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When To Use A Basic Area Chart

A basic area chart is similar to a line chart but fills the area between the axis and the line with color. This emphasizes the total value over time, such as comparing total profits between years. Basic area charts are best for comparing volume trends over time or individual counts over time. To create one, select the relevant data fields and convert the chart type to a basic area chart in Power BI.

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Sanjay
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9 views

When To Use A Basic Area Chart

A basic area chart is similar to a line chart but fills the area between the axis and the line with color. This emphasizes the total value over time, such as comparing total profits between years. Basic area charts are best for comparing volume trends over time or individual counts over time. To create one, select the relevant data fields and convert the chart type to a basic area chart in Power BI.

Uploaded by

Sanjay
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Basic Area

The basic area chart (aka layered area chart.) is based on the line chart. The
area between axis and line is filled with colors to indicate volume.
Area charts emphasize the magnitude of change over time, and can be used
to draw attention to the total value across a trend. For example, data that
represents profit over time can be plotted in an area chart to emphasize the
total profit.

When to use a basic area chart


Basic area charts are a great choice:

to see and compare the volume trend across time series

for individual series representing a physically countable set

Create a basic area chart


To follow along, sign in to Power BI and select Get Data > Samples >
Retail Analysis Sample.
1.

From the "Retail Analysis Sample" dashboard, select the Total


Stores tile to open the "Retail Analysis Sample" report.

2.

Select Edit Report to open the report in Editing View.

3.

Add a new report page.

4.

Create an area chart that displays this year's sales and last year's sales
by month.
a. From the Fields pane, select Sales > Last Year Sales, and This Year
Sales > Value.

b. Convert the chart to a basic area chart.

c. Select Time > Month to add it to the Axis well.

d. To display the chart by month, select the ellipses (top right corner of the
visual) and choose Sort by month.

Highlighting and cross-filtering


For information about using the Filters pane, see Add a filter to a report.
To select an area, click inside that area or along the top line. Basic area
charts do not cross-filter the other visualizations on the report page.
However, area charts are a target for cross-filtering triggered by other
visualizations on the report page.

Tips and tricks for Basic Area charts

Basic area charts are not effective for comparing the values due to the
occlusion on the layered areas. Power BI uses transparency to indicate the
overlap of areas. However, it only works well with two or three different
areas. When you need to compare trend to more than three measures, try

using line charts. When you need to compare volume to more than three
measures, try using treemap.

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