PBI Desktop & Service BUG: Icon Rules conditional formatting occasionally displays wrong icon

Hi rmsolfest 

What you’re seeing is a known limitation/bug in Power BI where icon rules can behave incorrectly when a measure returns a value in a filtered context with a single row. This happens because the conditional formatting engine evaluates the measure differently when there’s only one row in the matrix.

Workarounds / Solutions:

1. Wrap your measure in IF(HASONEVALUE(...)) or COALESCE:
   Ensure the measure always returns a numeric value even when a single customer is selected. Example:

IconMeasure = 
IF(
    HASONEVALUE('Customer'[CustomerName]),
    DIVIDE(SUM('Table'[Value]), SUM('Table'[Total])),  -- your existing calculation
    DIVIDE(SUM('Table'[Value]), SUM('Table'[Total]))
)

• Force the measure to return a consistent format:

  • Sometimes, formatting as decimal instead of percentage avoids the misinterpretation by the icon rules.

  • Example: If your measure returns 0.75 instead of 75%, the icon rule will work consistently.

• Test with a dummy “all customers” context:

  • Create a measure like:

IconMeasure_All = 
IF(
    ISFILTERED('Customer'[CustomerName]),
    [IconMeasure],
    [IconMeasure]
)

• This can help Power BI’s icon logic evaluate consistently even for single selections.

1. Alternative approach:

   • Use Unicode symbols / conditional formatting with field value instead of icon rules for more stable behavior.

   • Sometimes switching from Icon rules to Field value icons avoids the bug.

If this helps, consider marking it as the solution and giving a kudo!

Nabha Ahmed