After Looker has been established as a data source for your report, you can add fields, charts, and filters that are based on data from a Looker Explore to your report.
Because they are defined by LookML parameters, the fields and filters for a Looker data source may appear or behave differently than the fields and filters for other data sources in Looker Studio or from how they appear in Looker. This article describes these nuances and how to interact with fields and filters from a Looker data source.
Learn more about how to add data to a report and how to edit fields in your reports.
How Looker Explores appear in Looker Studio reports
In a Looker Studio report that uses Looker as a data source, an Explore and its views, dimensions, dimension groups, measures (known as metrics in Looker Studio), and joins are displayed in a different format from how they appear in Looker. Both the Looker Explore field picker and the Looker Studio report field picker organize fields alphanumerically by type (dimensions, followed by measures or metrics) under the name or label of the Explore. However, the Looker Explore field picker further groups fields by the view or view label by which the fields are defined.
For example, in Looker, an Explore called Flights has the views Carriers, Destination, Flights, and Origin. The Carriers view has the dimensions Carrier Name, Code, and Name. No LookML view labels have been specified. The fields as appear like this:
In the corresponding Looker data source called Flights - FAA, Looker Studio displays these dimensions as Carriers Carrier Name, Carriers Code, and Carriers Name. The dimensions from other views appear in the same list of dimensions. For example, Destination City is a dimension in the Destination view.
How Looker Explores behave in Looker Studio reports
A Looker data source in Looker Studio is based on a Looker Explore, which is defined in a Looker model's LookML. Looker developers use LookML to describe dimensions, aggregates, calculations, and data relationships in an organization's SQL database. Some LookML parameters are applied in the Looker data source but not surfaced in Looker Studio. The following sections describe the LookML parameters that are applied in the Looker data source and that you can interact with in Looker Studio.
Drill fields and links
Drill fields and links that are defined with the drill_fields and link LookML parameters are available to Looker Studio report viewers in the Drill Actions menu on Looker Studio table charts.
See the Drill into your data documentation page to learn more about using drill actions in Looker Studio.
Things to know about drill actions in Looker Studio
Keep the following information in mind when you're using drill actions (drill fields and links) with a Looker data source:
- They are supported only on table charts.
- They are supported only for Looker dimensions and dimension groups.
- If they are imported from Looker, they are read-only. To make changes to imported drill actions, edit the underlying LookML model in Looker.
Filters
Report editors can define persistent filters (at the chart, group, page, and report level), quick filters, and controls in Looker Studio reports based on fields from the Looker data source.
Looker Studio indicates which fields have been defined in the Looker data source's underlying LookML as filters or filter-only fields. Looker Studio also displays suggestions for filter values based on the data source’s LookML suggest_dimension and suggest_explore definitions when Equal to (=) and In conditions are used. To see filter value suggestions, enable Show suggested values while typing in the filter editor. Any pre-defined default values will be pre-selected.
Viewers can access and modify any of the report’s editable filters by clicking the report’s More options menu and selecting View applied filters.
