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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
6 years ago
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Highlight Area in Data Visualization for Emphasis - Please Help!

In the simple visualization below, I am hoping to emphasize a portion of the timeline, the last 3 months for instance, to emphasize a specific time period of focus, but also connecting the relevancy to earlier months.

 

So for instance, October through June may be a subtle color, while July - September would be emphasized with an alternative (brighter) color.

 

Anybody have a recommendation how to do this from a technique perspective?  I am looking for a solution that can create the contrasting colors as the data changes...i.e. Highlight the last 3 mos, as opposed to highlight Jul, Aug, Sept if a conditional formatting is the recommended approach.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

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  • sturlaws's avatar
    sturlaws
    6 years ago

    Hi Anonymous ,

     

    one approach would be to create to different measures and have them both in the same chart. 

     

    As the DATEADD-function only accepts columns as input, I prefer to create a year-month number in my date table like this:

    YearMonthNumber =
 ( YEAR ( Date[Date] ) - 2016 ) * 12
    + MONTH ( Date[Date] )

     

    Your last 3 months-measure would when then look like this

    Last 3 months =
VAR currentYearMontNumber =
    ( YEAR ( TODAY () ) - 2016 ) * 12
        + MONTH ( TODAY () )
RETURN
    CALCULATE (
        SUM ( 'Sales table'[Sales] );
        FILTER ( 'Date'; 'Date'[YearMonthNumber] > currentYearMontNumber - 3 )
    )

     

    and the other months like this:

    Other months = 
VAR currentYearMontNumber =
    ( YEAR ( TODAY () ) - 2016 ) * 12
        + MONTH ( TODAY () )
RETURN
    CALCULATE (
        SUM ( 'Sales table'[Sales] );
        FILTER ( 'Date'; 'Date'[YearMonthNumber] <= currentYearMontNumber - 3 )
    )

     

    Then add both measures to a chart and it will  look somethink like this

     

    example 

     

    Cheers,
    Sturla


    If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution. Kudos are nice too.

1 Reply

  • sturlaws's avatar
    sturlaws
    Resident Rockstar
    6 years ago

    Hi Anonymous ,

     

    one approach would be to create to different measures and have them both in the same chart. 

     

    As the DATEADD-function only accepts columns as input, I prefer to create a year-month number in my date table like this:

    YearMonthNumber =
 ( YEAR ( Date[Date] ) - 2016 ) * 12
    + MONTH ( Date[Date] )

     

    Your last 3 months-measure would when then look like this

    Last 3 months =
VAR currentYearMontNumber =
    ( YEAR ( TODAY () ) - 2016 ) * 12
        + MONTH ( TODAY () )
RETURN
    CALCULATE (
        SUM ( 'Sales table'[Sales] );
        FILTER ( 'Date'; 'Date'[YearMonthNumber] > currentYearMontNumber - 3 )
    )

     

    and the other months like this:

    Other months = 
VAR currentYearMontNumber =
    ( YEAR ( TODAY () ) - 2016 ) * 12
        + MONTH ( TODAY () )
RETURN
    CALCULATE (
        SUM ( 'Sales table'[Sales] );
        FILTER ( 'Date'; 'Date'[YearMonthNumber] <= currentYearMontNumber - 3 )
    )

     

    Then add both measures to a chart and it will  look somethink like this

     

    example 

     

    Cheers,
    Sturla


    If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution. Kudos are nice too.