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Date validation acts incorrectly with start and end dates in the Slicer

Submitted by Anonymous on ‎04-14-2020 10:57 PM

There is an issue with the date validation in the slicer when using start and end date. The start date will just revert back to what it was if you try to select a date after the end date. What SHOULD happen is if you select a start date after the end date, the end date should be the one to change. This is because the start date is the one being changed it should take preference (this is standard in the computing world). Let me give you an example:

 

I have a slicer that has all data for 1st Jan 2017 to 31st Dec 2017 selected. We now want to look at the 2018 data, so the logical way to do this will be from left to right (start then end), so we update the start date to 1st Jan 2018. Of course because this is now the day after the end date, it will just revert back to 1st Jan 2017 (which can be easy to miss if you are moving exatly one year forward). Then you put in an end date of 31st Dec 2018.

 

Now you are expecting all of the 2018 data, but you are actually getting all of the 2017 and 2018 data. This is not logical (both because in English we go left to right and we would normally fill out start then end date) and results in problems all the time.

 

Please fix this slicer to overwrite the date that you are NOT filling in if required.

Status: New
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3 Comments (3 New)
Comments
v-qiuyu-msft
Community Support
Community Support
‎04-16-2020 07:31 PM

Hi @Anonymous, 

 

You can specify the end date vale firstly then start date value to avoid this issue. For your feedback, please post an idea here: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas

 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

Anonymous
Not applicable
‎04-16-2020 07:45 PM

@v-qiuyu-msft 

 

You could put the end date in first, but thats not logical at all. Thats like a car manufacturer putting ignition on ithe back of the car and when you ask why it is not in reach of the drivers seat the car manufacturer responds with "We solve this by telling you to get out of the car and go to the back and turn the key and get back in the car". Would seem silly to not just put the ignition in reach of the driver seat.

 

In the same way, this is saying you solve the issue by telling users to do something totally illogical! Even if the people creating the BI files did this, do they have to write a big bold warning to end users to let them know they need to do something illogical to use the product? That's not a good reflection on Microsoft as to the quality of their product.

 

Because of this, I would say this is a Bug in the logic that has been applied, and not a new feature. I will vote up a feature at https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/39994582-date-slicer-ux-when-star..., but I would say this should be submitted as a high priority bug.

Piloos
Advocate I
Advocate I
‎01-12-2021 11:55 AM

Completely agree that this behaviour is a completely broken UX.  There is no warning at all when a user selects a start date which comes after the end date.  It just does nothing, so the user things the product is broken and we have one unhappy Power BI user extra.

There are at least two solutions:

* a small tooltip warning if you select a date which is not valid.

* disable all invalid dates in the datepicker like every website does.

 

I don't understand why this non-sensical behavior can last for years in Power BI.  I just took a quick look at the source code of this slicer (

 
It is just a matter of a few extra lines.  I would be happy to contribute this fix.
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