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Documentation Grafana documentation Dashboards Build dashboards Dashboard URL variables

Dashboard URL variables

Grafana can apply variable values passed as query parameters in dashboard URLs. For more information, refer to Manage dashboard links and Templates and variables.

Passing variables as query parameters

Grafana interprets query string parameters prefixed with var- as variables in the given dashboard.

For example, in this URL:

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https://${your-domain}/path/to/your/dashboard?var-example=value

The query parameter var-example=value represents the dashboard variable example with a value of value.

Passing multiple values for a variable

To pass multiple values, repeat the variable parameter once for each value:

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https://${your-domain}/path/to/your/dashboard?var-example=value1&var-example=value2

Grafana interprets var-example=value1&var-example=value2 as the dashboard variable example with two values: value1 and value2.

Example

This example in Grafana Play passes the variable server with multiple values, and the variables app and interval with a single value each.

Adding variables to dashboard links

Grafana can add variables to dashboard links when you generate them from a dashboard’s settings. For more information and steps to add variables, refer to Manage dashboard links.

Passing ad hoc filters

Ad hoc filters apply key/value filters to all metric queries that use a specified data source. For more information, refer to Add ad hoc filters.

To pass an ad hoc filter as a query parameter, use the variable syntax to pass the ad hoc filter variable, and also provide the key, the operator as the value, and the value as a pipe-separated list.

For example, in this URL:

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https://${your-domain}/path/to/your/dashboard?var-adhoc=example_key|=|example_value

The query parameter var-adhoc=key|=|value applies the ad hoc filter configured as the adhoc dashboard variable using the example_key key, the = operator, and the example_value value.

Note: When sharing URLs with ad hoc filters, remember to encode the URL. In the above example, replace the pipes (|) with %7C and the equality operator (=) with %3D.

Example

This example in Grafana Play passes the ad hoc filter variable adhoc with the filter value datacenter = America.

Controlling time range using the URL

To set a dashboard’s time range, use the from, to, time, and time.window query parameters. Because these are not variables, they do not require the var- prefix. For more information, see the Linking overview.