Power BI has a LOT of chart types. More than 30 of them. So, picking the correct chart for a data analysis situation is hard. Here is a picture of a frustrated Power BI developer trying to figure out the right chart for her data analysis.
In this article, let me explain when & how to use these Power BI charts along with my top tips to make them.
The Power BI Visualization (Charting) Options
Here are the 30+ charting options in Power BI (as of July 2023). In this article, I am going to cover a majority of them.
We can categorize these charts into below groups.
- Bar / Column Charts 📊
- Line & Area Charts 📈
- Pie & Donut Charts 🍩
- Card Visuals 💳
- Tables & Matrices 📰
- Scatter (XY) plots
- Maps 🗺
- Everything Else
Let’s understand when & how to use these charts now.
Bar & Column Charts in Power BI
When: Use them to compare things
Examples
Top Tips
- Use the “Legend” option to split the chart
- If you put more then one field in the “axis”, you can drilldown on the charts.
- You can also split the chart into many using the “small multiple” option. See this video to learn more.
- When using “time” or “date” axis, try the column charts instead of bar charts.
Line & Area Charts in Power BI
When: Use them to see the trends
Examples
Top Tips
- Convert line to “stepped” line chart by enabling the “stepped” option in formats.
- Enable markers to improve the line chart readability.
- When you have a line chart with date axis, you can use the “analytics” options to introduce forecast or trend lines.
- Don’t make line chart with “things” on axis. They are meaningless (most of the time).
Pie & Donut Charts
When: To understand the full picture & contribution
Examples
Top Tips
- Always customize the labels and legend to get best look for your pies (or donuts)
- Avoid making too many slices. No one likes a tiny slice of pie.
Card Visuals
When: To share single numbers, KPIs & messages
Examples
Top Tips
- Add context to your cards whenever possible. This is a powerful way to engage your audience. Read this article for more.
- Power BI recently introduced a “NEW Card” visual. Give it a try. It lets you build cards with more formatting options and it is faster than regular cards.
Table & Matrix Visuals in Power BI
When: To show details
Examples
Top Tips
- Adjust row padding on tables & matrices to make them look easy on eyes.
- Add conditional formatting to one or two fields to elevate the data.
- Apply correct sort order on your tables. If you hold SHIFT while sorting the tables, you can sort on multiple columns!
- When you have lots of data, Filter your tables down to just important points.
Power BI Maps
When: To explain geographical data
Examples
Top Tips
- Power BI has a lot of map visuals. Try them all to see which one gives you best fit for your data. My favorite is the new Azure Map Visual. Learn more about it here.
- While maps are useful, I find them clunky. So try tables or other charts from time to time.
- Do not overlay useless information like traffic on to maps. Keep them light so the focus can be on the data.
Scatter (XY) Plot in Power BI
When: To explain 2 dimensions in one picture & to explore relationships
Examples
Top Tips
- XY plots are great for exploring relationships. But remember the golden rule – Correlation is not same as causation.
- If you have a Date dimension, use it on the “Play Axis” option to make a cool animated XY graph in Power BI.
Waterfall Chart
When: To explain how things have changed from one point / place to another.
Examples
Top Tips
- Use the “explain” feature of Power BI to auto-generate useful waterfall graphs for you.
Don't forget
Don’t forget title, sub-title, legend, labels & tool-tips.
These can make or break a chart.
Examples
Top Tips
- Don’t settle for default titles. Write a great title & subtitle on your charts to elevate them.
- Highlight important data points using conditional formatting feature. Here is a tutorial.
- Set up a tooltip page to further explain your data. Here is a tutorial on Power BI Tooltips.
Everything Else...?
Use with caution.
When in doubt, try them with your audience, get their feedback and proceed as needed.
Demo Workbook with all these charts
Here is a Power BI workbook with all these visuals. Check it out to learn a bit more.
When & How to use Power BI Charts - Video
I made a short & useful video on all of the important chart types in Power BI. Check it out below for some extra tips, pointers and information on when & how to use Power BI visuals.
Watch it below or go to my channel.
More Resources on Power BI
- Course: I run an online Power BI course to make you awesome with it. Check out the program and sign up today to learn Power BI, the right way.
Here are some articles & videos to help you master Power BI:
23 Responses to “Displaying Text Values in Pivot Tables without VBA”
Its possible to display up to 4 text values.
Have a look at the screen shot of an example that I had posted way back at the EHA and figure out how its done !
http://tinypic.com/r/muzywk/6
With Excel 2010 you can use Conditional Formatting to apply custom number formats which can display text. (In older versions you can only modify text color and cell background color, but not number formats.) Using CF allows for an even larger number of different display values.
[...] Display text values in Pivot Tables without VBA [...]
