title | description | author | ms.author | ms.reviewer | ms.custom | ms.service | ms.subservice | ms.topic | ms.date | LocalizationGroup |
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Bidirectional cross-filtering in Power BI Desktop |
Learn how to enable bidirectional cross-filtering for your data by using DirectQuery in Power BI Desktop. |
davidiseminger |
davidi |
powerbi |
pbi-transform-model |
conceptual |
02/08/2023 |
Connect to data |
When filtering tables to create the appropriate view of data, report creators and data modelers face challenges determining how to apply filters to a report. Previously, the table's filter context was held on one side of the relationship, but not the other. This arrangement often required a complex Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) formula to get the wanted results.
With bidirectional cross-filtering, report creators and data modelers now have more control over how they can apply filters when working with related tables. Bidirectional cross-filtering enables them to apply filters on both sides of a table relationship. You can apply the filters by propagating the filter context to a second related table on the other side of a table relationship.
You can enable cross-filtering in the Edit relationship dialog box. To enable cross-filtering for a relationship, you must configure the following options:
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Set Cross filter direction to Both.
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Select Apply security filter in both directions.
:::image type="content" source="media/desktop-bidirectional-filtering/bidirectional-filtering_2.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the Edit relationship dialog box with Cross filter direction set to both and the checkbox to Apply security filter in both directions selected.":::
Note
When creating cross filtering DAX formulas in Power BI Desktop, use UserPrincipalName. This field is often the same as a user's login, for example joe@contoso.com, instead of UserName. As such, you might need to create a related table that maps UserName or EmployeeID to UserPrincipalName.
For more information and for examples of how bidirectional cross-filtering works, see the Bidirectional cross-filtering for Power BI Desktop whitepaper.