The Pre-Filters Tab

A filter on one or more columns reduces data that is not needed in reports based on the Domain. For example, financial reports for the current fiscal year may need data from the previous fiscal year for comparison, but nothing earlier. It is always good practice to filter out irrelevant data to reduce the size of query results and processing time within the server.

Reports based directly on the Domain can define their own filters. Putting often-used filters in the Domain design avoids the need for each user to define filters independently, reducing the chance for errors.
You can define a filter on a column that you do not plan to expose in the Domain. The filter remains active and only data that satisfies all defined filters appears to report users. For example, you can filter data to select a single country, in which case it doesn't make sense for the column to appear in a report. However, you should clearly document such data restrictions in the description of the Domain, so that users understand what data is accessible through the Domain.
To define a filter, complete the following steps:

1. In the Fields panel, double-click a column to open it in the Filters panel.
   
   

   • You can also drag-and-drop a column into the panel. Once the column is in the Filters panel, a list of conditional operators relevant to the column will appear.
     
     

2. Choose the necessary comparison operator and filter value from the drop-down list.
   
   

   • The choice of operators depends on the datatype of the column. For example, string types offer a choice of string search operators, while date types offer time comparison operators.
     
     

   • The filter value, in turn, depends on the datatype and the comparison operator. For example, if you select a date column with the "Is Between" operator, the Filter panel displays two calendar icons for specifying a date range.
     
     

3. Click the OK button to define the filter. To clear the condition editor without saving, click the Cancel button.
   
   

The Filters panel shows all the filters that you have defined. The overall filter applied to the data is the logical AND of all conditions you defined. 

Once a filter has been defined and saved, it appears in the Filters panel with the Change and Remove buttons. Click the Change button to modify a filter (click the OK button to save the changes). After selecting a row, you can click the Remove button to remove it from the list.

Text columns have both substring comparison operators ("starts with," "contains,") and whole string matching ("equals," "is one of,"). When you select a whole string matching operator, the panel displays a list of all existing values for the chosen column, retrieved in real-time from the database. If there are more than 50 values to display, use the search controls to narrow the list of available values. For multiple value matching, double-click the available values to select them. You may perform multiple searches and select values from each list of results.