13.2. Bridge Fields: Filtering Multiple Data Sources - Advanced Looker Studio Tutorial

Fooling Looker Studio with Bridge Fields: In this lesson, we'll explore a workaround to overcome Looker Studio's limitation in filtering across different data sources. We'll use a concept called *bridge fields* to achieve this.

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### Examining Fields and Field IDs

First, let's take a closer look at a data source and its fields. Each field has a name, type, default aggregation, and description. You can rename a field without affecting the reports because Looker Studio uses an internal field ID to recognize each field.

For built-in fields within a data source, you cannot see the value of the internal field ID. However, for custom fields you create, you can see and edit the field ID when you initially create the field.

### Creating Bridge Fields

The idea behind bridge fields is to use Looker Studio's field ID functionality to make it believe that a field from one data source is the same as a field in another data source. To do this, you need to create a custom field in each data source with the same field ID.

For example, in a Google Sheet data source, create a new field called "Country-Bridge" and set the field ID to "country_bridge". Use the same values as the "country" field in this new field.

Next, create a similar field in your Google Analytics data source with a different name (e.g., "Country-Bridge_02") but with the same field ID ("country_bridge"). Again, use the same values as the "country" field.

Now, when you apply the bridge field to the dropdown control, both the Google Sheet and Google Analytics data sources will be affected when you filter by country.

### Using Bridge Fields in Real-Life Scenarios

Bridge fields can be helpful when you have campaigns running on different platforms (e.g., Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook Ads) and want to filter data from all sources using a single dropdown menu. It's currently the only way to filter across different data sources in Looker Studio.

*Remember that this is a workaround and might not always work as expected. Always test your reports thoroughly to ensure accuracy.*

[santii]

You have no idea how long I have been struggling with this for, thank you very much. I instantly subscribed because your Looker Studio skills are god-tier.

[NothingMatters]

This is gold, I have been searching for a solution for this for so long! Amazing work

[lollots]

You're that type of people I like to work with. Pushing the envelope, innovative solutions, hacking platforms, neat tricks... Well done

[bommox]

Looking for this everywhere! You saved me ❤

[pracasrv]

This is awesome. I've been breaking my head over this in Looker. Thanks a ton!

[gerarcatsalestraining]

uff.. man.. you took me out of the mud... i was so lost on this... thnks a lot

[Sustainability_Engineered]

Great stuff, this will help us create one report level filter for more intuitive date filters. We've been doing small "buttons" for quarterly and yearly filters (using a bar graph that we make into a clickable button to filter out). We many databases build for various classes or business units in our breweries and this will help us streamline things.

[Jose-gbfg]

Excellent! Precisely what I was looking for! Many thanks!

[kjsvuzq]

Thanks! This is what I was looking for, could not find this. Not with bard or gpt... either.

[evsjnkg]

Dude, what a hack. Amazing! Thanks a bunch.

[mckegler]

Well done! This is a brilliant solution.

[OlivierMoisse]

Hello,
Thanks a lot for this video. I have an issue while using this approach. I have two tables from two different data sources. When I create a control, it works perfectly well on the two tables and filters the value accordingly. When I try a filter action (clicking on a value) in one table it doesn't filter in the other table but it filters the control properly. Is there a way to use this more dynamically, allowing you to filter across data sources by clicking on a value?
Thanks in advance for your help

[simonnewman]

amazing very clever thanks for sharing this

[juaorpo]

This is great info, thanks. However I am find trouble as my report uses 2 blended data sources (as I need to filter by email).
1. If both fields in the 2 blends are named the same, will the filter act over both blends. I am having trouble with this actually. Are blends considered the same "origin"
2. How can we create bridge fields in blends, I dont´see the option as in your video. I can add fields within the charts or in the blend screen but none of this show me the field ID.

Any ideas? It is great your video anyway, hoping I can use it with blended data.

[visata-app]

What if my bridge field is different from what I want to show in the drop down? Is this possible? Example using Spotify: I have a table of songs, but instead of a song control or genre control, I want to have a control of a person's playlists (many to many).

[daanbruijns]

Great tutorials. Thank you so much. I've been applying your knowledge to my own sheets, but I got stuck with my filters.

I have set a filter for specific pages I want to review with ga4 as data source. But when I want to show more than 3 pages I they show all pages from ga4. Do you know how I can see only the pages I want to see?

[eArminCom]

How we can do calculation between fields from different sources without blending them? E.g., I have a "sales" column in source A and a "Total" column in source B, and I'd like to add a "Remaining" column to my reporting table, so by filtering each product which has the "same filed ID" on both sources, I'd like to see the amount left in the inventory. Thanks

[jtiindl]

Hi Sir, i want to make a report for a online store. Here i want to show month wise sells for Individual customer purchased the product. So need to make a report Customer wise product purchased and total sells happened for the individual product in looker studio.Any guidance on this.Which Chart also i can use to show total sells happened by product category wise by individual customer purchased. Please guide me. I need help urgently on looker studio