Advanced Lookup guide and FAQ

Advanced Lookup lets report users paste one or more lookup rows, apply a native Power BI tuple filter, and review the result directly on the report canvas. The results table shows matched rows, unmatched lookup values, match counts, and related result-column values. The same table can also be downloaded as CSV.

Multiple-column lookup: Advanced Lookup supports one to five lookup columns. Each pasted row is treated as one tuple across those fields, so the filter can match combinations such as X/Y coordinates or a document title plus revision.

Unmatched input visibility: Standard filters usually ignore values that do not exist in the source data. Advanced Lookup keeps every input row visible in the results table, including lookup values that return no matches.

Fallback filter behavior: The visual can apply a fallback filter when no user-entered lookup filter is active. This helps prevent other report visuals from showing all data when the intended empty state is blank or restricted.

Awareness of other filters: The fallback filter can also respect whether other report filters or slicers are already active, so it only fills the gap when there is no active filtering context.

Yes. The visual supports one to five lookup columns. Each input row is split into columns using the configured delimiter, then matched as a tuple across the lookup fields. This is useful when a single value is not enough to identify the record, such as finding a value by coordinate pair or finding an ID from a title and revision.

Arrange pasted columns in the same order as the bound lookup fields and separate them using the delimiter configured in the visual. Each line represents one lookup tuple. Review whitespace, number formatting, dates, and data types when a value does not match as expected.

An unmatched row means the pasted lookup value or tuple did not return a matching row in the current report context. This can happen when the value does not exist in the source data, when another report filter excludes it, or when the pasted row does not match the configured delimiter or data type.

Advanced Lookup shows unmatched rows intentionally, so users can see which requested lookup values were not found instead of having those values silently skipped.

When enabled, the fallback filter is applied when the visual is cleared. It can also be applied when the report first loads and there are no active host filters. This keeps the report from falling back to Power BI's default behavior of showing all data when no filter is active.

This is useful for pages where the desired empty state is blank, limited, or intentionally scoped until the user enters lookup values.

Filter detection checks whether other supported report filters or slicers already provide an active filtering context. When configured, the fallback fills the gap only when no qualifying filter is active, reducing the risk of replacing an intentional report selection.

Power BI's native Export Data exports rows that exist in the underlying data result. Advanced Lookup's Download CSV exports the visual's results table, including every pasted input row, match counts, result values, and unmatched rows.

Use Download CSV when the important output is the lookup request itself, including which requested values did not return a match.

Power BI can internally remove duplicate rows and return only unique combinations of the columns assigned to the visual. The Count column therefore reflects the rows delivered to Advanced Lookup and may not equal the true number of underlying source rows. Include a field that preserves the required data grain, or use an appropriate model measure when an exact underlying count is required.

The free version works as a single-column text filter. Paid licensing unlocks additional features including multi-column lookup, results-table display, fallback filtering, filter detection, and CSV export.

No. Advanced Lookup does not store lookup input, report data, or results-table output on developer-controlled services. Processing happens inside the user's Power BI visual session, and the visual uses Power BI host APIs to apply filters within the report context. Microsoft Power BI services may be used for hosting, licensing, persistence, filtering, and platform integration. See the privacy policy for details.