How to Select Multiple Values in Power BI Slicer

While working on a client report, there was a requirement to select multiple values from a slicer instead of choosing only one value at a time. The client wanted users to filter the report easily without holding the Ctrl key, and also needed the slicer to work across different visuals and tables.

To solve this requirement, I used different slicer options and settings available in the report. These settings help users select multiple values and make the report easier to use.

In this tutorial, I will explain how to select multiple values in a slicer. I will cover how to enable multiple selection without using the Ctrl key, how multiple selection works in a hierarchy slicer, and how to fix cases where multiple selection is disabled.

Multiple Selections in Power BI Slicer

Let’s see how to create and use a slicer with multiple selections in a report.

In this example, I am using the Super Store sample data shown below. You can also download the sample data from the link provided and use it in your own report.

Now follow the steps below:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and load the data source using the Get Data option.

2. From the Build pane, first select the Slicer visual and, in the Fields pane, drag the Customer Segment field into the Slicer visual.

3. Then select the Table visual and place it on the same page. Drag and drop the Customer Segment, Sales, and Profit fields into the table.

Now, to select multiple values in the slicer, make sure Single select is off, and Multi-select is on.

3. To check this, select the Slicer visual, open Format visual, go to Slicer settings, expand Selections, turn Single select off, and make sure Multi-select is enabled, as shown below.

To select multiple values, hold the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click the values you want to filter in the slicer.

In the screenshot below, you can see that multiple options are selected in the slicer, and the table visual shows the filtered data based on those selections.

This explains how to create and use a slicer with multiple selections in Power BI reports.

How to Set up Power BI Slicer Multiple Selection Without Ctrl

In this example, I am using the same data source, where the slicer allows multiple selections without pressing the Ctrl key on the keyboard.

To do this, follow the steps below:

1. In Power BI Desktop, from the Build pane, first add the Slicer visual to the report canvas. From the Fields pane, drag the Product Category field into the slicer.

2. Next, add the Table visual to the same page. Select the table and drag the Product Category, Customer Segment, Sales, and Profit fields into the table, as shown below.

3. Select the Slicer visual, open Format visual, go to Slicer settings, expand Selections, and make sure Multi-select is disabled, as shown below.

Now, you can select multiple values in the slicer without using the Ctrl key.

In the screenshot below, you can see that multiple values are selected in the slicer, and the table displays the filtered data based on those selections.

This explains how slicer multi-select without the Ctrl key works in Power BI Desktop.

Multiple Selections in a Power BI Hierarchy Slicer

In this example, I am using the same data source, where the hierarchy slicer allows multiple selections.

To do this, follow the steps below:

1. In Power BI Desktop, from the Build pane, first add the Slicer visual to the report canvas. From the Fields pane, drag the Product Category, Customer Segment, and Region fields into the slicer to create a hierarchy.

2. Next, add the Table visual to the same page. Select the table and drag the Product Category, Customer Segment, Sales, and Profit fields into the table, as shown below.

3. Select the Slicer visual, open Format visual, go to Slicer settings, expand Selections, and make sure Single select is turned off so that multiple selections are allowed.

Now, you can select multiple values at different levels of the hierarchy slicer.

In the screenshot below, you can see that multiple values are selected in the hierarchy slicer, and the table displays the filtered data based on those selections.

This way, you can select multiple values in the Power BI Slicer hierarchy.

Slicer Disables Multiple Selection in Power BI

For this example, a slicer visual is already created that displays the Product Category. A table visual is also added to the report, which shows the Product Category, Customer Segment, Sales, and Profit fields.

Here, I want to disable multiple selections in a slicer in Power BI Desktop.

Follow the steps below:

1. First, select the slicer visual in the report. Then open the Format pane and expand Slicer settings.
2. Go to Selections and turn Single select on. When this option is enabled, the slicer allows only one value to be selected and disables multiple selections, including using the Ctrl key.

After this change, you can select only one value at a time in the slicer. Multiple selections will no longer be allowed.

This is how you can disable multiple selections in a slicer in Power BI Desktop.

In this tutorial, I explained how to work with slicers that allow multiple selections in a report. I showed how to enable multiple selection using the Ctrl key, how to select multiple values without using the Ctrl key, and how multiple selections work in a hierarchy slicer.

I also explained how to disable multiple selections when only one value should be selected at a time.

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