stacked column chart with legend does not show "0" total label

[dedelman_clng]

I have a chart that is counting items by year (X-axis) and by Quarter (Legend). The data in table form shows 0 for all quarters in 2025, but on the stacked column chart the Total Label of 0 is not shown (yellow box is just me highlighting that there is nothing shown.

Here is the data in tabular form if you want to recreate it yourself

Year	Quarter	Events
2021	Q1	11
2021	Q2	7
2021	Q3	11
2021	Q4	10
2022	Q1	10
2022	Q2	5
2022	Q3	4
2022	Q4	8
2023	Q1	3
2023	Q2	7
2023	Q3	6
2023	Q4	9
2024	Q1	8
2024	Q2	10
2024	Q3	16
2024	Q4	5
2025	Q1	0
2025	Q2	0
2025	Q3	0
2025	Q4	0

Thanks,

David

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi, @dedelman_clng 

I tested and this seems to be the default behavior in Power BI, when dealing with stacked column charts, labels with values of 0 are ignored, especially if there is a legend.

When no legend is added, it will show 0

If you want a column with no data to show 0 when you have a legend, then you can try using a line stacked column chart, creating an aggregate measure, and placing it in a Line y-axis,  and the data for 2025 will show 0.

Total Events = IF(SUM('Table'[Events]) = 0, 0, SUM('Table'[Events]))

Or you can create a secondary column or measure that replaces the value of 0 with a very small, non-zero value (for example, 0.0001) so that Power BI treats it as a valid value and displays it in the chart. You can then format the data label to display this very small value as 0. I create a measure:

Total Events = IF(SUM('Table'[Events]) = 0, 0.0001, SUM('Table'[Events]))

Put this measure in Y-axis, here is my preview:

How to Get Your Question Answered Quickly

Best Regards

Yongkang Hua

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[dedelman_clng]

Thanks. I may report this as a bug to the development team because I can't think of a good reason to suppress zero in a stacked column with legend.

[Fowmy]

@dedelman_clng 

Since you have zero, there is nothing show on the chart for 2025, what do you expect in this case?

[dedelman_clng]

Hi @Fowmy -

I would expect "0" to be shown. If I take away the legend (quarter) then 0 does appear for 2025 (as a data label rather than a total label).

If I turn the stacked column visual into a matrix visual, 0 is shown as the total.

So Power BI knows that the total is 0, not blank. Why does it not show in stacked column (or stacked bar) with a legend?

Thanks,

David

[Fowmy]

@dedelman_clng 

Then, add a zero to your measure,

Total Events = sum(table[events]) + 0

[dedelman_clng]

@Fowmy 

The 0 is in the raw data (see my first post). I have tried using both the SUM auto-measure and an explicit SUM measure but both behave the same.

David