What are Slicers in Power BI?
Slicers in Power BI are interactive visual elements that allow users to filter data within a report. They provide an intuitive way for users to select specific values from a list, which then filters the visuals on the report page accordingly. Slicers are particularly useful for quickly exploring and analyzing data by providing an alternative to applying filters through traditional filter panes.
Table of contents
Key Takeaways
- Slicers are interactive filters that allow users to filter data in Power BI reports.
- You can add slicers by selecting the “Slicer” visualization and dragging a column field onto it.
- Slicers can be formatted and customized for multi-select, underlining, dropdowns, and orientation.
- You can use Sync slicers pane to sync slicers across multiple pages so that slicer selection in one page will be uniformly across all the pages
- The different types of slicers in Power BI include Numeric and date range slicers, Relative date and time slicers and responsive, resizable slicers
- They’re a powerful tool for enhancing user interactivity and exploration in Power BI reports.
How to Add Slicers Filter in Power BI?
To add slicers filter in Power BI, follow these steps below:
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Open Power BI Desktop and load the dataset for visualization.
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Create a new data visual in Power BI or choose an existing Power BI report.
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Once the visual is created, navigate to the Visualizations pane and select the Slicer icon.
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Drag and drop the desired column fields from the Fields pane to the Field section of the slicer.
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Navigate to the Format visual tab in the Visualization pane to apply formatting options, such as Slicer settings, values, etc., to the slicer on the report page as per the requirements.
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Examples
In this section, we will demonstrate how to add the slicers filter in Power BI with the help of the below examples.
Example #1
In this example, we will create a simple slicer in Power BI for users to view details about top universities in the US using the National Universities Rankings dataset. The National Universities Rankings dataset contains the national ranking of the US universities.
To add slicers filter in Power BI, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Open the Power BI Desktop, import the National Universities Rankings dataset using the Get Data option, and click the Load button.

Once the data is loaded, you can view it by navigating to the Fields pane.

Step 2:
- Navigate to the Visualizations pane.
- Choose the Matrix visual type.
- Drag and drop the data fields from the Fields pane to the Rows, Columns, and Values section.

It will create a Matrix visual in the report canvas section.

Step 3:
- Navigate to the Visualizations pane.
- Choose the Slicer visual.
- Drag and drop the data fields from the Fields pane into the Field section of the visual.

It will add a Slicer visual to the report canvas.
Step 4: Navigate to the Format visual tab in the Visualizations pane, expand the Slicer settings under the Visual tab, and choose Style as Between. Apply other formatting options for the slicer values.

This will add a slicer to the visual, as shown below.

You can change the result of the dataset by toggling the slider to different values.
Example #2 – Add Multiple Slicers
In this example, we will add multiple slicers, such as date slicers in Power BI and responsive slicers in Power BI, to apply filters to the visual in Power BI to create data visualization on sales data. For this demo, we will use the Superstore Transaction Dataset, which contains all the details related to superstore transactions, such as product categories, customer details, shipping information, and sales metrics.
To add slicers filter in Power BI, follow the steps highlighted below:
Step 1: Open the Power BI Desktop, import the Superstore Transaction Dataset dataset using the Get Data option, and click the Load button.

Once the data is loaded, you can view it by navigating to the Fields pane.

Step 2:
- Navigate to the Visualizations pane.
- Choose the appropriatevisual type.
- Drag and drop the data fields from the Fields pane to the visual section.
- Here we have created 3 different visuals i.e. 1 clustered column chart and 2 doughnut charts.
- The clustered column chart highlights the total sales by product category and segment.
- For the clustered column chart, choose the Clustered column chart visual type from the Visualizations pane.

Drag and drop the columns from the Fields pane to the visual section.

Similarly, follow the similar process by choosing the Donut chart visual type from the Visualizations pane.
We have created 2 Donut charts. The first represents the total orders shipped by various shipping modes, and the other represents the total number of products transacted per region.

Drag and drop the columns from the Fields pane to the visual section for the first donut chart, as shown below.

For the second donut chart, drag and drop the columns to the visual section as highlighted below.

Step 3: Navigate to the Format visual tab in the Visualizations pane to apply formatting to the created visuals.
We have applied different formatting options, such as Title, Font, Alignment, etc., to the above three visuals we have created.

