Reporting - Add data drill-through to a report

*** Please note, this article refers to Reporting and Analytics with Power BI. View the FAQ for more details. ***

In this article, we’ll show how to add drill-through from summary information, through to greater detail in a Power BI report. This is a great way to give report viewers control over the data they wish to see. Viewers can select a row in a table, or column in a chart, and see more detail and context for that specific value.

When added to a report, drill-through can:

• prevent ‘information overload’ when the report is first viewed
• gives a report viewer the choice of which data to focus on, and where to dig deeper
• lead to smaller and more manageable data downloads 

Background

Drill-through works by linking from a page containing summary detail - we'll call this the source page - through to a second tab which contains the detail - we'll call this the destination page. Therefore, to set up drill-through you will need a report with two tabs. We recommend that the destination page is hidden, to help keep the report simple for a report viewer.

Consider an example of a sports league. The source page contains the name of each team and their league position. The target page details the results of all games throughout the season. In order to add drill-through, the team name must appear on both pages.

Lastly, note that the name of the destination report tab will appear in the message seen by a report viewer when 'Drill-through' is selected. Therefore, we recommend the destination page is named with that in mind, for example 'See team level detail'.

Watch the video and follow the steps below to see how:

Steps to add data drill-through to a report

The steps below assume you have already created a report with two tabs as described in the Background section of this article. 

1. Open the destination page in your report
2. Open the Visualisations panel, and the Data panel
3. Drag from the Data panel, the data field to be used in the drill-through. Drop this field into the area labelled 'Add drill-through fields here. For this example, the data field 'Accreditation title' will be used. Remember, this field must appear in both report tabs:
4. Head back to the source tab
5. Find the table column that contains the data-field you added as a the drill-through in step 3
6. Right click on the column. The drill-through option (to the second tab) will appear:The report viewer will not realise it, but they will be viewing results on the second - hidden - report tab (the destination tab). The table will be pre-filtered depending on the row selected in the source tab.
7. Select 'Save' to keep the changes

Discover more about User-created reports

For a hands-on learning experience, explore our Deep dive courses in The Academy, and watch as Gary builds reports from scratch to meet specific briefs. 

If you prefer to start at the beginning, check out Get Started: Reporting and Analytics with Power BI. You'll begin with Power BI’s top five features, then dive deeper into each one with step-by-step guidance.

Need quick answers? Check out our FAQ, Reporting and Analytics with Power BI, packed with 100+ common questions and in-depth resources. You can also join our regular Ask Me Anything: Reporting live events, to ask your question directly to a Power BI expert. Search PWRFAQ in The Academy for real-world use cases, examples, and scenarios with User-created reports.

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