A Data Analyst has created a custom filter called branch_region on a Snowflake dashboard.

In Snowsight, Snowflake's modern web interface, interactivity is driven by Dashboard Filters. When an analyst defines a filter, it serves as a dynamic variable that users can manipulate to update visualizations. To incorporate these filters into the SQL logic of a dashboard tile, Snowflake utilizes the colon prefix (:) syntax.

Referencing the filter as :branch_region tells the Snowflake query engine to replace that placeholder with the value(s) selected in the dashboard UI at runtime. This is consistent with how other system filters, such as :daterange, are implemented to ensure all tiles on a dashboard remain synchronized. Using this syntax allows the same query to be repurposed for different regions without manual code changes, significantly reducing the maintenance burden for the Data Analyst.