How to Change Filter Type in Power BI

Switching your filter type in Power BI can completely change how you analyze a report, turning a static list into a dynamic, rule-based view. Knowing how to quickly toggle between basic, advanced, and other filter options is a simple skill that unlocks deeper insights. This tutorial will walk you through exactly how to change Power BI filter types, explaining what each type does and when you should use it.

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A Quick Refresher: What are Filters in Power BI?

Before changing filter types, it's helpful to remember what filters actually do. In Power BI, filters are used to pare down your data and focus only on what's most relevant to your question. Think of your full dataset as a giant warehouse of information. Filters are the gatekeepers that only let specific pieces of information through to your report visuals, like charts and tables.

Without filters, you'd be looking at every single sale, every customer, and every date at once, which is overwhelming and not particularly useful. By applying a filter - for example, showing data for only the "North America" region or "Q4 2023" - you can isolate the information you need to spot trends, compare performance, and make informed decisions.

Power BI offers several levels where you can apply these filters, giving you incredible control over your reports.

Understanding Filter Scopes in Power BI

Filters in Power BI can be applied at different levels, or "scopes." Before you change a filter's type, you first need to pick which filter you want to modify. You'll find these in the Filters pane, which is usually docked on the right side of your screen in the Power BI Desktop.

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There are four main filter scopes:

• Visual-level filters: These apply only to a single, specific visual on your report page. If you add a filter to a line chart, it won't affect the bar chart right next to it. This is great for creating highly specific visuals, like a chart showing sales just for your top product, while the rest of the report shows overall data.
• Page-level filters: These apply to all the visuals on a specific page of your report. This is the most common scope for creating themed dashboard pages, like a page dedicated entirely to "Q1 Marketing Performance" or "West Coast Sales."
• Report-level filters: As the name suggests, these apply to every single page and visual in your entire report. This is useful for things that should never change, like filtering out test data or focusing the entire report on a specific year.
• Drillthrough filters: This is a more advanced action where you pass context from one report page to another. Users can right-click a data point (like a specific product on a chart) and "drill through" to a filtered detail page about that product.

The Different Filter "Types" You Can Use

Now we get to the core of the topic. Once you have a field in the Filters pane (like "Product Category" or "Order Date"), Power BI gives you different ways to filter it. This is the "Filter type." Choosing the right one depends on what you're trying to achieve.

1. Basic Filtering

This is the default and most straightforward option. It presents you with a simple checklist of all the available values for that field. You just tick the boxes next to the items you want to include.

• When to use it: When you want to hand-pick specific items from a list. For example, selecting "Electronics" and "Apparel" from your list of product categories.

2. Advanced Filtering

This type lets you create rules to filter your data. It's more powerful than the basic list because you don't have to select items manually. Instead, you build conditions using operators like "contains," "does not contain," "starts with," "is less than," and so on.

• When to use it: When your criteria are more complex. For example, show all products whose names contain the word "Pro" OR show all sales transactions that are greater than $500.

3. Top N Filtering

This filter lets you see a ranked list, like your top or bottom performers. You can ask for the "Top 10" or "Bottom 5" items based on the value of another field.

• When to use it: For easy performance tracking. Examples include finding your "Top 5 selling products by revenue" or the "Bottom 3 performing ad campaigns by clicks."

4. Relative Date/Time Filtering

This is an incredibly useful filter for any time-based data. Instead of manually selecting dates (which you would have to update constantly), you can set a dynamic, "relative" time period.

• When to use it: To create reports that always stay current. You can set it to show data for the "last 7 days," "this month," "this year," or "the next 3 quarters." The report will automatically update as time passes.

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How to Change a Filter Type in Power BI: A Step-by-Step Guide

Let's walk through changing the filter type on a sales report. Imagine we have a bar chart showing "Sales Revenue by Product Name." We want to explore this data in a few different ways by changing the filter type on the "Product Name" field.

