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elz
Advocate II
Advocate II

what do the continuous and categorical type options on the x-axis format section mean?

hi all,

 

i am trying to learn more about power bi desktop. i created a stacked column chart.

in the x-axis section there is a field named "type". it has 2 options continuous and categorical.

i selected each option and the only thing i noticed was that the width of the columns changed.

 

i searched this forum, but couldn't find anything that explained these options.

 

i searched for an explaination of these options. the only page i found was this one, but it doesn't say what the options should be used for. it just says to select one or the other . . . duh!

 

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-service-tutorial-customize-x-axis-and-y-ax...

 

i'd like to know if someone can give me a short description of what these options are for or what they mean of when to pick one over the other.


any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

thank you

tracy

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
ankitpatira
Community Champion
Community Champion

@elz Here's the difference between the two in simpler terms.

 

Continuous axis is where values change continuously and you cannot count the number of different values. Examples include weight, price, counts etc. Basically anything you can measure or count. Categorical is where you make small number of categories. This includes type, gender, age group, etc.

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5 REPLIES 5
ankitpatira
Community Champion
Community Champion

@elz Here's the difference between the two in simpler terms.

 

Continuous axis is where values change continuously and you cannot count the number of different values. Examples include weight, price, counts etc. Basically anything you can measure or count. Categorical is where you make small number of categories. This includes type, gender, age group, etc.

Thanks for the clarification. Is there a way I can change the increment manually?

 

I want to have a 24 hr count on my X-axis (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ... ) but the default increment is by 5 (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 ...) and I would like to change the increment to 1. I couldn't figure out how to do that.

 

I found some work arounds, one of them is to change Type from Continuous to Categorical. With that, the increment changes to 1 as desired, but the X-axis is displayed in reversed order, and I can only sort in descending order Z to A, but not in ascending order A to Z.

 

I opened a thread on this subject:

http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Displaying-values-underneath-each-bar-on-the-X-axis/m-p/4184...

 

Any help appreciated. Thank you!

hi ankit,
thank you for taking the time to explain these options in every day terms. i really appreciate it.
tracy

Hi Tracy,

 

Adding some additional information.

I think you have noticed the Note: “If the X-axis is string/Boolean, the Type option will not display.”

Then the available data type could be used here should be left with number and Date/Time. (Reference: Data types in Power BI Desktop)

When we put those two kind of data into X-Axis, the Type option would show up in Format, with Continuous, Categorical available.

Continuous, means the X-Axis would show the data in a natural growth order, like 1,2,3,…… regardless of the Y-Axis data;

While Categorical would only show the part which have values based on Y-Axis, those part of X-Axis with no values in Y-Axis, would be removed.

 

Regards

BhaveshPatel
Community Champion
Community Champion

You can customize your chart according to your data type.

 

Thanks & Regards,

Bhavesh

 

Thanks & Regards,
Bhavesh

Love the Self Service BI.
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