---
title: Add filter controls
description: Add interactive filter controls to your Kibana dashboards to help users explore data with options lists, range sliders, and time sliders.
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/dashboards/add-controls
products:
  - Kibana
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available in 9.0+
---

# Add filter controls
**Controls** are interactive options that you add to your dashboards to help future viewers filter and display only the data they want to explore more efficiently. Controls apply filters across all relevant panels in a dashboard to focus on specific data segments without writing filtering queries.

## Requirements

To add controls to a dashboard, you need:
- **All** privilege for the **Dashboard** feature in Kibana
- An existing dashboard open in **Edit** mode
- A [data view](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/find-and-organize/data-views) configured with fields available for filtering


## Control types

There are three types of controls:
- [**Options list**](#create-and-add-options-list-and-range-slider-controls) — Adds a dropdown that allows to filter data by selecting one or more values.
  For example, if you are using the **[Logs] Web Traffic** dashboard from the sample web logs data, you can add an options list for the `machine.os.keyword` field that allows you to display only the logs generated from `osx` and `ios` operating systems.
  ![Options list control for the `machine.os.keyword` field with the `osx` and `ios` options selected](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/images/kibana-dashboard_controlsOptionsList.png "title")
- [**Range slider**](#create-and-add-options-list-and-range-slider-controls) — Adds a slider that allows to filter the data within a specified range of values. This type of control only works with numeric fields.
  For example, if you are using the **[Logs] Web Traffic** dashboard from the sample web logs data, you can add a range slider for the `hour_of_day` field that allows you to display only the log data from 9:00AM to 5:00PM.
  ![Range slider control for the `hour_of_day` field with a range of `9` to `17` selected](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/images/kibana-dashboard_controlsRangeSlider_8.3.0.png "title")
- [**Time slider**](#add-time-slider-controls) — Adds a time range slider that allows to filter the data within a specified range of time, advance the time range backward and forward by a unit that you can define, and animate your change in data over the specified time range.
  For example, you are using the **[Logs] Web Traffic** dashboard from the sample web logs data, and the global time filter is **Last 7 days**. When you add the time slider, you can select the previous and next buttons to advance the time range backward or forward, and select the play button to watch how the data changes over the last 7 days.
  ![Time slider control for the the Last 7 days](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/images/dashboard_timeslidercontrol_8.17.0.gif)


## Create and add Options list and Range slider controls

To add interactive Options list and Range slider controls, create the controls, then add them to your dashboard.
1. Open or create a new dashboard.
2. Add a control.
   - <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.2</applies-to> In **Edit** mode, select **Add** > **Controls** > **Control** in the toolbar.
- <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available from 9.0 to 9.1</applies-to> In **Edit** mode, select **Controls** > **Add control** in the dashboard toolbar.
3. On the **Create control** flyout, from the **Data view** dropdown, select the data view that contains the field you want to use for the **Control**.
4. In the **Field** list, select the field you want to filter on.
5. Under **Control type**, select whether the control should be an **Options list** or a **Range slider**.
   <tip>
   Range sliders are for Number type fields only.
   </tip>
6. Define how you want the control to appear:
   - **Label**: Overwrite the default field name with a clearer and self-explanatory label.
- **Minimum width**: Specify how much horizontal space does the control should occupy. The final width can vary depending on the other controls and their own width setting.
- **Expand width to fit available space**: Expand the width of the control to fit the available horizontal space on the dashboard.
7. Specify the additional settings:
   - For Options lists:
  - Define whether users can select multiple values to filter with the control, or only one.
- For Options list controls on *string* and *IP address* type fields, you can define how the control’s embedded search should behave:
  - **Prefix**: Show options that *start with* the entered value.
- **Contains**: Show options that *contain* the entered value. This setting option is only available for *string* type fields. Results can take longer to show with this option.
- **Exact**: Show options that are an *exact* match with the entered value.
  <tip>
  The search is not case sensitive. For example, searching for `ios` would still retrieve `iOS` if that value exists.
  </tip>
- **Ignore timeout for results**: Delays the display of the list of values until it is fully loaded. This option is useful for large data sets, to avoid missing some available options in case they take longer to load and appear when using the control.
- For Range sliders, set the step size. The step size determines the slider's number of steps. The smaller a slider's step size, the more steps it has.
8. Select **Save and close**. The control can now be used.
9. Consider the position of the control if you have several controls active on the dashboard. Controls are applied from left to right, which can change the options available depending on their position when the [Chain controls](#configure-controls-settings) setting is enabled.
10. Save the dashboard.


