Conditional Formatting on Y-Axis Not Responding to Slicer Selection

[yerketai]

Hello Microsoft Support Team,
I'm trying to apply conditional formatting to the Y-axis labels of a clustered bar chart in Power BI using a DAX measure like this:
ColorMeasure =
VAR _selected = SELECTEDVALUE('ParameterTable'[Parameter])
RETURN
IF(
SELECTEDVALUE('MainTable'[Category]) = _selected,
"#505050",
"#FFFFFF"
)
The chart uses MainTable[Category] on the Y-axis. A slicer uses ParameterTable[Parameter]. These tables are not related because I want all categories visible, but only the selected one to appear gray.
The issue is that the measure doesn't respond to slicer selection. It seems Power BI needs a relationship for the slicer to influence the measure, even though I only want to reference the selected value.
Can conditional formatting of axis labels respond to slicers without relationships? If not, is there a workaround like TREATAS? Is this a known limitation or by design?
Thanks for your help.

[FarhanJeelani]

Hi @yerketai ,
No, axis label formatting won’t respond to a slicer from a disconnected table. DAX in conditional formatting uses the visual’s filter context, which isn’t activated without a relationship.

Workarounds:
Add a bridge table that links ParameterTable[Parameter] to MainTable category keys, then use TREATAS/RELATE to push the slicer filter to the axis context.

Create a measure that propagates the selected parameter via that bridge so the axis colors update.

In short: either create a bridge table (or proper relationship) or use TREATAS to propagate the slicer filter; this is a known limitation of axis formatting without relationships.

A compact example skeleton (adjust to your schema):

Bridge table:

ParameterCategoryBridge(Parameter, CategoryKey)

Relationships:

ParameterTable[Parameter] 1..* to ParameterCategoryBridge[Parameter] (or many-to-one as appropriate)
ParameterCategoryBridge[CategoryKey] 1..1 to MainTable[CategoryKey]

Measure:

ColorMeasure = VAR _selected = SELECTEDVALUE( ParameterTable[Parameter] ) VAR _isGray = CALCULATE( IF( ISBLANK(_selected), 0, 1 ), TREATAS( VALUES( ParameterTable[Parameter] ), ParameterCategoryBridge[Parameter] ), TREATAS( VALUES( MainTable[CategoryKey] ), ParameterCategoryBridge[CategoryKey] ) ) RETURN IF( _isGray = 1, "#505050", "#FFFFFF" )

Please mark this post as solution if it helps you. Appreciate Kudos.

[yerketai]

thank you but both approaches did not work
could you please recheck and send me the testing dashboard with working logic