Using Filters

Filters let you narrow down the data displayed in your charts. For example, if you built a chart showing revenue over time, you could add a filter for country is equal to France to see only French revenue.

You can add filters to individual charts in the Explore view or apply them across all charts in a dashboard.

Developers can add permanent filters to tables using the sql_filter yaml option. See Table configuration for details.

Quick start

Adding filters in Explore view

Add filters to charts in three ways:

• From the Filters tab: Click the Filters toggle, then add filter
• From the sidebar: Click the options menu on any field and select add filter
• From the results table: Click the three-dot menu on a column or click directly on a value

Adding filters to dashboards

Temporary filters (visible only to you):

• Click add filter while viewing the dashboard
• Or use cross-filtering by clicking on chart values

Saved filters (visible to everyone):

• Enter edit mode by clicking Edit Dashboard
• Click add filter and configure your filter
• Click Save to apply the filter for all users

Filter capabilities reference

Multiple filters

Feature	How to use
Add multiple filters	Click + Add filter
Combine with AND logic	Select ALL conditions from the dropdown
Combine with OR logic	Select ANY conditions from the dropdown
Add multiple values	Press enter between each value

Nested filters

Create complex filter groups by converting a filter to a group:

1. Click the options button on the right side of any filter
2. Select convert to group
3. Add additional filters within the group

Filter types

For a complete list of available filter operators and their uses, see the filters reference documentation.

Dashboard filters

Temporary vs saved filters

Filter type	Visibility	When to use
Temporary	Only visible to you	Quick exploration without affecting others
Saved	Visible to all dashboard viewers	Set default filters for the entire team

Temporary filter values are reverted when entering dashboard edit mode.

Adding temporary filters

Using the add filter button:

1. Click add filter while viewing the dashboard
2. Select the field and value to filter by
3. Optionally adjust which tiles the filter applies to in the Tiles tab

Using cross-filtering:

Click on any value in a chart to filter the entire dashboard by that value.

Adding saved filters

1. Click Edit Dashboard to enter edit mode
2. Click add filter and select your field
3. Configure the filter:
   • Leave value blank: Dashboard viewers can set their own values
   • Set a default value: Toggle ‘Default value’ and specify the value
4. Adjust tile application in the Tiles tab if needed
5. Click Apply, then Save

You must be an editor or admin to add saved filters.

Marking filters as required

You can require users to set a filter value before the dashboard runs:

1. Edit your filter
2. Check “Require value for dashboard to run”
3. Save the dashboard

Until a value is set, the dashboard will remain locked.

Controlling filter scope

Use the Tiles tab in the filter configuration to:

• Remove the filter from specific tiles
• Change which field the filter applies to in each tile

SQL Runner chart filters

Dashboard filters work with SQL Runner charts in two ways:

Mixed dashboards (Explorer + SQL Runner charts):

• Create filters normally by selecting a field
• In the Chart tiles tab, apply the filter to SQL chart tiles and choose the column

SQL-only dashboards:

• Choose a column from all available columns across charts
• Provide a filter label for clarity
• Select your operator and values
• By default, applies to all columns with the same name

Filters only apply to dimensions (non-aggregated columns) in SQL Runner charts.

Dashboard filter behavior

Filter visibility

Tiles with filters applied show dashboard filter applied text. Hover over this to see which specific filters are active.

Filter precedence

Dashboard filters override saved chart filters on the same field.

Example: A saved chart filtered to country is China, India, Japan with a dashboard filter of country is India will only show India data.

When exploring from a dashboard:

• Explore from here preserves dashboard filter overrides
• Edit shows the original chart filters

Sharing with filter overrides

Share dashboards with custom filter values from view mode:

• Apply temporary filters or override saved filters
• Copy the URL to share with filters applied

Override rules:

• Temporary filters: Can change field, value, operator, and tiles
• Saved filter overrides: Can only change value and operator
• Saving changes in edit mode removes overrides

This behavior applies to scheduled deliveries and exports.

Filter autocomplete

Filter autocomplete considers all relevant filters from joined tables.

Example:

- name: customers
---
- name: orders
  meta:
    joins:
      - join: customers
        sql_on: ${customers.customer_id} = ${orders.customer_id}
---
- name: payments
  meta:
    joins:
      - join: orders
        sql_on: ${orders.order_id} = ${payments.order_id}
      - join: customers
        sql_on: ${customers.customer_id} = ${orders.customer_id}

When filtering:

• payments fields: considers filters from payments, orders, and customers
• orders fields: considers filters from orders and customers
• customers fields: considers filters from customers only