## Add time slider controls

You can add one interactive time slider control to a dashboard.
1. Open or create a new dashboard.
2. Add a time slider control.
   - <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.2</applies-to> In **Edit** mode, select **Add** > **Controls** > **Time slider control** in the toolbar.
- <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available from 9.0 to 9.1</applies-to> In **Edit** mode, select **Controls** > **Add time slider control**.
3. The time slider control uses the time range from the global time filter. To change the time range in the time slider control, [change the global time filter](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/query-filter/filtering).
4. Save the dashboard. The control can now be used.


## Add variable controls

<applies-to>
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview
  - Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.0
</applies-to>

<note applies-to="Elastic Stack: Generally available from 9.0 to 9.1">
  In versions `9.0` and `9.1`, variable controls are called ES|QL controls.
</note>

You can bind controls to your ES|QL visualizations in dashboards. When creating an ES|QL visualization, the autocomplete suggestions prompt control insertion for field values, field names, function configuration, and function names. ES|QL controls act as variables in your ES|QL visualization queries.
This enables controls that only apply to specific panels in your dashboards, and exposes visualization configuration such as date histogram interval controls to dashboard users.
<note>
  Only **Options lists** are supported for ES|QL-based controls. Options can be:
  - values or fields that can be static or defined by a query
  - functions <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.1</applies-to>
</note>

1. While you edit your ES|QL query, the autocomplete menu suggests adding a control when relevant or when you type `?` in the query. Select **Create control**.
   ![ES|QL query prompting to add a control](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/images/esql-visualization-control-suggestion.png)
2. A menu opens to let you configure the control. This is where you can specify:
   - The type of the control.
  - For controls with **Static values**, enter available controls manually or select them from the dropdown list.
- For controls with **Values from a query**, write an ES|QL query to populate the list of options.
- The name of the control. You use this name to reference the control in ES|QL queries.
  - Start the name with `?` if you want the options to be simple static values.
- Start the name with `??` if you want the options to be fields or functions. <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.1</applies-to>
- The values users can select for this control. You can add multiple values from suggested fields, or type in custom values. If you selected **Values from a query**, you must instead write an ES|QL query at this step.
- The label of the control. This is the label displayed in **Discover** or in the dashboard.
- The width of the control.
- Whether the control should allow selecting a single value or multiple values. This [requires using the `MV_CONTAINS` function in your query](#esql-multi-values-controls). <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Planned</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview</applies-to>
   ![ES|QL control settings](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/images/esql-visualization-control-settings.png "title")
3. Save the control.

The variable is inserted into your query, and the control appears.
If you added it by starting from a query, the control is directly inserted in that query and you can continue editing it.
You can then insert it in any other ES|QL visualization queries by typing the control's name.
<tip>
  You can also create variable controls to add later to any query by selecting **Add** > **Controls** > **Variable control** in the dashboard's toolbar.
</tip>

![Editing ES|QL controls from a dashboard](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltefdd0b53724fa2ce/blte42dfaa404bfc2d6/67d2e31e2e4dc59da190d78f/dashboard-esql-controls.gif)
**Examples**
- Integrate filtering into your ES|QL experience
  ```esql
  | WHERE field == ?value
  ```
- Fields in controls for dynamic group by
  ```esql
  | STATS count=COUNT(*) BY ??field
  ```
- Variable time ranges? Bind function configuration settings to a control
  ```esql
  | BUCKET(@timestamp, ?interval),
  ```
- Make the function itself dynamic
  ```esql
  | STATS metric = ??function
  ```


### Allow multi-value selections for ES|QL-based variable controls

<applies-to>
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview
  - Elastic Stack: Planned
</applies-to>

You can create controls that let users select multiple values. To do that:
1. Add the [`MV_CONTAINS`](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/mv-functions#esql-mv_contains) function to your query, and [create a variable](#add-variable-control) as one of its parameters. For example:
   ```esql
   FROM logs-* | WHERE MV_CONTAINS(?values, field)
   ```
   <note>
   Multi-selection is only available for `?values` variables. It is not available for `??fields` and `??functions` variables.
   </note>
2. When defining the control, select the **Allow multiple selections** option.
3. Save the control.

