Creating reports from scratch - Step 6 - Filters

This guide is the sixth guide in a series of eight. The other guides in this series are:

• Creating reports from scratch - Introduction
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 1 - Titles and Topics
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 2 - Effective Date
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 3 - Select columns
• Creating reports from scratch - Steps 4 & 5 - Ordering and sorting columns
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 6 - Filters
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 7 - Groupings
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 8 - Collations and reviewing your report
   

Introduction

Step 6 of the setup wizard is used to control the number of records within your report focus that you chose in Step 1 (the report's dataset) that display in your report.

Filters let you keep specific rows in your report while hiding other rows. A filter reduces the total number of records you see to only those that match your criteria. 

For example, you may want to filter the data for your report if you only want to see students in Year 8 or a specific class.

If you think of your report focus as a library (see Creating reports from scratch - Step 1 - Titles and Topics) and your rows as books, a filter is like specifying that you only want to base your report on books of a specific genre or books written by a specific author.
 

You do not have to set filters to create a report, and this section can be left blank. For example, if you want to include all students enrolled in your school in the report. Click the green Next button to skip this step.

Completing Step 6

To add a filter to your report:
 

• Click the Select filter drop-down and start typing the name of the field you want to filter your report by in the box, or select the filter you want from the list.
   
• Next, click the green Set parameters 
  
  
   
• Edit your filter on the slide-over to set the exact rules you want to filter your report by. This allows you to set the date ranges and parameters of your filter. For example, if you only want your report to show students who were in Year 10 and Year 11 last week, you would set your Date range to Last Week and your filter condition to Is one of... [Year 11] [Year 10].
  
  
   
  • Within a Filter Condition section, the top drop-down usually lets you set the method the report is narrowed down by and the bottom drop-down allows you to specify which things your method takes into account.
    
    For example, if you set the filter condition Does not equal for a Student Name filter, the method is narrowing down your report by excluding certain data (and including all other data). You then specify which student to exclude in the drop-down by selecting their name. This means that all other students will be included in the report.
     
• Depending on the filter, you might need to use a drop-down or type what you want to filter by. The option open to you depends on whether the condition you chose applies to discrete values, like form groups and year groups, or data within a range of values, like a date or ID number.
   
  • For discreet values, you use a drop-down to select the exact value(s) you want to filter by.
  • For ranged values, you type the value you want.
     
• Click Save to confirm your settings and add the filter.
   

To add a second filter (if you don't see a second 'Select filter' drop-down), click the green +add another button to make another Select filter drop-down appear. 
 

If you need further guidance, this guide expands on using filters in student-based custom reports: Using AND and OR filters in the Custom Report Writer.
 

Once you are happy with your filter choices, move to Step 7 by clicking the green Next button.