Using hierarchy filters

A hierarchy filter is used to show data in a hierarchy. The filter consists of an expandable tree view, where the categories within the different levels of the hierarchy are represented by check boxes.

Select or clear one or several check boxes to specify on which values the visualizations should be based.

Only rows containing values with selected check boxes remain in the visualization. In the example above, rows containing 2021, Fruit, and Apples are included in the visualization, but rows containing 2022, Fruit, and Apples are not included in the visualization.

Note: Values that have been filtered out by other filters are indicated with lighter text.

Combining columns into a hierarchy filter will not automatically remove all other filters representing the same columns -- this must be done manually, if desired.

Note: Creating a hierarchy with a very large number of nodes can take a long time. It can also result in a hierarchy filter with too many check boxes to be practically useful. Edit the hierarchy and remove the column with too many unique values if this happens.

How to create a hierarchy filter is described in Defining hierarchies.

Hierarchy filter from an external data source

When the data in your analysis comes from a data connection to an external data source, there might be predefined hierarchies available. If the data comes from a cube data source, with large hierarchies containing many different levels and categories, then the hierarchy filter might have a hard time loading all of the possible values. In that case, you can configure the data connection so a certain hierarchy should Load Values on Request only. See Working with Large OLAP Hierarchies in Spotfire for more information on how to do this.

When the connection has been configured this way, the hierarchy filter cannot show the search field that is otherwise available. You might also see progress indications for each category you expand, as new values are fetched from the external source.

Hierarchy filters from external cube sources will also include an (All) check box and have the setting to indicate that a category is only partially selected switched on by default. These settings can be specified for all hierarchy filters, using the Filtering Scheme Properties dialog in the installed client.