In reports that use a Looker data source, filters that have been defined with LookML parameters are referenced in Looker Studio as described in the following table:
| LookML definition | Looker Studio location | Looker Studio reference |
|---|---|---|
conditionally_filter |
Report editor: Properties > Setup > Filter section | Conditionally required |
| Filter manager: Type column | Conditionally filter | |
|
Report editor: Group Properties |
Conditionally required |
|
|
Report editor: Current Page Settings |
Not distinguished from other filter types |
|
|
Report editor: Report Settings |
Conditionally required |
|
| Data source editor: Datasource filters section | Conditionally filter | |
| Filter bar (quick filters) | Not distinguished from other filter types | |
always_filter |
Report editor: Properties > Setup > Filter section | Always required |
| Filter manager: Type column | Always filter | |
|
Report editor: Group Properties |
Always required |
|
|
Report editor: Current Page Settings |
Not distinguished from other filter types |
|
|
Report editor: Report Settings |
Always required |
|
| Data source editor: Datasource filters section | Always filter | |
| Filter bar (quick filters) | Not distinguished from other filter types | |
parameter,filter |
Report editor: Properties > Setup > Filter | Not distinguished from other filter types |
| Report editor: Data > Explore name > Filter-only fields field group | Filter-only fields | |
| Filter manager: Type column | Not distinguished from other filter types | |
|
Report editor: Group Properties |
Not distinguished from other filter types |
|
|
Report editor: Current Page Settings |
Not distinguished from other filter types |
|
|
Report editor: Report Settings |
Not distinguished from other filter types |
|
| Data source editor: Filter-only fields section | Filter-only fields | |
| Filter bar (quick filters) | Not distinguished from other filter types | |
|
Report controls |
N/A |
If sql_always_where, sql_always_having, or access_filter parameters are included in the underlying LookML model, they will be applied to the data source but will not be visible in Looker Studio.
More about filters that are always or conditionally required
Keep the following information in mind when using conditional LookML filters:
- You can't remove filters that are either conditionally or always required from a chart.
- Report editors can make changes to a filter clause's condition or value but can't change the filter field in Looker Studio. To make changes to imported LookML filters, edit the underlying LookML model in Looker.
- Looker Studio does not support all Looker filter expressions. If a LookML model defines a
conditionally_filterparameter or analways_filterparameter that uses an unsupported filter expression, Looker Studio displays a filter condition of Is Null. Report editors must manually update the filter conditions and values. The supported filter expressions are shown in the following table:
| Filter expression type | LookML definition | Looker Studio filter condition | Looker Studio example value |
|---|---|---|---|
| String | FOO |
Equal to (=) | FOO |
| String | EMPTY |
Equal to (=) | |
| String | NULL |
Is Null | |
| Date and Time | YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY/MM/DD |
Equal to (=) |
2024-01-01 |
| Boolean | yes or Yes |
True |
|
| Boolean | no or No |
False |
|
| Boolean | TRUE |
True |
|
| Boolean | FALSE |
False |
|
| Number | 5 |
Equal to (=) |
5 |
| Number | NULL |
Is Null |
|
More about filter-only fields
parameter LookML parameter creates a filter-only field that can be used to filter Explores, Looks, and dashboards but that can't be added to a result set. Looker Studio parameters collect and pass user-supplied values to calculated fields and connectors.- To make changes to imported filter-only fields, such as specifying the values that a user can input, edit the underlying LookML model in Looker.
- When a report editor edits a filter that uses a filter-only field, they must use an AND operator and can't include the same filter-only field. The available values are defined in the Looker data source's underlying LookML.
- Advanced filter controls are unavailable for filter-only fields that have allowed values defined in the underlying LookML.
- Looker Studio doesn't support all types and values for filter-only fields. If a LookML model defines
parameterorfilterparameters that use an unsupported type, Looker Studio displays a filter condition of Is Null. Report editors must manually update the filter conditions and values. The supported filter-only field types are shown in the following table:
| LookML parameter | Field type | Looker Studio filter condition | Supported input values |
|---|---|---|---|
parameter |
string |
All | Any user input value or only pre-defined values |
unquoted |
All | Any user input value or only pre-defined values | |
date_time |
Equal to (=) | Any user input date of the formats YYYY‑MM‑DD or YYYY/MM/DD | |
yesno |
Equal to (=) | Pre-defined Boolean values | |
filter |
string |
All | Any user input value |
number |
All | Any user input value in a number format | |
yesno |
Equal to (=) | Pre-defined Boolean values | |
date_time |
Equal to (=) | Any user input date of the formats YYYY‑MM‑DD or YYYY/MM/DD | |
date |
Equal to (=) | Any user input date of the formats YYYY‑MM‑DD or YYYY/MM/DD |