23+ Pros and Cons of Context Filter In Tableau (Explained)

Tableau contains a lot of information and data. It helps people analyze the relevant data, understand and gain insight into their business.

It is widely used in the Business Intelligence Industry as it turns data into a simple format that is easily understandable. It also creates a visualization for better analysis.

But to analyze data, one needs to get hold of the relevant data and then go forward with it. It is redundant to say that it is hard to find the exact set of data one needs from amongst a humungous amount of data. This is why context filter is important.

Benefits of context filter in tableau	Drawbacks of context filter in tableau
Context filter is an independent filter	Context filter is not convenient for regular change
Context filter gives faster results	Changing context filter will have problems
Improves performance	Changing context filter requires a reload
Can create a dependent filter on context filter	Changing context filter slows down system
Context filter is convenient	Needs the patience to work with
Easier to reach a granular level with context filter	Hard to work with a context filter in a hurry
Context filter shows only relevant results
Context filter saves time
Extra work can be avoided

Table of Contents

Advantages of Context Filter in Tableau:

Context filter is an independent filter:

As already stated before, Tableau contains a huge amount of data amongst which one needs to find the set of data that is suited or required for their analysis. Filter plays a very essential role in finding the required data in tableau.

Context filter helps in separating the data that is required from the data that is unnecessary for the current analysis. Context filter is an independent filter that makes work easier.

Can create a dependent filter on context filter-:

Though filters make working on data much easier, there are various problems that can arise even after applying filters. Most filters are mutually exclusive of each other. This means that when one applies a particular filter to search for data and then puts another filter, the results from the previous filter is lost.

This is not the case with context filters. After filtering data through a context filter, one can apply another dependent filter on the filter to narrow down the results even further.

Context filter gives faster results:

If a person has to work with and find data using filters that are mutually exclusive of each other, then it will take a lot of time as the person has to apply each filter separately to find the end result. This slows down the pace of the work.

With context filters, one can apply dependent filters on context filters. This makes the working process a lot faster and more time-efficient.

Improves performance:

Applying filters multiple times to filter data from a large data source is time-consuming and slows down the performance. Context filter filters through the huge data source once.

Then the dependent filter filters data from the result filtered by the context filter. This results to faster and improved performance which is important for the analysts.

Context filter is convenient:

It is no doubt more convenient and much easier to find data using a context filter in Tableau than using any other filter. To filter data from amongst already filtered data is more convenient and easier than filtering it manually and using the filters exclusively. Thus, a context filter can be considered convenient to use.

Easier to reach the granular level with context filter:

Tableau is a huge sea of data all of which is not relevant to everyone. People might need a minuscule set of data which is very hard to find amongst a huge database.

But context filter makes it easier to filter through every irrelevant data and reach the minuscule set of data by letting dependent filters work on the already filtered data.

Context filter shows only relevant results:

The huge database of Tableau is not at all useful to a person if he is unable to find the exact set of data that is relevant to his work and will help him to assess, analyze and derive the insights.

With a context filter, it is easier to cut out all the excess data and the system presents only the data that is relevant to the person.

Extra work can be avoided:

To find the relevant data, if one has to apply filters to the database and get results that are mutually exclusive of each other only to sort them out by himself, it can be considered as extra work. This can be avoided by using context filters that do the job.

Disadvantages of Context Filter in Tableau

Context filter is not convenient for regular change:

If you plan on finding multiple sets of data by applying different filters under one umbrella filter that constantly stays, then the context filter is the one for you. But in case, you want to change the umbrella filter very frequently, a context filter will not be convenient for you.

Changing context filters requires a reload:

Once a context filter is applied on the data source, it starts checking all the available data and provides the result. This act of checking through the data takes a considerable amount of time. Every time the user changes the context filter, this happens and the reload takes time.

Changing context filter slows down system:

Once the context filter is changed, the system needs to go through the whole process of checking the database and this slows down the system.

Hard to work with context filter in a hurry:

If you are in a hurry and change the context filter, it will make the process of getting to the relevant data even slower.

Needs patience to work with:

If one is applying a new context filter, then he must be patient enough to wait for the results that are supposed to make his work easier.

Context filters are extremely advantageous and speeds up the process only if applied at the right place and time.