Power Bi Dates in Chart

Question

I am trying to solve this problem, I have a table with company_name , articles and each one of them has a price and amount, with a certain date. So this article could be ordered many times. At the end it looks something like this:

Company     Article     Price   Amount      Date
----------------------------------------------------
  X           A1         10        3      12.03.2015
  Y           B1         20        5      10.01.2014
  Z           A1         30        9      25.12.2014
 ...         ...         ...      ...        ...

The problem that i want to represent that in Power Bi and most of the charts the do take the Sum of the Axises , I want the X to be dates (Without Aggregation) and the Y to be the Prise beside the Article with its size which is the Amount. I would go for the Scatter Chart but I do not want the time line becuase I do need to show the dates on the X. So I thought I could do anything with the database so to add or aggregate anything. But I have no Idea how to do that ....

Answer 1

There is no way in Power BI for a scatter chart to use an attribute like "date" (or "category") on an axis.

A scatter chart in Power BI plots your data against 2 measures (one on each axis). Measures, unlike attributes, are aggregated. This is why, when you put a date on a scatter chart axis, Power BI turns it into a "Count of Date" measure - as that's the only way to aggregate a date. (If date represented a length of time, then you could convert the length into a number and plot using that - but that isn't what you're trying to do.)

Note that when you look at the Wikipedia page for Scatter plots , the examples shown match how Power BI works: 2 variables plotted against each other.

It sounds like what you're looking for is more of a column chart, but instead of columns, you want bubbles of different sizes. Power BI doesn't have anything like this right now. There are a few ideas you could vote for that might be relevant to what you're trying to accomplish:

1. Allow nonaggregrated data in Scatter Charts
2. Allow For Time-Series Data to Be Displayed on a Scatter Plot
3. XY scatter chart would be a great addition. X axis that doesn't have to be an aggregate

Unfortunately, I don't have a good alternative suggestion for what you want to do using Power BI as it is today. I would recommend thinking about exactly what you're trying to show. Sometimes putting too much data on one chart makes the chart harder to understand. Column charts are boring, but they are effective. Power BI supports cross-filtering, slicers, legends & drill-downs which, with some interactivity, can allow for a lot of information to be gleaned from a single chart.

Ignore my American date formats. While I can't chart Amount, Company, Article, Date & Price all in one chart, I can do 2 charts that cross-filter each other. Alternatively, I can do a drill-down from company to article to date. Power BI has a lot of options, depending on what information you want people to take away from your charts.

Another thing to note is that Power BI is not a graphing tool (like Excel, for example). Power BI is geared towards aggregating data and providing insights based on those aggregations. If your requirements involve no aggregation, but rather plotting points directly onto a chart, it's good to consider whether Power BI is the best tool.

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but thought an answer would be more helpful than none. A picture of your desired output would have helped a lot too.