Cascading Filter Not Grouping String Values in Customer_Account Table

JuanSebastC · 9 hours ago

Hi everyone,
I'm currently working on a cascading filter for the customer_account table, specifically filtering by the country field. The issue I'm facing is that although the country field is a string and many records share the same value (e.g., "Colombia"), the filter is returning all 1390 records individually instead of grouping them by country name.
So instead of showing one "Colombia" option, it shows hundreds of "Colombia" entries separately in the dropdown.
Has anyone encountered this behavior before? Is there a recommended way to group string values in a cascading filter so that each country appears only once?
Any guidance or workaround would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.

Nawal Singh · 9 hours ago

Hi @JuanSebastC ,

As per my knowledge Interactive Filters do not natively support showing unique/distinct values for string fields (or any non-reference fields) out of the box.

If you found my response helpful, please mark it as helpful and accept it as the solution.
Thank you
Nawal Singh

Connectmustaq · 8 hours ago

Hi @JuanSebastC ,

This behavior—where the cascading filter dropdown shows "Colombia" multiple times instead of grouping by unique country values—is a known issue when filtering on a string field in ServiceNow. By default, a reference or dropdown that points directly to a table field will list each record matching the filter, not group by the field's value, so repeated values appear separately.

Why Duplicates Occur:-

String fields (like country) are not reference fields and are not enforced as unique, so each record is displayed as a separate selection, even if the underlying value is the same.
The dropdown/filter is populated by retrieving the field value for each record returned by the filter, so you see "Colombia" for every record with that value

Recommended Solutions and Workarounds:-

1. Lookup Select Box with Unique Values

2. GlideAggregate for Unique Values (Scripted)

3. Advanced Reference Qualifier or Script Include (Form Fields)

4. Normalize Data: Use a Country Table

Using a Lookup Select Box with unique values, a Glide Aggregate script, or a reference to a normalized "Country" table are the most recommended solutions for eliminating duplicate entries in cascading filters for string fields in ServiceNow

Cascading Filter Not Grouping String Values in Customer_Account Table

String fields (like country) are not reference fields and are not enforced as unique, so each record is displayed as a separate selection, even if the underlying value is the same.

The dropdown/filter is populated by retrieving the field value for each record returned by the filter, so you see "Colombia" for every record with that value

1. Lookup Select Box with Unique Values

2. GlideAggregate for Unique Values (Scripted)

3. Advanced Reference Qualifier or Script Include (Form Fields)

4. Normalize Data: Use a Country Table

Using a Lookup Select Box with unique values, a Glide Aggregate script, or a reference to a normalized "Country" table are the most recommended solutions for eliminating duplicate entries in cascading filters for string fields in ServiceNow

If it is helpful, please hit the thumbs button and accept the correct solution by referring to this solution in the future it will be helpful to them.

Thanks & Regards,

Mohammed Mustaq Shaik

Cascading Filter Not Grouping String Values in Customer_Account Table

String fields (like country) are not reference fields and are not enforced as unique, so each record is displayed as a separate selection, even if the underlying value is the same.​

The dropdown/filter is populated by retrieving the field value for each record returned by the filter, so you see "Colombia" for every record with that value

1. Lookup Select Box with Unique Values

2. GlideAggregate for Unique Values (Scripted)

3. Advanced Reference Qualifier or Script Include (Form Fields)

4. Normalize Data: Use a Country Table

Using a Lookup Select Box with unique values, a Glide Aggregate script, or a reference to a normalized "Country" table are the most recommended solutions for eliminating duplicate entries in cascading filters for string fields in ServiceNow

If it is helpful, please hit the thumbs button and accept the correct solution by referring to this solution in the future it will be helpful to them.

Thanks & Regards,

Mohammed Mustaq Shaik

String fields (like country) are not reference fields and are not enforced as unique, so each record is displayed as a separate selection, even if the underlying value is the same.