How to set a display name to a custom variable in Grafana dashboard?

Question

There is an option to create custom variables and give CSV values for them which appear in the drop-down selection of Grafana Dashboard. These variables become the input to the queries which are templatized. Sometimes, the variable values are not readable but they mean something. Example: If a dashboard is displaying stats of a city then the queries would have a condition like city_id: $city_id where $city_id is replaced by the custom variable which represents the city id 12345. Instead of having to display the id (12345), I want to display the names of the cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, etc

Answer 1

• go to Dashboard -> Settings -> JSON Model
• find templating section and the variables you defined
• modify the text field for the variable whose display name you want to change

Answer 2

This option is not available on the dashboard configuration screen. But, if you see the JSON Model of the dashboard and see the templating section there is a list of options where the variables are defined. It has a text and value field. You can modify the text field to set the display name. Save the changes and refresh your dashboard, the changes will be reflected.