Multiple Values and Wildcard Match Tableau Filters

Tableau has a variety of options for filtering dimension values. After showing a filter, if you open the drop-down menu you’ll see all the various types:

The image below shows what each of these types filters look like and, where relevant, their appearance when interacted with:

In this post I’ll focus on the lesser used (by me at least) two filters on the right:

• Multiple Values (custom list)
• Wildcard Match

The first of these can be used in two distinct ways.

Multiple Values (custom list) – method one

The first is to type characters into the filter box and press return. Tableau will then match the value entered against the values in the dimension being filtered. 

• The value you enter does not need to match a dimension value exactly
• Part values will be matched
• Values are not filtered in the view until you select a checkbox next to one of the items in the list

In the example above, “ers” matches Binders and Fasteners.

You can then select the checkbox next to any of the match results to filter to those items.

Multiple Values (custom list) – method two

The second way this filter can be used is by copying a list of values from Excel (or another source) and pasting the list of values into Tableau to filter your dashboard. This is extremely helpful if you are accessing the same dataset in a different application and already have a filtered list of items which you now want to quicky match the filtering for in your Tableau dashboard.

For example, below I have the same Sub-Categories in a spreadsheet that, let’s say, has been filtered based on some custom criteria. I can select the five filtered values and press Ctrl-C to copy them.

Then head back to Tableau, click in the Multiple Values (custom list) filter and press Ctrl-V to paste the five values:

The view is then filtered to these same five values:

When using the filter in this way, the values pasted in do need to match exactly the values in the Tableau data source otherwise they won’t be included in the filter. 

This method is essentially a shortcut to typing each value one-by-one and clicking the Add Item (+) button after typing each value. 

To remove a single item from the filter, hover over it and click the cross on the right. To remove all items, click Clear list. Note, the Clear list option only shows if you have at least four items in the filter list.

Wildcard Match filter

This filter is very similar to the first method of the Multiple Values (custom list) filter above in that you can enter part of a value and Tableau will match all values in that field that contain the value you enter, 

However, with the Wildcard Match filter you don’t need to then select a checkbox of any matching results to activate the filter. Instead, Tableau will automatically filter the view based on any matching values. 

Here, I typed “ers” into the filter box then, as soon as I hit the return key, Tableau filtered the view to any matching results. 

So this is a good filter choice if you know a particular string or number will be a part of the complete dimension values but you might not know where or you don’t want to select each value individually.

Summary

These two filters can greatly speed up your workflow in specific scenarios and can also be combined with other filters for more control and customisation. I hope you discovered some new filtering options in this blog and if you have feedback, please let me know at the social links below.

Thanks for reading. 
Marc

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