Overview
Template variables allow you to dynamically filter or group widgets in a dashboard. You can build saved views from your template variable selections to organize and navigate your visualizations through the dropdown selections.
A template variable is defined by:
- Tag or Attribute:
- Name: A unique name for the template variable that appears in queries on the dashboard. Template variables are automatically named after the selected tag or attribute.
- Default Value: The tag or attribute value that appears automatically when the dashboard is loaded. Defaults to
*. - Available Values: The tag or attribute values available for selection in the dropdown menu. Defaults to
(all). The list of available values always includes *, which queries all values of the tag or attribute.
Template variable values
Template variable values (values available using the template variable dropdown menus) are populated based on the sources that widgets in the dashboard are using. For example, if your dashboard has widgets querying logs, only values from logs are shown. If your dashboard has widgets querying logs, metrics, and RUM, values from logs, metrics, and RUM are shown.
For most sources, template variable values are relevant to your dashboard’s global time frame. For example:
- If your dashboard’s time frame is set to the last 15 minutes, only template variable values from the last 15 minutes are shown.
- If your dashboard time frame is set to last August 15th from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m., only values from that timeframe are shown.
| Data Source | Data query period |
|---|
| Metrics | Now - 48 hours |
| Cloud cost | Now - 48 hours |
| All other sources | Dashboard time frame |
Note: If you do not see the tag or attribute you’re looking for, it may be because that data hasn’t been reported to Datadog recently. In addition, all data queried for template variables are subject to the data retention policy. For more information, see Historical Data.
Dashboard layout
To prevent variables from crowding the header, the dashboard displays a small subset. You can click on the + N button to see the additional N variables present on your dashboard.
If you need to see all variables at once as you scroll, click Expand template variables.
Add a template variable
To add a template variable in a dashboard:
- Click Add Variable (or + if there are existing template variables)
- Select from a list of recommended template variables or search for the specific tag you have in mind.
- Select the widgets to apply this template variable to.
- Click Save.
When the template variable side panel is open, you can:
- Apply (or remove) this variable to selected widgets (note the Select All or Deselect All options)
- Switch between filtering and grouping
- Change the display name of the variable (displayed in the header and widget query)
- Select a default dropdown value
- Preview the dropdown values and further configure them with a search query
Team filter
A template variable whose tag key is team renders as the team filter rather than as a plain tag value selector. This applies to both dashboards and notebooks.
The team filter adds:
- One list covering both the Datadog Teams in your organization and
team tag values that have no matching team. - Hierarchy-aware selection. Selecting a team also selects the teams beneath it. Shift+click a team to select it without its subteams, or its subteams without the team.
- Search across both team handles and team display names.
Hierarchy-aware selection appears only when the variable’s tag key is team. A variable built on any other tag key renders as a plain tag value selector with no notion of team hierarchy. If the team variable on one dashboard offers hierarchy and the one on another dashboard does not, compare the tag key behind each variable.
For a team variable, the filter lists every team in your organization. Values set in Available Values are added to that list rather than restricting it.
Use the team filter with a different tag key
Some data records team ownership under a tag key other than team, such as team_attribution, attributes.team, or usr.team. A template variable defined on one of those keys gives you a flat list of tag strings and no hierarchy.
To get hierarchy-aware team selection for that data, define the template variable on the team tag key and reference the selected value with $team.value in each widget query. The variable’s tag key determines the selector you get; the tag key a widget query filters on is separate and does not have to match.
- Add a template variable with the tag key
team. It renders as the team filter. - In each widget query, filter on the tag key your data uses, and put
$team.value where the value goes.
The same substitution works for any tag key. Write the query as you normally would, then replace the team handle with $team.value:
| Widget | Query with a team handle | Query with $team.value |
|---|
Case Management (attributes.team) | attributes.team:payments-platform | attributes.team:$team.value |
Cloud Cost (team_attribution) | sum:all.cost{team_attribution:payments-platform} | sum:all.cost{team_attribution:$team.value} |
How selections resolve
$team.value expands to every selected team handle, combined with OR, using the tag key you wrote in the query. Selecting the teams payments-platform and payments-fraud resolves the two examples above to:
attributes.team:(payments-platform OR payments-fraud)
sum:all.cost{team_attribution:payments-platform OR team_attribution:payments-fraud}
Selecting a parent team expands to the parent and every team beneath it, each as its own handle. A hierarchy selection therefore filters your data on the same set of handles as it would a team-tagged widget. Selecting a team without its subteams, or its subteams without the team, expands the same way. Only the handles in that selection are included.
