When you want to first apply a filter and THEN show the Top N or Bottom N elements, which of the following filters would you use?

Question

Options

• AData source Filter
• BExtract Filter
• CContext Filter
• DNone of the these

• A
  2% (1)
• B
  10% (6)
• C
  83% (50)
• D
  5% (3)

Explanation

Context Filters sit above dimension/measure filters in Tableau's filter order of operations, meaning they execute first and create a temporary "context" table. Top N (and Bottom N) filters then run against that reduced dataset - so if you want "Top 5 products within a specific region," making the region filter a Context Filter ensures the Top N calculation only sees that region's data, not the entire data source.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• Data Source Filter (A) is applied early and limits data globally, but it doesn't establish the execution context that Top N filters reference - Top N will still rank against all remaining data.
• Extract Filter (B) runs at extract creation time to reduce the data pulled into the extract; it has no bearing on how Top N filters are calculated at query time.
• "None of these" (D) is wrong because Context Filter is exactly the right tool for this scenario.

Memory tip: Think of a Context Filter as "setting the stage" - it draws the curtain around a subset of data, and every other filter (including Top N) performs on that stage rather than on the full theater.

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