Power BI – Introducing the Hierarchy Slicer

Does your data include a hierarchy? We often can end up with multiple slicers to walk the hierarchy taking up valuable screen. This post does a quick walk through using the new hierarchy slicer.

Slicer Series

This series will cover different topics regarding slicers.

• Slicers Introduction
• Resetting Slicers with a Bookmark Button
• Cascading Slicers
• Hierarchy Slicer
• Sync Slicers
• Relative Date Slicer

YouTube Version

Adding a Hierarchy Slicer

Add a slicer from the visualisation pane and add the top level of the hierarchy, for example ProdRange from my products table. A tick list will appear just as previously.

The add the next level down of the hierarchy into the Field box under the top level field. The slicer will now have down arrows that can be clicked to expand to show the next level down of the hierarchy.

Note
In March 2020 you need to activate the Hierarchy Slicer in File – Options – Preview features and then save and restart Power BI. When this visual is not in preview you won’t have to.

Multiple layers can be added to the hierarchy. Of course the usability of the slicer needs to be considered when adding many layers.

Formatting a Hierarchy Slicer

This slicer can still be formatted as a drop down or changed to be single select. The single select allows a whole level of the hierarchy to be selected such as the whole year or a whole month.

Using Search

When search is turned on in a tick list the search returns the terms plus the parents or children of the items returned.

Conclusion

The Hierarchy slicer is a great addition to Power BI and I am sure will replace groups of multiple slicers in many reports.