Power BI Icons

What is Power Bi Icon Set?

Icons are the visual representation of any content or a data header and in power bi, there are some inbuilt icons that can be used by any user and also we have options to make custom made icons in power bi, it is a new feature which is added to power bi.

Icon Sets are similar to those which we have used on excel conditional formatting. Icon Sets are used to represent the data through icons available in Power BI.

I am sure you have enjoyed the thing “Conditional Formatting” brings to the table in excel. By setting our conditions we can decide the formatting style for our numbers. If you are using advanced conditional formatting in excel we can do the same thing with Power BI visualization as well.

Now many of those who use Power BI are not aware of the fact that we can apply conditional formatting in Power BI as well. Using these visuals we can apply icon set to our data set numbers. In this article, we will show you how to make use of “Power BI Icon Set” to apply conditional formatting.

History of Power Bi Field Icon Set

First thing first “Icon Sets” in Power BI can be applied to “Table” and “Matrix” visuals. Recently in July 2019 Microsoft released this new feature for Power BI, download and install the latest version to get used to “Conditional Formatting” in Power BI.

Based on user’s feedback and ideas every month Microsoft improves their product features and her you go “Icon Set” is one of them.

How to Apply Icon Set in Power Bi?

You can download the workbook used in this example to practice along with us.

As I told Conditional Formatting can be applied to “Table” & “Matrix” visual and for demonstration of icon set in this article, I have created below simple “Table” visual.

We will apply the “Icon Set” for this table based on the below rules.

• If the Amount is <=195 icon will be the “Red” color icon.
• If the Amount is >=196 and <=200 then the icon will be in the “Yellow” color.
• If anything >200 then the color will be “Green”.

To apply “Icon Set” to select the “Table” visual, it will show the fields used from the table to create this visual.

• Since our numbers in a table based on “Amount” click on the drop-down list “Amount” and choose “Conditional Formatting”.

• So from conditional formatting options choose “Icons” to open below windows.

• In this, we need to define our rule, so for that make sure “Format by” drop-down list should be selected with “Rules”.

• Now we need to select based on which field of the table we are applying icons, so select “Sum of Amount” column under the “Based on Filed” option.

Next, we need to select the kind of summarization we need to apply, from this drop-down list we can choose “Overall Sum Value”, “Average”, “Minimum”, “Maximum” etc.. like this we can choose many options as shown below.

• Since we need icons based on the overall value I have chosen “Sum”.

• Now we need to choose the position of the “icon” in the table, from this drop-down we can choose the position of the icon as “Right of Data”, “Left of Data” and if you want to see only “icons” you can choose “Icon Only” option.

• Next, we need to choose “Icon Alignment” positon as Top, Middle, Bottom.

• Now comes the icon part, under “Style” we can choose what kind of icon we need to show on the table.

• As you can see above we have several “Icons” available, you can choose any of them based on the data. Since we are having only 3 sets of rules I have chosen below icon.

Now we need to apply the rules as we defined earlier.

• We will go from bottom to top, first I will define the rule as follows.

Now let me explain the rule for you.

“If the value is >= 0 (percent) and <= 40 (percent) then we need “Red” color traffic signal”.

“If the value is >= 41 (percent) and <= 70 (percent) then we need “Yellow” color traffic signal”.

“If the value is >= 71 (percent) and <= 100 (percent) then we need “Green” color traffic signal”.

• Click on Ok, we should get traffic lights as per the defined rule.

Wow!!! We got our first-ever icon set in Power Bi.

Like this, you can use other “Icon Sets” to apply conditional formatting for the data in power bi.

Note: Power BI Icon file can also be downloaded from the link below and the final output can be viewed.

Things to Remember Here

• Icon Sets are part of “Conditional Formatting” in Power BI just like MS Excel feature.
• Icon sets and conditional formatting can be applied only to “Table” and “Matrix” visuals.
• You need to define the rule to assign a specific icon to a specific set of values or else Power BI applies its own icons.

Recommended Articles

Guide to Power BI Icons. Here we discuss how to make use of Power BI Icon Set to apply conditional formatting in given data along with examples. You can learn more about Power BI from the following articles –

• Waterfall Chart in Power BI
• Reports in Power BI
• Power View in Excel
• Excel for Power User Course