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Filters in Building BI look like UI controls but are really SQL written for you. Each filter narrows the query sent to the database. Because filters compose into one query, they constrain each other: a value can vanish from one filter’s dropdown simply because another filter has already excluded it from the data. Filters are set at the chart level and shape what a chart shows. Each one modifies the SQL statement that fetches data. See Filter options.

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Filters compose into one query

Think of a chart’s filters as clauses in a single query. Add a filter and you add a condition. The database returns only rows that satisfy all of them together. That is why filters are interdependent. Options in one filter’s dropdown come from the currently filtered dataset. If filter A has restricted the data to Building X, filter B’s device dropdown can only offer devices in Building X. The missing option is not gone — another filter excluded it. The same single-query model explains the broader toolkit:
  • Slicers hold a filter and apply it across a defined scope of other widgets — one control, many charts.
  • Cross-filters turn a click on a chart segment into a temporary condition on the rest of the page.
  • Multi-widget filters work across data sources when underlying column names match exactly. Display labels do not matter. Prefer ID columns when names can drift. See Polling and data structure.
A slicer is the on-canvas control viewers use most often. Changing its selection injects the same condition into every widget in scope.
Slicer widget opening a date picker with quick select options such as Last 7 Days, dual-month calendars, and Clear and Apply buttons, then showing an applied date range

Date slicer with quick ranges and a calendar picker

Use Edit Scope when one widget must stay fixed while the rest of the page responds to a filter. See Filter scopes.
Edit Scope interface mapping which charts and filters a selected filter influences on the dashboard

Edit Scope controls which widgets a filter affects

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When a dropdown is missing a value

Interdependence keeps choices coherent — you are never offered a combination that returns nothing. The cost is the occasional “where did my option go?” moment, which feels like a bug but is the system protecting you from empty results. If a value is missing:
  1. Remove other filters to expose the full dataset.
  2. Or bypass the dropdown with a Contains filter and type the value directly. See Filter options.
  • In chart configuration, interdependent filters do not show which other filter hid an option. Diagnosing that case is elimination.
  • On the widget itself, hover the filter indicator in the top-right corner. A popup lists the filters that currently affect that widget.
  • Cross-source filtering fails silently when column names do not match exactly.
  • Every filter is also a performance lever — narrower queries are cheaper, but elaborate filtering on huge ranges still costs. See Dashboard performance.

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Next steps

Filter options

Look up operators, scopes, and configuration fields.

Drill-through filters

Jump from a summary chart to a detail view already filtered.
Last modified on August 28, 2026