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Andyr
Frequent Visitor

Showing representative sample line chart warning

Hi,

I've got a line chart displaying part degredation of mechanical components over time - I'm potentially putting in quite a lot of data to this.

I've noticed that when I push in something in the region ~5800 plus rows of data I get a warning 'Showing representative sample'

Can anyone tell me how the representataive sample is calculated - In theory I'm happy that the data is being sampled as long a I can still track the trend of the degredation and ensure it is within set boundaries - I'd just like to have more details on how it is being sampled so I can answer that question when someone above me asks that question!

Or is this bad practice and should I be sampling the data myself before putting it into power bi?

Thanks again


4 REPLIES 4
v-caliao-msft
Microsoft Employee
Microsoft Employee

@Andyr

 

I just pull out about 6000 rows of date column and another column data from Excel, then import it into Power BI, however we cannot reproduce this issue as you mentioned.


Based on the research, Showing representative sample should be caused by more data points than that the chart is intended to represent. You may take a look at a similar thread:
Showing representative sample.

 

By the way, have you updated your Power BI desktop? If not, then please download and install the newest version. Then check if this issue persists or not. And the latest version of Power BI desktop is available on the link below.Download Power BI Desktop

 

Regards,

Charlie Liao

Hi Charlie,

I was on another computer that I don't think has the latest update on it - I will get it updated and check if the issue persists next time I am on that computer.

Thanks again

Andyr
Frequent Visitor

I've run this on the latest version of power bi and I am still getting this warning displayed and clealy some of the data points being passed in are not being plotted - is there somewhere where the limitations of the plots are detailed so I can make a descision as to whether I can safely use the plot to display data?

I second the request for documentation on constraints to the amount of data that visualizations can display. In particular, MS developers, how many data points can the line chart visualization hold? And is that constraint expected to be removed or softened in the future, or is it more likely to always be there?

 

Further, less critical but important nonetheless - how is the "representative sample" selected?

 

Thank you

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