result you want. 

Best Regards,

Icey

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

[DavidWaters100]

Hi @Icey 

You said - "When the two slicers interact, if a Sub-Type slicer is selected first, the Type slicer values will automatically change to the available ones"

- yes when you make a new slicer selection, the other one will restrict the options which now exist - but it still leaves the "old" option selected (even if it now does not exist) until a user changes it.  This causes a blank report to appear, which is the problem in my case.

As a work around, I now have 5 buttons which are book marks. When one is clicked, the slicer switches to only show those options which exist - but crucially the slicer changes to a selection which does not result in a blank report.

I think the missing function is for the sub-type slicer to respond dynamically when the Type slicer is selected and default to a selection which does exist (rather than just restrict the options but still show what was last selected, which now no longer exists).

[Icey]

Hi @DavidWaters100 ,

Anyway, congratulations on finding a workaround. Please accept your reply as the solution. Your contribution is highly appreciated.

In addition, you can post your idea on Power BI Ideas.

It is a place for customers to provide feedback about Power BI.
What's more, if a feedback is highly voted there by other customers, it will be promising that Microsoft Product Team will take it into consideration when designing the next version in the future.

Best Regards,

Icey