Different Types of Charts in Power BI And How To Use Them
Jennifer Balsom
Director of Training and Development at NetCom Learning | Specialized in Security & Network (Microsoft Security, Cloud Security, AWS Security, CISCO, Cybersecurity, CompTIA, EC-Council & ISC2)
Power BI provides an easy way of creating impressive, coordinated reports from raw data. This business analytics service allows you to work and handle large volumes of data and speed up your calculations. It helps you make well-informed, versed business decisions independent of DB administrators or tech staff.
?Along with easy-to-share reports, you get access to create measures using the robust DAX language. Here, the gateways connect your dashboard with multiple data sources like Analytical Services SQL Server databases.?
?A primary and one of the main features of Power BI is the visualization of data. It draws a better understanding of data by visually representing and communicating your data among your teams.
We will now discuss the types of charts commonly used in Power BI Desktop and Power BI service:
1.???Column and Bar Chart
Column and Bar Charts are some of the most common data visualization methods. These visuals use rectangular bars proportional to the data values used in one or more categories. Mainly used among Power BI Developers across different categories to show trends, differences, highs & lows, column charts also differentiate data by forming a few clusters.
?2.?????????????Doughnut Chart
The Doughnut Chart helps you see the whole data preposition in two parts. It is used to display different categories. These graphs differ from bar and line graphs as they cannot display the changes using bar graphs or line charts.
3.?????????????Pie Chart
A pie chart visual represents how several numbers contribute to a total. It has a center filled with different parts of data, unlike Doughnut Charts. These pieces are known as slices, and they're utilized to figure out how one dimension compares to the other members of the same dimension.
?Pie charts ideally have 5-6 slices. Otherwise, it impacts reading in fast-paced environments like education, business, and journalism.
4.?????????????Gauge Chart
A gauge chart depicts the current status of a KPI (such as revenue, sales, and profits) or the health of a specific measure. It is also called a dial chart or a speedometer, using a needle to read data and display the information on a dial. It compares variable values using numerous needles on the same or distinct gauges. The value inside the arc represents the progress value. Power BI uniformly distributes all available deals along the arc from the smallest (left-most value) to the most significant (right-most value).
5.?????????????Line Chart
Line charts represent a sequence of data points connected by a straight line. Each point represents a data value in the specified category, showing the exact plotted data value. It is widely used to measure patterns across time, such as years, months, and dates.
?It shows a trend by giving the reader an impression of the moving value across the time period. A Power BI line chart may have one or more dimensions. A single line is displayed along the time axis when a single dimension is used. However, when a second dimension is used, a line for every second dimension value is plotted on the graph.
6.?????????????Area Chart
An area chart is somewhat similar to a line chart; instead, it’s an extension. It displays trends and attracts the users' attention to know the total changes across all trends. This is a simple graph for comparing more than two quantities and depicts numerical data and the amount of change over time.
?The line and the region beneath it are color-coded to make it easy for the reader to compare the different dimension members. An area chart might have one or two dimensions.
7.?????????????Combination Chart
As the name suggests, a line and bar chart combination makes data comparison easier. It compares multiple measures and values in a single visualization to have more than one Y-axis. Like a stacked bar chart, we can construct a stacked combination chart by adding a second dimension that sub-categorizes the first dimension.
Combo charts are a great choice when:
·???????Column and line charts share the same X-axis.
·???????You are preserving canvas space.
·???????Two measures relate in a single picture.
·???????One measure is defined by the other.
8.?????????????Funnel Chart
Funnels show us different stages, for example, of a sales process. It starts with a lead and works its way down to transforming them into a customer. These charts break down into consecutive components to describe the flow as you move down the funnel.?
?It shows how data travels from one phase to the next. The entire data set gets treated as 100 percent in the funnel chart, and numerical data propositions represent each phase.
?A funnel chart can help you exhibit:
·???????Ad Campaigns
·???????Email campaigns
·???????Sales Process
·???????Order Completion
Guide to Use The Charts
We talked about the various kinds of visualization charts typically used in the Power BI platform and using them is not a big task as it may seem. Let’s discuss how you can apply these to present your data successfully.
First, you can add them from the right-side pane. It is set to table type visualization as its default.
Then you can change it to a column chart or any other chart of your preference.?
Or, you can drag the fields you want to select from the right side to the value axis under Visualization.
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