Today I thought it will be good to know how the date filters/selectors works in different BI tools.
CALENDAR & SLIDER type would be the focus on this discussion.
We will compare below tools on using them as filter/selector on dashboards & see which tool wins this time.
- MicroStrategy
- Power BI
- Tableau
- Qlik
This time will definitely you will get an answer the winner 🙂 i can guarantee you on that.
MicroStrategy
First, lets take a look at “CALENDAR” type selector
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-13-1024x581.png)
Let us take a look deeper of how it looks & easy to interact with
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-14.png)
With above option, it is kind of static and doesn’t help for running days of business analysis. So can we do dynamic ? Let’s check it out
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-15.png)
So, with above option, we can make it dynamic to run based on running days for business analysis.
Another option for “Date” selector is to use “Slider” option
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-22-1024x524.png)
Tableau
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-16.png)
Here are the options available within Tableau w.r.t. Date Filter/Selector control to dashboard in Tableau :
- By Years (Different Dynamic Options)
- By Quarters (Different Dynamic Options)
- By Months (Different Dynamic Options)
- By Weeks (Different Dynamic Options)
- By Days (Different Dynamic Options)
Not to forget, it provides below based on current date
- Year to Date
- Quarter to Date
- Month to Date
- Week to Date
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-17.png)
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-18.png)
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-19.png)
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-20.png)
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-21.png)
Tableau provides “SLIDER” option as well but with beauty of “Choosing only Start Dates” or “Choosing only End Dates” or “Both” which is actual slider behavior
- Range of Dates
- Start Date
- End Date
- Browse Periods
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-23.png)
I love this “Browse Periods” option as well – quite user intuitive for data analysis
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-24.png)
Clearly, Tableau is great in this feature from my experience.
Power BI
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-25-1024x525.png)
Let’s take a deeper look on these options
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-26.png)
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-27.png)
Let’s see how the “Relative Date” looks like for end users
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-28.png)
I can conclude saying here that, Power BI from Microsoft provides equivalent option to Tableau but personally i feel, might need improvement in UI experience too.
Qlik
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-29-1024x455.png)
Beauty with Qlik is within the visualization itself, it has slider to select FROM/TO Date Ranges –
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-30-1024x337.png)
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-31.png)
If we need have date picker , then we need to go for custom objects to include “Date Picker“
![](http://crackerzin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/image-32.png)
Who’s the winner ?
Tableau – from my learning and experience – i feel the user interface, features and ease of use makes me to go with this answer.
I know, i’m an MicroStrategist & love the BI tool for it’s enterprise capabilities – i feel, there are rooms of improvement in having additional features for business users to have value from it (both from UI & feature perspective).
If you feel like to improve MicroStrategy product – login & vote for this IDEA to reach product team for future improvements
IDEA: https://community.microstrategy.com/s/idea/0872R000000bnriQAA
Power BI & Qlik is equally good and has more options than MicroStrategy.
Hope it helps you all in knowing about this DATE Selector functionality!
Enjoy Reading & Keep Learning!! Stay Healthy & Safe at Home!!
Comparison looks great Rajavel