Creating filters is an essential part of building a focused and effective dashboard. Filters enable you to specify one or more conditions to limit the features from the source layers that are used to power your dashboard's data visualizations. Only layer features that meet the conditions you define are used to render the dashboard's elements.
Filters can be applied when configuring the data settings of an element, or at run time when you're configuring selectors as part of an interactive dashboard experience.
Any filter conditions that have been applied to a web map's operational layer or to a web layer item that is used in a dashboard are respected. All filter conditions that you configure in the dashboard are implemented in addition to any predefined filter conditions that have already been created. When data is downloaded from an element, all filters are respected.
Filter condition components
In general, a filter condition is composed of a field name, an operator, and a value or values. These are specified in the first, second, and if applicable, third settings that appear when creating a filter, respectively.
condition = <field name> <operator > <a value or values>
Operators can be broken down into the following categories based on their general purposes:
- Comparison
- Fixed comparison
- Relative comparison
- List
- Null or empty value
- Pattern match
- Range
| Operator purpose | Field type and coded string |
|---|---|
Comparison | |
equal | unique, number, decimal, string, coded string |
not equal | unique, number, decimal, string, coded string |
greater than | unique, number, decimal |
greater than or equal | unique, number, decimal |
less than | unique, number, decimal |
less than or equal | unique, number, decimal |
Fixed comparison | |
is | date |
is not | date |
is before | date |
is or is before | date |
is after | date |
is or is after | date |
Relative comparison | |
is within the last | date |
is before the last | date |
is within the next | date |
is after the next | date |
List | |
include | unique, number, string, coded string |
does not include | unique, number, string, coded string |
Null or empty | |
is null | number, decimal, date, string, coded string |
is not null | number, decimal, date, string, coded string |
is empty | string |
is not empty | string |
Pattern match | |
starts with | string |
does not start with | string |
ends with | string |
does not end with | string |
contains | string |
does not contain | string |
Range | |
between | unique, number, decimal |
not between | unique, number, decimal |
For additional details about fixed and relative comparison operators, see Date-based filter conditions.
The last step of configuring a filter condition is specifying the value or values. Which values you can define and how to define them depend on the purpose of the operator you chose as summarized in the following table:
| Operator purpose | Options for specifying value |
|---|---|
Comparison | Choose a specific value or another field. |
Fixed comparison | Choose a time period, enter a specific value, or choose a field. |
Relative date comparison | Enter a date unit multiplier and specify date units. |
List | Enter one or multiple values. |
Null or empty | N/A |
Pattern match | Enter a value to match against. |
Range | Enter a lower bound value and upper bound value. |
Combine filter conditions
Filter conditions can be combined to create complex expressions. There is no limit to the number of conditions you can include in your filter. When combining conditions, two logical operators are offered: AND and OR. For instance, you can make the following expression:
expression = condition1 AND condition2 OR condition3
If you click AND, the element displays information about features that satisfy both conditions simultaneously. For instance, if you want an indicator to display information about emergency incidents that occurred on a certain date (condition1) and have not been responded to yet (condition2), join the two conditions by clicking AND.
If you click OR, the element displays information about features that satisfy one condition, the other condition, or both conditions simultaneously. For example, if you want an indicator to display information about emergency incidents that occurred on two specific dates, combine the two conditions for each date by clicking OR.
Note:
For unique, number, string, and coded string field types, you can avoid combining conditions using the operators include or does not include. These operators allow you to enter multiple unique values.