Request: Support for Ragged Hierarchies

Challenge Recap

• You’re working with ragged hierarchies (uneven depth, like Chart of Accounts or Org Trees).
• Issues in Power BI today:
  • Matrix shows blank rows for missing child levels.
  • Standard slicers don’t allow proper hierarchical filtering (expand/collapse, hide blanks, select only leaf nodes).
  • Workarounds often involve custom visuals like Hierarchy Slicer, Smart Filter Pro, or custom matrix visuals.

1-Built-in Options (Limited)

• Matrix visual:
  • Currently no native “hide blanks” toggle.
  • Blanks will show unless you flatten the hierarchy with DAX / Power Query.
• Native slicers:
  • Only support flat or simple hierarchies, no expand/collapse.
  • No “end-node only” selection.

2-Workarounds (No Custom Visuals)

• DAX Parent-Child Functions
  Use PATH() and related functions to model hierarchies:
  Path = PATH ( Accounts[ParentID], Accounts[AccountID] )

Then calculate hierarchy levels with:

Level 1 = PATHITEM ( Accounts[Path], 1 )
Level 2 = PATHITEM ( Accounts[Path], 2 )
Level 3 = PATHITEM ( Accounts[Path], 3 )

• These create explicit levels.
• You can then remove blanks using measures or filters in visuals.

• Hide Blanks in Matrix

Create measures that return BLANK() when no data exists → these rows collapse naturally in visuals.

• Leaf Node Filtering
  Add a column that flags whether a node is a leaf (no children), and filter slicers by that column.

IsLeaf =
IF (
ISBLANK (
CALCULATE (
COUNTROWS ( Accounts ),
Accounts[ParentID] = EARLIER ( Accounts[AccountID] )
)
),
1,
0
)

3 - Custom Visuals (Practical Today)

Until Microsoft ships ragged hierarchy improvements, many use:

• Hierarchy Slicer (free, marketplace) → expand/collapse, hide blanks, leaf-only.
• OKViz Smart Filter Pro → advanced filtering, hierarchy navigation.
• xViz Hierarchy Tree (paid) → advanced org chart style navigation.

4 - Roadmap / Community Voice

• This feature is one of the top voted items on Power BI Ideas forum (hide blanks in hierarchies, ragged hierarchy support).
• Microsoft has acknowledged it’s important but hasn’t yet committed to a release timeline.
• Best way to influence: vote on the idea + comment with scenarios.
  (Finance, HR, product, sales reporting all rely heavily on this).

Summary

• Native Power BI still lacks smooth ragged hierarchy handling.
• Workarounds: DAX PATH() modeling + blank-filtering.
• Practical fix today: Hierarchy Slicer or similar custom visuals.
• Roadmap: not yet officially announced, but highly requested.

Your kudos is highly appreciated. If it helps you to solve your challenge, I would be happy if you accept it as a solution.