adding icons to the bars in a bar chart to indicate greater or less than activity

[Anonymous]

Hello. I'm attempting to do something I've never done before. Adding arrows to indicate - or + growth on my bar chart.
What I'm trying to achieve is to take a bar chart and either add arrows to the bars, or superimpose them on top.
Basically from this

To something like this

First thought was placing arrows on top of each bar but of course if there are no entries, then the bars change size to compensate for the one that is no longer part of the chart.  Putting arrows on top of each bar would only work if there was a guarantee that every entry in the chart remained therre.

So has anyone done something like this? If so, how?

Thanks, Steve.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous  Here's an example of how this could work. I wrote the below measure that includes UNICHAR characters for right and left arrows.

Gross Sales UNICHAR =

VAR _Right_Arrow =

    UNICHAR ( 129130 )

VAR _Left_Arrow =

    UNICHAR ( 129128 )

RETURN

    IF (

        SUMX(Sheet1, Sheet1[Gross Sales]) > 10000000,

        _Right_Arrow,

        _Left_Arrow

    )

Here's a site that includes a huge list of UNICHAR characters:

https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTips/unicode-symbols.html

From there, I went to the chart's Data label formatting options, Detail section,

and added that measure to the Data well. Then I chose Inside end for the data label position.

I hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for helping me with this! i was able to complete this task, AND I never added anything to that section before, so i learned something!!!!
Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

You're welcome, and yes, I don't think it's a very common step to take!

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much. My only question is where exactly does it go?
In the visual, I see the Bars/Data Labels/Value and color but not sure where to use the code you provided. 
Do I use it to replace the Color dropdown with the function button next to it?

Numb_Current is the fields showing the number of each metric within the bar chart

 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous  Go to the chart's Data label formatting options, Detail section, and add the measure to the Data well. I chose Inside end for the data label position.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous  Here's an example of how this could work. I wrote the below measure that includes UNICHAR characters for right and left arrows.

Gross Sales UNICHAR =

VAR _Right_Arrow =

    UNICHAR ( 129130 )

VAR _Left_Arrow =

    UNICHAR ( 129128 )

RETURN

    IF (

        SUMX(Sheet1, Sheet1[Gross Sales]) > 10000000,

        _Right_Arrow,

        _Left_Arrow

    )

Here's a site that includes a huge list of UNICHAR characters:

https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTips/unicode-symbols.html

From there, I went to the chart's Data label formatting options, Detail section,

and added that measure to the Data well. Then I chose Inside end for the data label position.

I hope this helps!