Your Filter Works — Just Not the Way You Think
The Filter Frustration
“My Top N filter shows 12 items instead of 10. It’s like Tableau is ignoring my filter completely.”
“I added a context filter and now my dashboard takes twice as long to load. I thought context filters were supposed to improve performance?”
“My filter works on one sheet but when I use it as a dashboard action filter, it breaks my LOD calculations on another sheet.”
Why Tableau Filters Are Deceptively Complex
Tableau’s filter order of operations is the single most important concept most users never learn. Extract filters run first, then data source filters, then context filters, then dimension filters, then measure filters, then table calculation filters. Each type interacts differently with LOD expressions, sets, and parameters.
A FIXED LOD ignores dimension and measure filters entirely — so filtering your view doesn’t filter your LOD result. Dashboard action filters behave as dimension filters, which means they won’t affect FIXED calculations on target sheets. These interactions are nearly impossible to debug without seeing the full filter configuration.
How VizWhiz Untangles Your Filters
When you drop your workbook, VizWhiz extracts every filter on every sheet — including the filter type, configuration, and whether it’s applied to all worksheets or specific ones. Ask why a filter isn’t working and the AI traces the order of operations with your actual setup.
- Maps out your complete filter pipeline from extract to table calculation filters
- Identifies conflicts between filter types and LOD expressions
- Explains when to promote a filter to context filter — and when it’ll hurt instead of help
- Traces dashboard action filters across sheets to find cross-sheet interactions