The newly configured control becomes available and allows users to select multiple values.

### Import a Discover query along with its controls into a dashboard

<applies-to>
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview
  - Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.2
</applies-to>

To add the results of your Discover explorations to a dashboard in a way that preserves the [controls created from Discover](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/discover/try-esql#add-variable-control) and also adds them to the dashboard, you have two methods:
**Method 1: Adding the Discover session's results**
This method allows you to add the result table of your Discover ES|QL query to any dashboard.
1. Save the ES|QL query containing the variable control into a Discover session. If your Discover session contains several tabs, only the first tab will be imported to the dashboard.
2. Go to **Dashboards** and open or create one.
3. Select **Add**, then **From library**.
4. Find and select the Discover session you saved earlier.

A new panel appears on the dashboard with the results of the query along with any attached controls.
![Importing Discover session with controls into a dashboard](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/images/import-discover-control-dashboard.png)
**Method 2: Adding the Discover visualization** <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Planned</applies-to>
This method allows you to add the visualization of your Discover ES|QL query to any dashboard.
1. Next to the Discover visualization, select `save` **Save visualization**.
   ![Importing Discover visualization with controls into a dashboard](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/images/save-discover-viz-to-dashboard.png)
2. Select the dashboard to add the visualization to. You can choose an existing dashboard or create one.

The selected dashboard opens. It now includes a new panel that shows the visualization imported from Discover. Existing controls from the initial query in Discover are also added. You can find them at the top of the dashboard.

## Configure the controls settings

Several settings apply to all controls that are part of a dashboard.
1. Configure the control settings.
   - <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.2</applies-to> In **Edit** mode, select **Add** > **Controls** > **Settings** in the toolbar.
- <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available from 9.0 to 9.1</applies-to> In **Edit** mode, select **Controls** > **Settings**.
2. On the **Control settings** flyout, configure the following settings:
   - **Label position** — Specify where the control label appears.
- **Filtering** settings:
  - **Apply global filters to controls** — Define whether controls should ignore or apply any filter specified in the main filter bar of the dashboard.
- **Apply global time range to controls** — Define whether controls should ignore or apply the main time range specified for the dashboard. Note that [time slider controls](#add-time-slider-controls) rely on the global time range and don’t work properly when this option is disabled.
- **Selections** settings:
  - **Validate user selections** — When selected, any selected option that results in no data is ignored.
- **Chain controls** — When selected, controls are applied sequentially from left to right, and line by line. Any selected options in one control narrows the available options in the next control.
- **Apply selections automatically** — The dashboard is updated dynamically when options are selected in controls. When this option is disabled, users first need to **Apply** their control selection before they are applied to the dashboard.
- To remove all controls from the dashboard, select **Delete all**.
3. Select **Save and close** to apply the changes.


## Edit Options list and Range slider control settings

Change the settings for Options list and Range slider controls.
1. Hover over the control you want to edit, then select ![The Edit control icon that opens the Edit control flyout](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/images/kibana-dashboard_controlsEditControl_8.3.0.png).
2. In the **Edit control** flyout, change the options, then select **Save and close**.


## Delete controls

Delete controls from your dashboard.
1. Hover over the control you want to delete, then select ![The Remove control icon that removes the control from the dashboard](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2455/explore-analyze/images/kibana-dashboard_controlsRemoveControl_8.3.0.png).
2. In the **Delete control?** window, select **Delete**.

<note>
  If you delete an variable control that's used in an ES|QL visualization, the visualization will break. You must edit the visualization query and remove or update the control reference.
</note>