Step 4:
- Navigate to the Visualizations pane.
- Choose the Slicer visual.
- Drag and drop the data fields from the Fields pane into the columns section of the visual to the Slicer visual to the report canvas.
We have added 3 different Slicers to this report by repeating the above steps, i.e.,
Order Date Slicer

Region Slicer

Category Slicer

Order Date Slicer is a date slicer in Power BI, Region slicer is one of the responsive slicers in Power BI, and Category is a list slicer.
Step 5: Navigate to the Format visual tab in the Visualizations pane, expand the Slicer settings under the Visual tab, and choose an appropriate Style. Apply other formatting options to resize the font of the slicer values.
For the date slicer in Power BI, i.e., Order Date Slicer, we have selected the Style Between to allow users to apply different variations of order dates for the filter.

Similarly, we have chosen the Style of Tile for the Region slicer, which is one of the responsive slicers in Power BI.

We have also toggled the Responsive slider to On to make the slicer responsive. This option is available in the Advanced options section.
Visualizations – General – Properties – Advanced options

Similarly, for the Category slicer, we have chosen the Dropdown style.

Once you have added the slicers, you can interact with the visuals with these slicers in the report.

Power BI Slicers Formatting
Based on the Power BI slicer type, different formatting options are available in Power BI that can be applied to the Slicer visual. This section will discuss key formatting options for Power BI Slicers.
#1 – Select Multiple Items
To allow users to select multiple items, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Select a slicer visual, navigate to the Format visual tab in the Visualizations pane, and click on Slicer settings in the Visual tab to expand the options
Step 2: Expand the Options section, click on Selection to expand the options, and toggle the Show “select all” option slider to On

It would enable the Select All option to be visible in the dropdown of the Slicer visual.

#2 – Insert Underline for Each Value
You can insert an underline for each value in the Slicer by following the steps below:
Step 1: Select a slicer visual, navigate to the Format visual tab in the Visualizations pane, and click on Values to expand the options.
Step 2: Expand the Values section and select the Underline icon.

Now you would see all the values in the Slicer are underlined as shown below.

#3 – Show Drop Down Instead of List
To allow users to show a Dropdown instead of a list, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Select a slicer visual, navigate to the Format visual tab in the Visualizations pane, and click on Slicer settings in the Visual tab to expand the options.
Step 2: Expand the Options section, and in the Slice Style dropdown menu, choose Dropdown. It will change the Slicer style to Dropdown from List.

#4 – Change Orientation
Currently, the Power BI Desktop version does not provide any native option for changing the Orientation of the Slicer visual. However, depending on the slicer style, you can choose a Slicer style from available options such as Vertical list, Tiles, Dropdown, Between, etc.

Important Things to Note
- Slicers are page-specific, meaning they only affect the visuals on the current report page.
- Slicers can be customized in formatting and behavior to suit your report design and user experience.
- You can insert multiple slicers per your requirements based on the data fields or columns.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
There are different types of slicers in Power BI. They include:
#1 – Numeric and date range slicers
• This slicer provides different filter options such as between numbers or dates, less than or equal to a number or date, and greater than or equal to a number or date
#2 – Relative date slicers and filters
• It allows you to apply time-based filters to any date field in your data. You can visualize metrics such as days, weeks, calendar months, years, etc.
#3 – Relative time slicers and filters
• It allows you to apply time-based filters to any date or time field in your data. You can visualize metrics within the last minute or hour etc.
To hide slicers in Power BI, you can follow these steps:
• Select the slicer you want to hide in Power BI
• Navigate to the View tab and click on the Selection button
• In the Layer order tab in the Selection pane, click on Hide this visual icon for the slicer you want to hide
This will hide the slicers in your report page in Power BI.
The difference between filters and slicers in Power BI:
• Filters: Filters are used to control which data is displayed in the visuals and affect the entire report page. Filters can be applied to specific visualizations, affecting only those visuals that use the same data field. Filters can also be applied to the entire page, affecting all visuals on the page.
• Slicers: Slicers are interactive controls that allow users to filter data on a report page. They are primarily used to filter data within a single report page. Slicers provide a user-friendly way to filter data by selecting values from a predefined list, making it easier to focus on specific subsets of data.
To sync slicers with bookmarks in Power BI, follow these steps:
• Create a data visualization in Power BI or open an existing Power BI report and apply the required formatting and looks.
• Create the slicers in the report canvas you want to sync with bookmarks.
• Set up the visuals, filters, slicers, and other settings in your report
• Create bookmarks by navigating to the View tab, clicking on the Bookmarks, and selecting Add from the Bookmark pane.
• Click on More options (…) next to the bookmark’s name and deselect the Data option.
If you are using more than one bookmark in your dashboard then you have to deselect the Data options for each bookmark.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to Slicers in Power BI. Here we learn how to add slicer filter in power bi, formatting options, with examples. You can learn more from the following articles –
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