Reports: Adding a filter to a report

A filter screens data in your data source to determine whether the data should be included in or excluded from the calculations of the report results. A filter is not required in a report, although reports without filters are more likely to return too much data to be displayed effectively. If a filter is added, it should make sense with the objects already on the report.

For details on filters in general and the various types of filters, see Filtering data on a report: Filters. You need to know what type of filter you want to have when you add it to a report.

Filters can be added to a report in two ways:

• If a filter object has already been created in your project (this is a stand-alone filter), use the To add a stand-alone filter to a report procedure below.
• If a separate filter has not already been created, you can create a filter directly in the report. However, be aware that the filter cannot be used as an independent object on other reports. To create a filter within the report, use the To create a filter directly within a report: Embedded filters procedure below.

To add a stand-alone filter to a report

If you are using one of your organization's projects, this procedure assumes at least one filter has been created. If you need to create filters, see Filtering data on a report: Filters.

1. In MicroStrategy Web, create a new report in Design Mode. See Creating a report with the Report Editor.
2. If the Report Filter pane is not displayed above the report, display it by clicking the Filter icon on the toolbar.

3. In the All Objects pane on the left, navigate to the folder where your filter is located and open it.

   • If you are using the Tutorial project, open the Public Objects folder, then open the Shared Filters folder. Select any filter to use in the next step. In this procedure, the Top 5 Customers By Revenue filter from the Customer Analysis Filters folder is used.
   • To search for a filter in your project, type the name of the filter in the Find text field and press Enter or click the Find icon.

4. To add a filter to the report's Filter pane, do one of the following:

   • Drag and drop the filter on the Report Filter pane.
   • Double-click the filter to add it to the Report Filter pane.
   • Right-click the filter and select Add to Filter as shown in the image below.

    

   

5. Repeat the steps above to add additional filters to your report, as needed.

6. Almost all reports have one or more attributes, one or more metrics, and one filter. If you need to, use the following sections of this manual to add additional objects to your new report:

   • Attributes: Reports: Adding attributes to a report.
   • Metrics: Reports: Adding metrics to a report.
   • Prompts: Reports: Adding prompts to a report, metric, or filter.
7. If you want to see what your report looks like when executed against the data source, once your report has one or more attributes and metrics in it, from the toolbar select Run Report.
8. Save the report.

To create a filter directly within a report: Embedded filters

1. In MicroStrategy Web, create a new report in Design Mode. See Creating a report with the Report Editor.
2. If the Report Filter pane is not displayed above the report, display it by clicking the Filter icon on the toolbar.

3. Select the object you want to base your filter on:

   • To base your filter on an object that is part of the report's definition, select Report Objects from the bottom left to open the Report Objects pane if it is not already open. Select the object you want to base your filter on. The object can be an attribute or a metric.
   • To base your filter on the results of another report, select All Objects from the bottom left to open the All Objects pane if it is not already open. Navigate to and select the report you want to base your filter on.

4. To add the selected object to the report's Filter pane, do one of the following:

   • Drag and drop the object on the Report Filter pane.
   • Right-click the object and select Add to Filter as shown in the image below.

   

5. Depending on the type of object you added to the filter, a new set of choices may appear. The links below provide steps to filter data based on the object you chose:

   • If you are filtering based on an attribute, see one of the following:
     • Filtering data based on business attributes: Attribute qualifications.
     • Filtering data based on business attributes: Attribute qualifications.
     • Filtering data based on business attributes: Attribute qualifications.
   • If you are filtering based on a metric, see Filtering data based on attribute relationships or metrics: Set qualifications.
   • If you are filtering based on the results of another report, see Filtering data based on existing filters or report results: Shortcut qualifications.
   • If you are filtering based on a filter, see Filtering data based on existing filters or report results: Shortcut qualifications.
   • If you are creating an advanced filter, see the Advanced Reporting Help.
6. Click Apply.
7. You can add additional conditions to the report's filter by repeating the steps above to add another object to the filter and define the condition.

8. Almost all reports have one or more attributes, one or more metrics, and one filter. If you need to, use the following sections of this manual to add additional objects to your new report:

   • Attributes: See Reports: Adding attributes to a report.
   • Metrics: See Reports: Adding metrics to a report.
   • Prompts: See Reports: Adding prompts to a report, metric, or filter.
9. If you want to see what your report looks like when executed against the data source, once your report has one or more attributes and metrics in it, from the toolbar select Run Report.
10. Save the report.