"Both" vs "Single" CrossFilter Direction?

[Jolyon]

Hi everyone,

could someone explain the difference between CrossFilter Direction "Both" and "Single"?

as I have understood, we mostly use "both"?

thanks a lot!

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

From: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-desktop-create-and-manage-relationships/

Both - This is the most common, default direction. This means for filtering purposes, both tables are treated as if they're a single table.  This works well with a single table that has a number of lookup tables that surround it.  An example is a Sales actuals table with a lookup table for department.  This is often called a Star schema configuration (a central table with several Lookup tables.)  However, if you have two or more tables that also have lookup tables (with some in common) then you wouldn't want to use the Both setting.  To continue the previous example, in this case, you also have a budget sales table that records target budget for each department.  And, the department table is connected to both the sales and the budget table.  Avoid the Both setting for this kind of configuration.

Single - This means that filtering choices in connected tables work on the table where values are being aggregated. If you import a Power Pivot in Excel 2013 or earlier data model, all relationships will have a single direction. 

See the Understanding advanced options section later in this article for more details about when to change cross filter direction.