I have a table of events from google sheets that I want users to be able to filter by date in Google Looker Studio. The events have various lengths, so each has a start and an end date in the table (as well as a bunch of other columns). For example:
| Event | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|
| A | 02/15/2023 | 02/20/2023 |
| B | 03/01/2023 | 04/30/2023 |
| C | 02/23/2023 | 03/01/2023 |
I want users to be able to filter for anything that is happening in the event range they select. For example, if they input the date range 02/26/2023 - 03/15/2023, the table should filter down to show events B and C, since those have ranges overlapping their input data range.
I've tried a few different approaches that all have drawbacks:
- Using the Looker Studio date range control. This seems to only filter based on the Start Date OR the End Date, and not have the ability to look at both.
- Applying a Date Filter in the chart. If I apply the following filter (under Chart - Filter - Table Filter), it works great to show anything overlapping the desired date range:
- Include - Start Date - Less than or equal to - 03/15/2023 AND
- Include - End Date - Greater than or equal to - 02/26/2023
However, I had to put these dates directly into the filter, which is not what the user should have to do. Is there a way I can have them input the date range they are interested as a control, and I can feed that information into the Date Filter above? (So they would put in a start date and end date that would replace where I have hard coded 02/26/2023 and 03/15/2023 above).
- I have also set up this filter in Google Sheets to work exactly as I want it. Anyone can enter a start date and end date in a couple cells, and I use the filter() function with the same logic as in #2 above to filter the table down to what I want. The disadvantage of google sheets though, is if multiple people are there at the same time, they do not have their own view of the report. I switched to Looker Studio because it allows view-only users to filter their report independently.
Edited to add: This report is intended to be used by viewers with limited experience using google sheets or looker studio, and possibly on phone or browser, so I'm trying to make the filtering as easy as possible.
the ability to filter data independently & at the same time for multiple users is natively possible in google sheets with Filter Views: