How to filter values using Metric Sliders in Google Data Studio

So in this post I’ll just run through how you can use Metric Sliders in Google Data Studio to filter values in charts and tables in your reports.

So recently Google Data Studio added in a very useful new feature; Metric Sliders. Until now there has not been an easy way to filter the visible values in charts and tables. This made it difficult to exclude very high or very low values that skewed the data.

Below is an embedded Data Studio with three different charts, each of which has a metric slider added to it.

I’ll just show you some screenshots of how you can adjust the values of the metrics in the charts by using the metric slides.

For example this table has three different metrics added; Users, Sessions, and Page Views. You can adjust which values are displayed for all three of them as shown below.

A table showing Metric Sliders in Google Data Studio

In the geo map you can also adjust which countries are shown. In the screenshot below I’ve raised the minimum value of page views to 1800. Therefore only countries with 1800 page views or more will be highlighted on the map.

A geo map displaying Metric Sliders in Google Data Studio

I can also see from which countries we received the least amount of page views from. For example below I’ve set the metric slider value to 1. So it only displays countries from which we received one page view.

a geo map in data studio that has been filtered to show only a single value

And in the line chart I’ve used the metric slider to show only days where page views were above 380. This is hopefully a quick and easy way of seeing which dates were outliers in your data.

A time series chart showing Metric Sliders in Google Data Studio

Notes on using Metric Sliders

So at the time of writing you cannot use some other features if you use a metric slider in your chart.

For example in a regular table we can use Optional Metrics and add a Summary Row.

For example in a regular table we can use Optional Metrics and add a Summary Row.

However if we want to use Metric Sliders we cannot use optional metrics or a summary row. And if we want to use optional metrics we cannot use a metric slider.

if we want to use Metric Sliders we cannot use optional metrics or a summary row

Metric Sliders in Google Data Studio is a simple but very useful new feature. Hope this helps you make better dashboards in Google Data Studio!

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Google Data Studio Templates

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