Use Filters to Explore Your Data
Filtering is an important tool for exploring and analyzing data when inspecting your data.
You can explore your data in the inspection canvas by applying filters and then viewing the results in the visualization. Add multiple filters to further refine your data set. See Filter Functions for a list of filtering options.
Depending upon the view (Stream or Model), you can filter data in a visualization by drilling down, keeping or excluding certain values, and by using additional filters. Filtering selections made using the filters pop-up menu are not editable, while selections made by dragging fields from the Available Fields list into the Filters panel can be edited, as described in the sections below.
When switching from Model View to Stream View, all selected fields and filters will be cleared.
Drill Down into Your Visualization
You can drill down into your data set within the visualization only in Model View. Drilling down can add or replace the hierarchical fields in the drop zones, and add the filter. When you click a data point in a visualization, a filters pop-up menu with three options may display, as shown below:
- Click a data point in a visualization and then select Drill down.
- To drill down into the next layer of dimensional data, double-click a data point, axis label, or legend.
- When a data point has more than one dimension, you can select what dimension to drill down to from the menu.
When you drill-down, you automatically apply filters according to the hierarchical field structure of the data, replacing the parent with the child in the associated drop zone. The filter used for the drill down is added to the Filters panel and the visualization is updated accordingly.
- In this example, you want to explore motorcycle sales data for North America (NA) geography field.
The chart updates to break down the motorcycles sales data by ‘COUNTRY’ for the 'NA' territory.
Keep or Exclude Selected Data in Your Visualization
In Stream or Model view, you can select a single data point to keep only that selected data, or to exclude the selected data from your visualization.
- To keep only or exclude a single data point, click a data point, axis label, or legend in your visualization. A filters pop-up menu displays.
Click the Exclude or Keep Only option. The visualization updates your view and the Filters panel displays the filtered data point.
- To keep only or exclude multiple data points, press the <CTRL> key while clicking additional data points, axis labels, or legend in your visualization. Release the <CTRL> key to display the filters pop-up menu.
Click the Exclude or Keep Only option. The visualization updates your view and the Filters panel displays the filtered data points.
Exclude and Keep Only actions are not available for the Flat Table or the Pivot Table.
Add a Filter using the Filters Panel
In Stream or Model view, you can drag fields from the Available Fields panel into the Filters panel and then define filters.
- Drag a field into the Filters panel, and then from the interactive filters menu, make your selections to apply the filter to a visualization.
Remove a Filter from the Filters Panel
Hover over the field in the Filters panel and click the Close button (X on the top right corner).
Filter Examples
Below are examples of working with filters in Stream and Model views.
Work with Filters in Stream View
In Stream View, drag a field from the Available Fields list to the Filters panel to apply a filter to a flat table or other visualization.
In this example, you want to remove undefined zip codes from a data set using the Null filter. From the available fields list, drag the ‘POSTALCODE’ field to the Filters panel.
When you drop the field in the Filters panel, the filter menu automatically displays. Use the menu to modify the filter to exclude the data where postal codes are missing.
When the filter is applied, the table updates and any row that was missing a zip code has been removed.
Work with Filters in Model View
In Model View, drag a field from the Available Fields list to the Filters panel, define the Value, and then apply the filter to a visualization.
In this example, you want to explore motorcycle sales data for countries in the North America (NA) geography field. From the Available Fields list, drag the ‘TERRITORY’ field to the Filters panel.
Drag a field into the Filters panel, and then from the interactive filters menu, make your selections to apply the filter to a visualization.
When the filter is applied, the Filter panel updates 'TERRITORY' to equal 'NA', and the pivot table updates to only show sales in countries in North America.