Step 1: Open the Filters Pane and Select Your Visual

First, click on the visual you want to filter. In our case, it's the bar chart. When you select it, the Filters pane will update to show you the filters applied to that visual. You'll see cards for "visual level filters," "page level filters," and "report level filters."

Step 2: Add a Field to the Filter Well

From the Data pane (the list of all your tables and fields), find the field you want to filter by. Let’s drag Product Name into the "Filters on this visual" well.

Step 3: Locate the "Filter Type" Dropdown

Once the "Product Name" field is in the filter well, Power BI will expand its options. By default, it will be set to Basic filtering. You'll see a small dropdown menu labeled "Filter type." This is what we're going to change.

Step 4: Change from Basic to Advanced Filtering

Let's say we want to see all products that are either a "Laptop" or a "Keyboard." With Basic filtering, we could just check those two boxes. But what if we wanted to see all products that have the word "gaming" in their name?

1. In the "Product Name" filter card, click the Filter type dropdown and select Advanced filtering.
2. The interface will change to show you rule-based options.
3. Under "Show items when the value," select the condition contains from the dropdown menu.
4. In the text box below, type "gaming."
5. Click the Apply filter button. Your bar chart will immediately update to show only products with "gaming" in their name.

You can even add more complexity with "AND / OR" logic. For instance: Show items where Product Name contains "gaming" AND Sales Revenue is greater than 1000.

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Step 5: Change to Top N Filtering

Now, let’s find our absolute best-selling products.

1. Click the Filter type dropdown for "Product Name" and select Top N.
2. Two new fields will appear: one for "Top" or "Bottom" and another for the number. Let's keep it as Top and enter 5 in the box.
3. There's one crucial last step. Power BI needs to know what value to use for the ranking. Drag your metrics field, in this case Sales Revenue, from the Data pane into the "By value" box that just appeared.
4. Click Apply filter. The visual will now display only your top 5 products based on their total sales revenue.

Step 6: Use a Relative Date Filter (Example with another field)

Let's clear the product filter and add a new filter for "Order Date." Drag the "Order Date" field into the filter well.

1. Click the Filter type dropdown menu and select Relative date.
2. You'll now see intuitive options. For "Show items when the value," you can select from periods like "is in the last," "is in this," or "is in the next."
3. Let's select is in the last, type 30 in the box, and choose days from the final dropdown.
4. Click Apply filter. Your entire visual (or page, if that's the scope) will now only show data from the last 30 days, and it will update automatically every day.

And that's it! By switching between these filter types, you can move from a simple checklist to complex, rule-based analysis without writing a single line of code.

Best Practices for Using Power BI Filters

Knowing how to change filter types is great, but knowing when to use each one is even better. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Keep Your End-User in Mind: If you are building a report for others, try to use the simplest filter that gets the job done. While Advanced filters are powerful, not everyone will immediately understand the logic you've set up in the background.
• Slicers vs. Filters: Remember that Filters (in the pane) are typically set by the report creator. If you want to give your viewers an easy, on-page way to filter the data themselves, use a Slicer visual instead. Slicers are user-facing buttons and dropdowns that are more intuitive for an interactive experience.
• Performance Matters: Overly complex multi-condition advanced filters across huge datasets can sometimes slow down report performance. Apply filters at the highest-level scope possible (e.g., page-level instead of 10 individual visual-level filters) to streamline how Power BI queries your data.

Final Thoughts

Power BI gives you a flexible set of tools to slice and dice your data precisely how you need to. By learning to change the filter type between Basic, Advanced, Top N, and Relative Date, you move beyond simple reporting and start answering more sophisticated business questions directly within your dashboards.

Mastering tools like Power BI is a powerful skill, but it often comes with a steep learning curve and hours spent configuring reports. This is precisely why we built Graphed. Instead of navigating menus to set up a Top N filter, you can simply ask in plain English: "Show me my top 5 selling products by revenue for the last 30 days," and we automatically build the interactive dashboard for you, connected directly to your live data.