Power BI Data Labels
Conditional Formatting
A new feature is introduced in the August 2022 Power BI update: conditional formatting for data labels in visualizations. The formatting can be done on all measures simultaneously and individually.
I’ve used conditional formatting on the “Sales TY” measure to show you an example of the functionality. The color is based on the difference in sales from last year.
The configuration:
If sales are much lower than last year, they should be read.
The data label should be orange if sales are slightly lower or higher than the previous year.
If sales are above, they should be green.
Why should you use conditional formatting?
You could use this feature to show an anomaly comparing different years. For example: if you expect to sell 1800 pineapples in September based on last year, but this year you only sell 1400, you want this to be easily visible since it is a big difference from what you expect.
In the screenshot, I provide a few examples of visualizations where I’ve used the data label conditional formatting feature.
You can use data labels in a line chart and bar charts, area charts, or clustered column charts.
Try conditional formatting for data labels yourself!
You can find the option for conditional formatting in the Formatting Pane in Power BI. After opening it, go to Data Labels -> Value and Color. You can see the fx in my example, which means a conditional formatting rule has been applied.
I’ve chosen to change the “Sales TY” measure and based the coloring on a measure of the difference compared to the previous year.
Screenshot of the conditional formatting configuration from the example
