Highlight current month in yearly view

[tatlar]

I need to highlight the current month (background or overlay or additional column in gray) in a view that shows data for a whole year. Example attached below (assumes the current month is 3/1/2016):

Example graph with highlight in gray

Is this possible? The highlighted month would obviously change to be 2/1/2016 if the chart was viewed in February 2016, and 4/1/2016 if the chart was viewed in April 2016.

Thanks in advance!

[djnww]

Hi @tatlar,

I don't think it's possible given the existing charts that are available. Surely staff can hover their mouse pointer over the month they are interested in ?

The only workaround solution that I can think of is to have 2 charts, with the current month overlaid on top of the yearly chart.

UPDATE:

SORRY... tried and it doesn't work. I thought I could get the front graph to show its relative position. But it just centres the current month in the middle of the chart... my bad

Cheers,

Daniel

[tatlar]

Thanks for the comment @djnww. Looks like @greggyb has a solution that may work - I will implement and update the thread. Appreciate the help!

[greggyb · Accepted solution]

A bit hacky, but you could just make a measure that only displays in the current month, then put that measure on a combo chart with your actual series.

The measure you'd need looks like this:

CurrentMonth = 
IF(
	HASONEVALUE( 'Date'[YearMonth] )
	,IF(
		VALUES( 'Date'[YearMonth] ) 
			= LOOKUPVALUE(
				'Date'[YearMonth]
				,'Date'[Date]
				,TODAY()
			)
		,<expression for height>
	)
)

You could just put 1 as your height expression and use two y axes, but you'll end up with an extra axis on one side ranging from 0 to 1. If you want to plot them on the same y axis, then you'd need to define something that's larger than the values in your line series. I used something like the following:

CurrentMonth = 
IF(
	HASONEVALUE( 'Date'[YearMonth] )
	,IF(
		VALUES( 'Date'[YearMonth] ) 
			= LOOKUPVALUE(
				'Date'[YearMonth]
				,'Date'[Date]
				,TODAY()
			)
		,MAXX(
			ALL( 'Date'[YearMonth] )
			,CALCULATE( SUM( FakeData[Value] ) )
		) * 1.25
	)
)

The only difference is the MAXX() in there. It finds the largest monthly value of FakeData[Value] and then multiplies it by 1.25 This guarantees it's larger than my line series (which is just SUM( FakeData[Value] )), but still proportional, allowing it to fit well on the same y axis.

The measure is fairly simple. First we check if there's exactly one value for [YearMonth] in context (necessary for the next IF() function).

Then we evaluate VALUES( 'Date'[YearMonth] ) - this gives us all distinct values of that field in context, if there's only 1, then it is cast as a scalar value implicitly, allowing us to compare with the result of LOOKUPVALUE() for equality.

LOOKUPVALUE() just returns the value of [YearMonth] where [Date] = TODAY(). If the [YearMonth] in context is the same as today's, we return the MAXX() or whatever other expression you used there. If not, we return blank. If there's more than one [YearMonth] in context (like in a subtotal of any sort), the measure returns blank.

Here's a sample PBI report where I've implemented this:

[tatlar]

Thanks @greggyb! I will look into that - although hacky looks like it solves the problem! Much obliged.