# Help with complex Quick Sight filter

**URL:** <https://community.amazonquick.com/t/help-with-complex-quicksight-filter/46434>\
**Category:** Q&A\
**Tags:** admin, quick-sight\
**Created:** [May 20, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://community.amazonquick.com/t/help-with-complex-quicksight-filter/46434 "2025-05-20T18:06:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![VLThompson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/2bfe46/32.png) [@VLThompson](https://community.amazonquick.com/u/VLThompson)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://community.amazonquick.com/t/help-with-complex-quicksight-filter/46434/1 "2025-05-20T18:06:22Z")

</div>

Hi. I’m new to Quick Sight, and I’m hoping someone can help.

I have a dataset imported of login/logout data that has various computer names, username, date, and timespent. I want to create a control for a visualization that allows the user to select the lab name, and see all the sessions for those computer names.

My computer names are all prefixed with the building and room number and then an individual number such as:  
abc12301  
abc12302  
xyz20201  
xyz20202

Since I want to pull all the computer names, for instance, that start with abc123, I know I’ll have to use a locate or contains function, which means I need to create a calculated field, yes? Please correct me if I’m wrong. I understand the location function, but not how to integrate it into a statement that will allow me to pull all the hostnames that =1 or match the substring. How do I do this and then tie it to a control?

Greatly appreciate the help!  
Vincent

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![shravya](https://d2orw1595917va.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.amazonquick.com/shravya/32/9969_2.png) [@shravya](https://community.amazonquick.com/u/shravya)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 1:47am UTC](https://community.amazonquick.com/t/help-with-complex-quicksight-filter/46434/2 "2025-05-21T01:47:37Z")

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Hi @VLThompson

Welcome to the Quicksight Community! Thank you for posting your question.

So, You want to allow users to **filter sessions by lab** (e.g., `abc123`), where lab identity is determined by the prefix of the computer name (`abc12301`, `abc12302`, etc.).

### Step 1: Extract the Lab Prefix (Calculated Field)

Yes — you will need to create a **calculated field** to extract the lab name prefix from your `computer_name`. Assuming the lab name is always the first 6 characters (like `abc123`):

I would say please go to your dataset → edit dataset and then add calculated field at the dataset level so that when you add control as a dropdown you will be able to link to this field.

```auto
Cal field name - lab_name
substring({computer_name}, 0, 6)

```

If your prefix length varies and is separated by a known delimiter (e.g., `abc123-01`), then you could also use `split()`.

### Step 2: Create a Control

Now that you have a `lab_name` field:

1. Go to **Analysis** → **Parameters** → Create a parameter called `Selected Lab`.
2. Set it as **String** and enable **single select** or **multi-select** (your choice).
3. Go to Filters and add lab\_name as filter on your visual → Link it to your `Selected Lab` parameter.
4. Add Control → Display it as a **dropdown** with values from the `lab_name` field.

Let me know if this helps

Thank you,  
Shravay

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![VLThompson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/2bfe46/32.png) [@VLThompson](https://community.amazonquick.com/u/VLThompson)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 1:03pm UTC](https://community.amazonquick.com/t/help-with-complex-quicksight-filter/46434/3 "2025-05-21T13:03:50Z")

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Shravay,  
Thanks for the reply! I leveraged ChatGPT after I made this post, and it told me the same thing.

The odd this is when editing the dataset and adding the new calculated field, I enter the substring command exactly as you have it, but when I save it, Quick Sight can’t perform the addition of the new field. No data in preview, says there are 0 rows to display. I remove the calculated field, data shows up fine. I even did a refresh on the data since it’s SPICE, and I get a data ingestion error.

The substring is pretty basic, not sure why it’s have trouble. I may have to go back to my original data files and script in the addition of the extra/needed field.

If you have any idea why this calculated field is causing the behavior, I’d appreciate it.  
Thanks,  
Vincent

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![shravya](https://d2orw1595917va.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.amazonquick.com/shravya/32/9969_2.png) [@shravya](https://community.amazonquick.com/u/shravya)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 2:01am UTC](https://community.amazonquick.com/t/help-with-complex-quicksight-filter/46434/4 "2025-05-22T02:01:34Z")

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Hello @VLThompson

If possible could you please send a screenshot of the issue you are facing because i have implemented what i have told in the above steps so i was able to do it. It would be easier to debug if you can provide any inputs only if possible.

fyi -

 ![image](https://d1wl4jav5dp96l.cloudfront.net/original/3X/e/f/efc57ac9b45afc484017a45bb3c506a642f75576.png)

 ![image](https://d1wl4jav5dp96l.cloudfront.net/original/3X/7/c/7cca8b50557d7bb47bc8205da9792db571aa869c.png)

Thank you,  
Shravya

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Giridhar.Prabhu](https://d2orw1595917va.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.amazonquick.com/giridhar.prabhu/32/27789_2.png) [@Giridhar.Prabhu](https://community.amazonquick.com/u/Giridhar.Prabhu)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 4:44am UTC](https://community.amazonquick.com/t/help-with-complex-quicksight-filter/46434/5 "2025-05-22T04:44:06Z")

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Hi @VLThompson , @shravya

The only issue that I see is that the substring start position is 1 and not 0. It does not complain when you pass 0 but then the results are not right

![image](https://d1wl4jav5dp96l.cloudfront.net/original/3X/b/6/b699aec573114510329728c8066f09613a1e379b.png)

See my example below. You can see that only 3 characters are in the substring result since the start position is mentioned as 0

 ![image](https://d1wl4jav5dp96l.cloudfront.net/original/3X/e/3/e343f6e8f4043ec929ea4c2ff8eb235669f75286.png)

 ![image](https://d1wl4jav5dp96l.cloudfront.net/original/3X/2/4/244cafc78c0ef446f276eaa8402eab41fb1fc721.png)

When I change the start to 1 things work as expected.

 ![image](https://d1wl4jav5dp96l.cloudfront.net/original/3X/d/4/d43a98f2c79cd8e9aa7742be55513233b7de03b5.png)

 ![image](https://d1wl4jav5dp96l.cloudfront.net/original/3X/a/e/ae56b04be96afecb91a13bb817a58a7562943bff.png)

I guess if you make that change you should get the results you want.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![VLThompson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/2bfe46/32.png) [@VLThompson](https://community.amazonquick.com/u/VLThompson)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 5:36pm UTC](https://community.amazonquick.com/t/help-with-complex-quicksight-filter/46434/6 "2025-05-22T17:36:17Z")

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Giridhar,  
That’s it! The beginning index is 1, not 0. The calculated field worked like it should when using 1.  
I appreciate all the help!  
Vincent