Variables
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Variables

A variable is a placeholder for a value that you can use in dashboard queries. Variables allow you to create more interactive and dynamic dashboards by replacing hard-coded values with dynamic options. They are displayed as dropdown lists at the top of the dashboard, making it easy to change the data being displayed.

The Google Sheets data source plugin supports two types of variables:

  • Query variables: Create variables populated with data from your Google Sheets
  • Template variables: Use variables in your queries to make them dynamic

Query variables

Query variables allow you to create dropdown lists populated with data from your Google Sheets. These variables can be used in other queries to create dynamic dashboards.

Create a query variable

To create a query variable:

  1. Go to your dashboard settings.
  2. Click Variables.
  3. Click Add variable.
  4. In the Query options section, select your Google Sheets data source.
  5. Configure your variable query:
    • Spreadsheet ID: Enter the ID of the spreadsheet containing your variable data
    • Range: Specify the range containing your data (e.g., Sheet1!A1:B10)
    • Value Field: Select the column to use as the variable value
    • Label Field: Select the column to use as the display text (optional)

Value and Label fields

  • Value Field: The column that contains the actual values to be used in queries
  • Label Field: The column that contains the display text shown in the dropdown (if different from the value)

If you don’t specify a label field, the value field will be used for both the value and display text.

Filtering

You can filter your variable data by specifying additional filter criteria:

  • Filter Field: The column to use for filtering
  • Filter Value: The value to match in the filter field

Only rows where the filter field matches the specified filter value will be included in the variable dropdown.

Example

Consider a Google Sheet with the following data:

Country CodeCountry NameRegion
USUnited StatesNorth America
GBUnited KingdomEurope
CACanadaNorth America
FRFranceEurope

To create a country variable showing only North American countries:

  1. Set Value Field to Country Code
  2. Set Label Field to Country Name
  3. Set Filter Field to Region
  4. Set Filter Value to North America

This creates a dropdown showing “United States”, “Canada” but using the values “US”, “CA” in your queries.