Filter data

Creating filters is an essential part of building a focused and effective dashboard. Filters enable you to specify one or more search 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 search conditions you define are used to render the dashboard's elements.

Filters can be applied at design time, when you're configuring the dashboard, or at run time when you're configuring selectors as part of an interactive dashboard experience.

Note that any filter conditions that have been applied to a web map's operational layer or to a web layer item that are 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.

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

When configuring a filter, the available operators are determined by the type of field you choose and whether the field contains coded strings. The following table lists the available operators based on these factors:

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.

Note:

To filter features by date, the layer must support standardized SQL functions.

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 that for unique, number, string, and coded string field types, you can avoid combining conditions using the operators include or does not include, which enable you to enter multiple unique values.