The expansion is a list of team handles. For a widget to return results, your data must be tagged with those handles.
Edit a template variable
- Hover over the template variable on the dashboard header and click Edit. The template variable side panel appears.
- Use the options in the panel to customize the variable or apply the variable to more widgets.
Saved views
Create
- Click on the Saved Views dropdown menu to the left of the template variables in your dashboard. When you update a template variable value, the value does not automatically save to a view.
- To save your current template variables’ values in a view, select Save selections as view from the Saved Views dropdown menu.
- Enter a unique name for the view with an optional description.
- Click Save.
Your saved view appears in the dropdown menu. Click on the view to retrieve your previously saved template variable values.
Delete
- Click on the saved views dropdown menu and hover over the desired saved view.
- Click Delete View.
Modify
The Default view can only be edited by changing the default values of the template variables. To edit the Default View:
- Hover over the templates.
- Click Edit when the button appears.
- Click Done to save.
To modify template variables values for other saved views:
- Select the desired saved view from the dropdown menu.
- Edit the template variables to have the new desired models.
- Open the dropdown menu again.
- Click Save Changes.
To edit the title and description:
- Hover over the desired saved view from the dropdown menu.
- Click Edit.
- Modify the title or description.
- Click Save.
Usage
Template variables are used in widgets and event overlays.
Logs, APM, and RUM queries
Template variables work with log, APM, and RUM widgets because they share the same tags. You can define log, APM, and RUM template variables based on facets. These variables start with @, for example: @http.status_code.
On log, APM, and RUM widgets, you can use wildcards in the middle of a value (for example, eng*@example.com) or use multiple wildcards in a value (for example, *prod*).
Note: Using Add to all for this type of template variable adds the variable to all log, APM, and RUM widgets.
When creating or editing a widget, existing filter template variables display as options in the from field, and existing group by template variables display as options following the by field. For example, if you configure the environment template variable, the $environment option is available as a dynamic variable in the widget.
Selecting production for the environment value dynamically scopes widgets with the $environment variable to the production environment.
When you change the value of a template variable, the dashboard URL updates to reflect the template variable value with the format &tpl_var_<TEMPLATE_VARIABLE_NAME>=<TEMPLATE_VARIABLE_VALUE>. For example, a dashboard with the template variable $env changed to prod would have the URL parameter &tpl_var_env=prod.
To include the value in the query, append it with the syntax $<TEMPLATE_VARIABLE_NAME>.value. For example, with a template variable named service, use env:staging-$service.value.
Hover over the template variable fields to see at a quick glance, the widgets that use that variable highlighted on the dashboard.
Associated template variables
When selecting a template variable value, associated values are displayed at the top of the selector. Associated values are calculated from other template variable values selected on the page, and seamlessly identify the related values without any configuration.
Text
For text-based widgets, you can display a template variable’s tag/attribute and value with $<TEMPLATE_VARIABLE_NAME>, its key with $<TEMPLATE_VARIABLE_NAME>.key, or its value with $<TEMPLATE_VARIABLE_NAME>.value. This can come after any non-alphanumeric character, and can be followed by whitespace or any of the following characters: #, $, %, =, ;, ", (, ), [, ], {, }, ^, *, +, |, and ?.
Note: The wildcard syntax is not supported following a template variable.
For example, with a template variable named env, with tag/attribute environment, and with a selected value of dev:
$env displays environment:dev$env.key displays environment$env.value displays dev$env* looks for the exact value dev* NOT dev{dynamic-wildcard-value}
Events overlay
Use the events overlay search with template variables to find events that share certain tags with the metrics in your dashboard. The event overlay search is applied through an individual graph.
Values from dashboard template variables can be directly captured by using the $<TEMPLATE_VARIABLE_KEY>.value syntax in the event search field.
Note: Dashboard template variables must be metric tags, not event tags.
Dashboard
From your dashboard, search events with template variables using the format:
<TAG_KEY>:$<TEMPLATE_VARIABLE_NAME>.value
For example, searching for region:$region.value with a value of us-east1 for the region template variable displays events tagged with region:us-east1. Additionally, the timing of the events are marked by pink bars in the graphs.
Use commas to search using multiple template variables, for example: role:$role.value,env:$env.value
Note: Once you press enter to search, $region.value updates to the value in the template variable dropdown menu.
From your widgets, overlay the timing of the events using template variables with the format:
$<TEMPLATE_VARIABLE_NAME>
For example, enter $region in the event overlays search box. This searches for events with the value in the region template variable dropdown menu.
Further Reading
Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:
