What Is Cross Filter Direction Power BI?

Corporations place an increasing amount of focus on business intelligence to handle their data and generate data visualizations to find impactful insights relevant to making informed business decisions. While various business intelligence software options allow you to perform these critical processes, Power BI is one of the top choices due to its flexibility and ease of use for many users. 

The cross filter direction feature is an important feature that differentiates Power BI from its competitors. This feature lets you alter the relationships between your data by choosing the direction in which filters flow between the tables in your data model. Cross-filter direction in Power BI has the power to optimize your data relationships, improve data visualizations, and empower you to find the most impactful insights from your information. 

To start using the cross filter direction feature in Power BI, learn about how it works, the types of professionals who utilize it and what scenarios they deploy it in, where you can access it on Power BI, and some of its benefits and challenges for users. 

What is cross filter direction Power BI?

At its core, the cross filter direction feature in Power BI influences how filters impact the data within the tables in your data model. Cross filter direction determines how a filter on one table influences the data on a related table. As a Power BI user, you can choose between either single or bidirectional cross filters depending on your specific circumstance. 

The types of filters you apply to your data influence the data relationships present in your model. The relationships you create between data tables empower you to bridge important elements of multiple data sets to generate impactful insights and perform data analysis. Utilizing and modifying cross filter direction in Power BI allows you to ensure effective relationship management in your model to maximize the interactivity, security, and granularity you receive from your data. 

Without establishing a relationship or accessing the cross filter direction option, the filters in your data tables default to no direction—your filters won't translate from a primary table to another connected table. It's also important to note that data analysis expressions (DAX) have the ability to impact the cross filter direction choices you make in your data model. 

The specific function to look for on the Power BI software is called “CROSSFILTER.” This is also a feature unique to Power BI, as other comparable business intelligence software do not have a feature allowing you to pick the direction of a filter relationship. 

Single direction cross filtering

Single direction cross filters are a type of filtering option that limits the application of a filter to only one direction. The filter starts at the main or primary table in your data set and flows to the various connected tables you have. 

For example, if you have a primary table related to a secondary table through a single direction filter in Power BI, the filtering you do on the data contained in your primary table changes the data shown in your secondary table. Single direction cross filters have practical applications when the relationships within your data set are simple and uncomplicated. 

Bidirectional cross filtering

Bidirectional cross filters allow two of your data tables in Power BI to influence each other through filtering options. In this case, a filter applied to your primary table impacts the information shown on a connected table, and a filter on your connected table also changes the data shown back on your primary table.

Bidirectional cross filters are powerful when the data within two of your tables influences each other. They enable greater flexibility in your filtering options and dynamically allow you to have both a primary table and a connected table impact each other through the cross-filter. This type of filter boosts interactivity throughout your data tables and can handle complex relationships in your data.

Who uses cross filter direction Power BI?

The cross filter direction feature in Power BI has various applications for a wide range of professionals. The single direction and bidirectional options allow you to accomplish many tasks within Power BI. 

The main type of professional accessing and using the cross filter direction feature in Power BI is a data modeler. When creating relationships between your data and the tables you have, you work in the “model” view on Power BI Desktop. Data modelers focus on developing an effective design that produces accurate and efficient results. Choosing the relationships within a model is an important feature for data modelers to consider. 

Power BI data analysts are another example of professionals who may use the cross filter direction feature. As a data analyst, you are responsible for not only performing analysis to find key insights within your organization’s data and creating data visualizations to showcase your work but also deploying various solutions and possibly building data models in Power BI. 

The types of projects or cases that require the cross filter direction are vast, such as managing hierarchical relationships or controlling the data flow from a primary table to a connected table. They even pertain to ensuring effective data governance and security throughout your data model. Bidirectional security filters allow you to confirm that every table in your model has the necessary security features. 

How to use cross filtering in Power BI

You can follow a few key steps to start using single or bidirectional cross filtering on your Power BI data models. Since the cross filtering and relationship choices occur within your model, open the Model view option on Power BI Desktop. The next few steps to deploy cross filtering include:

• Choose the fields you want to create a relationship between and drop these fields in between your data tables.

• After you select your fields, a line will appear that signifies the relationship of your data.

• You can click the relationship line or the Manage Relationships button at the top left of the banner. 

• Choose Edit to open the Edit Relationship option, and locate the Cross Filter Direction option.

• At this step, you can select the type of cross filter direction you need, single or bidirectional.

• Lastly, save your choices and hit the OK button to apply your changes to the relationship between your data and tables.

Even after you create relationships between your tables and select the type of cross filter you desire, you still have the option to edit your relationships in the Model view. To change a relationship, right-click on the relationship line you need to change and select Manage Relationships. Next, you will have the option to specifically select what relationship between the fields in your data that needs to be modified. The last step is to choose the new relationship type you desire from the dropdown and save your work.

Benefits of bidirectional filtering

One of the biggest advantages that professionals who utilize bidirectional cross filtering enjoy is the replacement they provide from having to use DAX formulas in their work in Power BI. Instead of spending additional time to write and deploy your DAX formulas, the necessary filters you need are present immediately through bidirectional cross filtering.

Bidirectional cross filtering additionally allows you to generate more granular detail in your reports to showcase to key stakeholders. The deeper analysis you can achieve through these filters could lead to new insights to help you make better business decisions. 

A few key benefits of bidirectional cross-filtering include:

• enhanced user experience through improved interactivity

• greater data consistency by reducing filtering inconsistencies

• increased flexibility in your data model, making it adaptable to various business scenarios

• a more user-friendly way to explore and analyze generated insights.

Challenges of bidirectional filtering

Utilizing bidirectional cross filtering puts Power BI under more stress and can lead to a reduction in the speed and overall performance of the system. To ensure you maintain as much efficiency as possible, try only using the bidirectional filtering option when necessary for specific scenarios. Using the default filtering options for most of your analysis allows you to deploy bidirectional cross filtering when you need it, without sacrificing too much overall performance. 

On top of potential performance issues, enabling bidirectional cross filtering may expose you to circular dependencies. A circular dependency occurs when two columns within your data depend on each other, creating a loop of dependencies that cannot be computed. For example, if you have two objects where the first object depends on the second object, while the second object also depends on the first object, you have a circular dependency scenario. These dependencies and the increased complexity in your data resulting from bidirectional cross filtering makes your work more challenging to manage and interpret in many cases. 

Getting started on Coursera

To learn more about Power BI and the powerful features included in this business intelligence software, completing a course or receiving a relevant certificate is a great place to start. On Coursera, you can enroll in some of the top courses in the world. 

Check out the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate. This course features the most in-demand business intelligence skills so you can prepare for a job in the field within five months at 10 hours per week. You can learn how to connect data sources, transform your data, and prepare Excel data for analysis.

Another relevant course worth checking out if you already have some experience in business intelligence is the Google Business Intelligence Professional Certificate. This course is taught at an advanced level and focuses on in-demand skills such as data modeling, data visualization, and dashboarding.