Power BI Course
Basic Charts
Knowing a chart type exists is different from knowing how to build it well. This lesson walks through the five charts you will use in almost every Power BI report — clustered bar, clustered column, line, area, and combo — covering field configuration, sorting, Top N filtering, secondary axes, and the small settings that separate a rough chart from a polished one.
The Dataset Used in This Lesson
All examples in this lesson use the same sales dataset loaded across three connected tables. This is exactly the kind of model you built in Lessons 11 and 12 — an Orders fact table connected to Customers and Products dimension tables.
Chart 1 — Clustered Bar Chart
The clustered bar chart draws horizontal bars — one per category. It is the best chart for comparing a ranked list of categories, especially when the category names are long and would be truncated on a vertical column chart.
Sorting a Chart
By default Power BI sorts bar and column charts alphabetically by the category label. Almost always you want to sort by the measure value instead — highest to lowest so the most important item appears first. There are two ways to change sort order.
Top N Filtering
When a category field has many values — 50 customers, 200 products — showing all of them in a bar chart is unreadable. Top N filtering limits the chart to showing only the top (or bottom) N items by a measure. This is one of the most useful filters in Power BI and it updates dynamically when slicers change.
Chart 2 — Clustered Column Chart
The clustered column chart draws vertical bars. It works best when category labels are short and when you want to show side-by-side comparisons across a Legend field — for example, Revenue per Region split by Category. When a Legend is added, each category on the X axis gets one bar per legend value, grouped together.
Chart 3 — Line Chart
The line chart shows how a measure changes over time. The X axis is always a date or time field. Power BI automatically creates a date hierarchy (Year → Quarter → Month → Day) when you place a date field on the X axis — you can drill up and down through this hierarchy directly on the chart.
The date hierarchy drill controls appear as small arrow icons in the top-right corner of a line chart when you hover over it. The double-arrow ↓↓ expands all levels at once. The single-arrow ↓ drills into the clicked data point. The up-arrow ↑ goes back up a level.
Chart 4 — Area Chart
The area chart is a line chart with the area beneath the line filled in. It uses the exact same field wells as a line chart. Use an area chart when you want to emphasise the total volume accumulated over time rather than just the trend direction — for example, showing that the total revenue base is growing, not just that it went up last month.
Chart 5 — Line and Clustered Column (Combo Chart)
The combo chart combines a column chart and a line chart on the same visual. It is ideal when you want to show two related measures together — for example, Revenue (columns) and Order Count (line) by month. The two measures use different scales, so you add a secondary Y axis for the line measure to prevent it being squashed flat against the columns.
Adding a Secondary Axis
When to use a secondary axis:
Two measures with very different scales are on the same chart.
Example: Revenue (0–$2,500) and Order Count (0–4).
Without a secondary axis, Order Count flatlines near zero.
How to add it — combo chart only:
1. Build a Line and Clustered Column chart
2. Place the smaller-scale measure in the "Line Y Axis" well
(not Column Y Axis)
3. Format pane → Y axis → Secondary Y axis → toggle On
4. The right side of the chart now shows the line's scale
5. Optionally: Format → Secondary Y axis → set title to
"Order Count" so viewers know which axis is which
When NOT to use a secondary axis:
Do not use it just to make two unrelated measures
appear on the same chart. The chart implies a
relationship between the two series — make sure
that relationship is real and meaningful to viewers.Teacher's Note: The single formatting change that makes the biggest difference to bar and column charts is turning off the Y axis labels and turning on data labels instead. Axis labels like "$0, $500, $1,000, $1,500" force viewers to estimate bar heights. Data labels show the exact value on each bar directly — removing the mental work entirely. Go to Format → Y axis → toggle off, then Format → Data labels → toggle on. Try it on your next chart and you will never go back.
Practice
Practice 1 of 3
You have a bar chart showing Revenue by CustomerName. The bars are sorted alphabetically (Alice, Bob, Carol, David). To sort them by Revenue from highest to lowest, you click the ___ menu in the top-right corner of the visual and choose Sort axis → Sum of Revenue → Sort descending.
Practice 2 of 3
To limit a bar chart to showing only the top 5 customers by Revenue, you drag the CustomerName field into "Filters on this visual", change the filter type to ___ N, set count to 5, and set By value to Sum of Revenue.
Practice 3 of 3
In a combo chart showing Revenue (columns) and Order Count (line), the line appears completely flat because both measures share the same Y axis scale. The fix is to enable a ___ Y axis so the line uses its own independent scale on the right side of the chart.
Lesson Quiz
Quiz 1 of 3
A line chart showing Revenue by Month displays the months in alphabetical order: April, February, January, March. What is the correct fix?
Quiz 2 of 3
You add a Legend field (Category) to a clustered column chart that already has Region on the X axis and Revenue on the Y axis. What does the chart now show?
Quiz 3 of 3
You want to show only the top 10 products by Revenue in a bar chart, and you want the top 10 to update automatically when a Region slicer is changed. Which approach achieves this?
Next up — Lesson 16 begins Section II: Power Query. You will learn what Power Query actually is under the hood, how M code works, and why every transformation you apply in the Editor is a replayable, editable step — not a permanent change to your data.