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
CoreyPawlak
Regular Visitor

Re-ordering the x-axis values

Hi, I  am creating Power BI reports and would like to re-order the presentation of the x-axis values in a couple of charts.

1) In a chart showing time-to-consume on the x-axis, I have the x-axis values as <5 min, 5-14 min, 15-60 min, >60 min.  I'd obviously like them ordered chronologically, but they're showing up in the following oder: <5 min, >60 min, 15-60 min, 5-14 min -- not exactly intuitive for the viewer!  How can re-arrange the order in which they're presented?

 

2) Similarly, I've a chart with x-axis values: Read, Watch, Try, and Prove.  Instead of being ordered by this logic, they're being ordered alphabetically as Prove, Read, Try, Watch.  How can I order the values in my desired order?

 

I'm relatively new to Power BI (and love it!), so please be detailed in (hopefully) presenting a solution.

Thank you!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Greg_Deckler
Community Champion
Community Champion

You need to use "Sort By Column" in the Modeling tab in the Data Model. So, go to your Data Model, choose your column go to Modeling tab and choose "Sort By Column". In your case, it may make sense to create an Enter Data query and put in your x-axis values along with a "Sort By" column, so something like:

 

Category,Sort By

<5 min,1

5-15 min,2

15-60 min,3

>60 min,4

 

Sort your Category column by "Sort By", relate this table to your fact table. Use this Category field in your visual. That's the gist of it.



Follow on LinkedIn
@ me in replies or I'll lose your thread!!!
Instead of a Kudo, please vote for this idea
Become an expert!: Enterprise DNA
External Tools: MSHGQM
YouTube Channel!: Microsoft Hates Greg
Latest book!:
DAX For Humans

DAX is easy, CALCULATE makes DAX hard...

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6
Greg_Deckler
Community Champion
Community Champion

You need to use "Sort By Column" in the Modeling tab in the Data Model. So, go to your Data Model, choose your column go to Modeling tab and choose "Sort By Column". In your case, it may make sense to create an Enter Data query and put in your x-axis values along with a "Sort By" column, so something like:

 

Category,Sort By

<5 min,1

5-15 min,2

15-60 min,3

>60 min,4

 

Sort your Category column by "Sort By", relate this table to your fact table. Use this Category field in your visual. That's the gist of it.



Follow on LinkedIn
@ me in replies or I'll lose your thread!!!
Instead of a Kudo, please vote for this idea
Become an expert!: Enterprise DNA
External Tools: MSHGQM
YouTube Channel!: Microsoft Hates Greg
Latest book!:
DAX For Humans

DAX is easy, CALCULATE makes DAX hard...

I found this post to order values in the x-labels, which I also am looking for solutions.
In my case, however, I'd like the order to follow from another column -call it value- based on its average, and using the x-axis column as a grouping variable. 

I did see find value under Modeling > Sort by Column, but it didn't work to order because there are different values for each x-axis label.  

How do I go about to calculate the average and sort the x-axis column? 

Thank you. 

 

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Good solution, what happens when the "Sort by column" feature is not clickable?

 

SortByDisabled.png

Thanks !!!

It worked!!! Thank you so very much!

Cool, happy to help!



Follow on LinkedIn
@ me in replies or I'll lose your thread!!!
Instead of a Kudo, please vote for this idea
Become an expert!: Enterprise DNA
External Tools: MSHGQM
YouTube Channel!: Microsoft Hates Greg
Latest book!:
DAX For Humans

DAX is easy, CALCULATE makes DAX hard...

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!

December 2025 Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - December 2025

Check out the December 2025 Power BI Holiday Recap!

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.