Sometimes we have columns in different tables that hold the same type of data. For example:

A class (eg 11B/Ma1) might appear in a behaviour table (to indicate the class where a behaviour incident took place) and also in an assessment table (to indicate the class the pupil is taught in).

A term (eg Y10 Summer) might appear in an attendance table to indicate the term when a particular mark was recorded, and the same term might appear in an attainment table to indicate when a grade was attained.

It would be nice to add a slicer to our report that allows our users to choose a class and see behaviour and assessments of just the selected class across both tables.

Or we might want to add a slicer that allows our users to choose a term and see all the attainments and attendance statistics for that particular term.

In both examples, the class columns and term columns are not related to each other, and for this technique they don’t need to be. They just need to have common data values within them. The technique involves setting up a slicer group – watch the video below.