Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now! Learn more

Reply
mac_xpert
Regular Visitor

Problems sorting correctly by date

Hi.

 

I have a Stacked Area Chart that shows financial data starting in May 2017 and running through to April 2018.

 

I have a column of correctly formatted dates in my query. I've set the data type for the data to Date. The problem is when viewing by month, i get months displayed jan - - december, despite the fact that they are spread over two years, so should display May - April.

 

So i get a graph like this:

 

wrong.JPG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it should look like this:

 

right.JPG

 

This i achieved by creating a plain text field with the dates in the format '2017-MAY', '2017-JUN', '2017-JUL' ....... '2018-MAR', '2018-APR' i then set the Modelling>'sort by column' value to my date column.

 

The problem with this is because the plain text field is just that - i dont get the ability to drill down through year / quarter /month etc.

 

Should Power Bi be able to give me a properly sorted date range over serveral years? Any help would be appreciated as i'm not sure if i'm doing something wrong, or there is a 'bug' in Power Bi that makes this impossible.

 

Thanks all in advance! 

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS
parry2k
Super User
Super User

You have to create your own hierarchary for drill, add Year/<your month field>/Date as part of hierarchary. if need further help , let me know.



Subscribe to the @PowerBIHowTo YT channel for an upcoming video on List and Record functions in Power Query!!

Learn Power BI and Fabric - subscribe to our YT channel - Click here: @PowerBIHowTo

If my solution proved useful, I'd be delighted to receive Kudos. When you put effort into asking a question, it's equally thoughtful to acknowledge and give Kudos to the individual who helped you solve the problem. It's a small gesture that shows appreciation and encouragement! ❤


Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution. Proud to be a Super User! Appreciate your Kudos 🙂
Feel free to email me with any of your BI needs.

View solution in original post

v-sihou-msft
Microsoft Employee
Microsoft Employee

@mac_xpert

 

As @parry2k said, you need to create a Calendar hierarchy, and drill down to Month level to get your expected result.

 

6.PNG

 

Regards,

View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2
v-sihou-msft
Microsoft Employee
Microsoft Employee

@mac_xpert

 

As @parry2k said, you need to create a Calendar hierarchy, and drill down to Month level to get your expected result.

 

6.PNG

 

Regards,

parry2k
Super User
Super User

You have to create your own hierarchary for drill, add Year/<your month field>/Date as part of hierarchary. if need further help , let me know.



Subscribe to the @PowerBIHowTo YT channel for an upcoming video on List and Record functions in Power Query!!

Learn Power BI and Fabric - subscribe to our YT channel - Click here: @PowerBIHowTo

If my solution proved useful, I'd be delighted to receive Kudos. When you put effort into asking a question, it's equally thoughtful to acknowledge and give Kudos to the individual who helped you solve the problem. It's a small gesture that shows appreciation and encouragement! ❤


Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution. Proud to be a Super User! Appreciate your Kudos 🙂
Feel free to email me with any of your BI needs.

Helpful resources

Announcements
Power BI DataViz World Championships

Power BI Dataviz World Championships

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now!

December 2025 Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - December 2025

Check out the December 2025 Power BI Holiday Recap!

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.

Top Solution Authors