Power View is the visualization technology that brings our data to life. It is available in Microsoft Excel, on Power BI desktop or we can use it using an SQL server. With the help of power view, we can create on-the-go reporting using its interactive feature. It has versatile visualizations that enable to analyze of large data sets. In power view in excel, we can create lots of visualizations that best illustrate our data. We can start with any excel sheet or import the data from another source and convert it to any of the visualizations.
Creating a Visualization
Visualization helps to handle large sets of data by performing drill-up or drill-down operations to extract the essential data. Various visualizations available are listed below:
- Table
- Map
- Matrix
- Card
- Chart: Line, Bar, bubble, column, scatter
While each of these can be used individually, we can combine all of these charts to provide interactive visualization. For every table or data that we have, we can easily create a visualization that best represents our data. We are going to create a Line chart using Power BI desktop.
Prerequisites:
- Excel power view enabled via add-ins, or
- Power BI Desktop (for later versions)
Steps for Exploring the Data
Step 1: Enable Excel Power View by going to Insert -> Power View.
Step 2: To load the data, go to Data-> Get External Data.
It will migrate to the dialog box and select “get external data”. It will show a list of data sources from which the data could be imported. We can either import from excel, SQL server from the dataset, as text/CSV file, or directly from the web, as a blank query or any template apps.
Step 3: Select any of the data sources. Here we are going to import an access database. Select the file and in the Table import wizard, click on the source table that has data.
Step 4: It will create a table in excel with the Power View tab as shown below.
The power view tab helps to create charts and visualization of our data.
Steps to Create a Line Chart
Step 1: Go to the Power View tab.
Step 2: Click on the blank area anywhere and it will open up a power view field on the right-hand side.
Step 3: Drag and drop the fields in the areas section. Select two fields to be displayed on horizontal (x-axis) and vertical (y-axis) lines. Here we have selected buyer (categorical) data to be displayed on the horizontal line and amount (numerical) displayed on the vertical axis.
Step 4: In the design tab, go to “change chart type”.
Step 5: Select “Line” from the available options. A blank chart will appear. It will convert a table to a visualization chart.
Step 6: It will generate a line chart as shown below.
Filtering with Line Chart Visualization
To filter the data we will first click the actual graph that shows the sum of the amount against various buyers,
Step 1: Click on the filters pane on the right-hand side. Currently, there are no filters applied so the fields appear blank. Click on the “add data fields here” box.
Step 2: We will apply the filter on the “Sum of amount” fields. Go to “show items when value ” and select “is less than” among the available selectors. Enter any value (here we have entered 300).
Step 3: Click on “apply filter” button. A filtered line graph will appear as shown below where the values under the “sum of amount” field will be less than 300.
Features of Line Chart
- The line chart shows the relationship between two values for all items of a table.
- Distributes categorical data on the horizontal axis and numerical data on the vertical axis.
- Serves perfect analytical representation in 2D for two data item comparisons.
- Displays data in chronological order along the vertical axis even if the actual data may not be in the same order or in similar base units.
- Great for displaying sequential data or data pertaining to time.