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
wooand
Helper II
Helper II

Time Decimals

I need to order a series by time measured to 0.001 of a second.  (hh:mm:ss.000 is my data format)  by I am unable to change the format to anything beyond hh:mm:ss.  This is causing my results to be bunched on a scatter plot.  Can anyone help with formatting the timestamp so that all decimals of the second can be captured?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
v-huizhn-msft
Microsoft Employee
Microsoft Employee

Hi @wooand,

After research, Power BI desktop can't properly handle the milliseconds. Please review this feature request and vote it. More peoplw need it, maybe it will come ture soonSmiley Happy. As a workaround to your scenario, you can convert the time to number of milliseconds in new columns, please create a calculated column using the formula.

NewColumn = FORMAT(Table[Date],"MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:ss:000")

 

Then use the NewColumn in your visual.

Best Regards,
Angelia

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
v-huizhn-msft
Microsoft Employee
Microsoft Employee

Hi @wooand,

After research, Power BI desktop can't properly handle the milliseconds. Please review this feature request and vote it. More peoplw need it, maybe it will come ture soonSmiley Happy. As a workaround to your scenario, you can convert the time to number of milliseconds in new columns, please create a calculated column using the formula.

NewColumn = FORMAT(Table[Date],"MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:ss:000")

 

Then use the NewColumn in your visual.

Best Regards,
Angelia

Thanks for that, and I shall certainly add my thoughts to the feature request.

I just figured out if you create a new column using the Time.Seconds function in M Query you can return the value of the seconds, but it keeps the decimal place after the whole second.

 

eg:  Time.Second([TimeStamp])

returns 18.372  seconds (for example)

 

Then you can split up the fractions as you see fit, and add to a hierarchy.

 

maybe.  Good Luck y'all!!!

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!

November Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - November 2025

Check out the November 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.

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.