Hey,
Thanks, this helps. But how do you do it for multiple values where there is a huge amount of non repeating text?
@Soumya
The only way to do more than 4 values is to make the Pivot Table manually with formulas, of course then it isn't a Pivot table
You can of course do it with VBA
You may want to have a look at this description of how to do it here: http://www.clearlyandsimply.com/clearly_and_simply/2011/06/emulate-excel-pivot-tables-with-texts-in-the-value-area-using-vba.html
@Soumya
The only way to do more than 4 values is to make the Pivot Table manually with formulas, of course then it isn’t a Pivot table
You can of course do it with VBA
You may want to have a look at this description of how to do it here: http://www.clearlyandsimply.com/clearly_and_simply/2011/06/emulate-excel-pivot-tables-with-texts-in-the-value-area-using-vba.html
[...] Pivot Tables take tables of data and allow the user to summarise and consolidate the data at the same time. This is a great and very fast method of analysis but is restricted to handling mathematical functions on the value field resulting in numerical summaries. – read more [...]
[…] Read more here: Displaying Text Values in Pivot Tables without VBA […]
There is a very good way actually for handling text inside values area.
First you create a special column on the very left side and call it ID, and put unique ID (numbers only), and then create a pivot table with:
Row Labels and Column labels as you like, and in the Values labels use the unique ID number.
Move the unique ID number (copy paste) somewhere to the right and use vlookup to load the data you need using the ID as reference.
It is a bit longer way but for me it works perfectly to combine values as you like in any moment.
hope helps.
Regards,
Jon
Thank you! I finally understand pivot tables thanks to your clear, concise explanations and examples.
Good Day. This is exactly what i have been looking for. However when i try it on my pivot table or even when i try to recreate this exercise using the sample worksheet, i get this error:
"Microsoft Excel cannot use the number format you typed. Try using one of the built-in number formats."
Same thing here, Excel quite did not like the format in my PowerPivot. Any clues as to what may be going on? Thanks.
I have the same thing happening on my end. I'm running a normal pivot table on a .xlsm file.
@Danzi
What format did you use?
can you post the file ?
pls. help in table there is name, pan. amount. i have to make pivot table for example
NAME PAN AMOUNT
MR.X AAAAC1254T 500.00
MR.Y AAABR1258C
MR.A CFVDE2458T
MR.Z AAVCR12548C
MR.X AAAAC1254T
MR.Z AADCD245T
pls. help in table there is name, pan. amount. i have to make pivot table for example
NAME PAN AMOUNT
MR.X AAAAC1254T 500.00
MR.Y AAABR1258C 1000
MR.A CFVDE2458T 2000
MR.Z AAVCR12548C 5451
MR.X AAAAC1254T 45564
MR.Z AADCD245T 4500
how to get pivot tabe so i get PAN no. against Name.
I found an easy way to get text values in pivot table.
I create an other worksheet in wich each cell has a formula that copy the pivot table. The trick is that the formula does a lookup for the numbers in the pivot table.
The formula looks like that:
=IF(ISNUMBER(table!A1);VLOOKUP(table!A1;Code!$A$1:$B$65;2);IF(ISBLANK(table!A1);" ";table!A1))
Code is a worksheet where there is a liste of text /numbers correspondance.
As a bonus The new sheet is easier to format
Additional trick:
In my case, i encoded differents codeid with a power(2, codeId-1) so that summing then is equivalent to concatenate them.
1-A
2-B
4-C
8-D
yields :
5 - AC
14 - BCD
Hi
I want to ask if pivot can display dates in pivot field. As in a column i have customers and in row different items i want to know there last purchase date. anyone help in this??
Hello Guys, Need your help
I am doing some analysis of the cycle time of the product i.e how much time a product takes from manufacturing to the central warehouse.
I have batch numbers for the product and against them i have to pull out the diff. dates
Like the base date is from where the manufacturing start. So i have the batch number,against it's manuf. date. Now i have to pull out the date when it was quality released.
I have the quality released data but the data have duplicates, like i will have two dates or may be three for the same batch. So my main objective is to pull out the date which is latest among them.
BATCH NO. DATE of Mfg. DATE of Quality release
A1 12/4/2014 (HERE I HAVE TO PULL value)
Next Sheet
BATCH NO. DATE of Quality Release
A1 14/5/2014
a2 23/5/2016
A1 12/5/2014
A1 13/6/2014
From this sheet i have to pull up the latest date format of date here is dd/mm/yyy
TIA
[…] needed to present text instead of counts in a pivot table value column. Here is an excellent resource for Excel manipulation, in addition to an overview of pivot […]
This is great thank you.
Wow!!! Excellent!! It helped me a lot.
I am developing training tracking sheet for 200 employees with training completed date. Each employee will be attending 25 courses. How to indicate actual dates in pivot table value field.