Column / Bar Chart - Y Axis Start End Value Issue

[Jazza]

I have a measure in my data model which shows the Average Score that respondents gave to questions in a survey. The response values can range from 1 (not satisfied) to 7 (very satisfied). I am displaying this measure on a stacked column chart, with another dimension (department name) on the X axis.

By default, Power BI will show the Y Axis as starting at 0. If I set the Y Axis Start value to 1, then in some cases, the Y axis will update, and show that the minimum value is 1, though the actual value of 1 is not always shown.

If I set the End value to 7, then the Y Axis will update again, but this time it shows a starting value of 0, even though the value in the Start box clearly shows 1. The behaviour is just really inconsistent. The screenshot below shows 6 column charts showing the average response for each department, across 6 thematic areas. All 6 charts have the Y-axis start value set to 1 with the end value set to Auto. In only 2 instances do the charts actually start from 1, and even in those examples, the 1 isn't shown on the axis!

 Example

For the two charts that do start from 1, if I alter the Y-axis end value to 7, the axis immediately reverts to showing 0 and 5 as in the other 4 charts.

Could we have more control over the axis start/end values, and the intervals as well please?

Note: The same behaviour was observed in the stacked bar chart, clustered bar chart and clustered column chart visuals.

[v-haibl-msft]

@Jazza

I tried several start values but cannot repro the same issue as you. If possible, could you please provide your PBIX file to me? You can upload it to online file service like OneDrive and share it. Or you can provide some sample data which can be used to repro.

Below is the screenshot I tried on Jan 2017 version of PBI Desktop. If you cannot see “1” in the Y-Axis, it should be caused by the visual size. You need to resize the visual as the second screenshot.

Best Regards,

Herbert

[Jazza]

Apologies for delay in updating this. I agree with you that if you resize the visual, the Y-axis will eventually display the correct values.

However, I still think there is an issue that needs to be addressed in that, if I specify the start value to be 1, then the Y-axis should show 1 and not 0 even if the visual is reduced in size.

Also, in my original screen shot, all 6 visuals were the same size and yet 2 exhibited different behaviour from the others - I would expect either:

ALL visuals to show 0 and 5, or

ALL visuals to show 2 and 4

The issue is still present in the February 2017 release.

[Jazza]

Update: same behaviour observed in March release as well.

[v-haibl-msft]

@Jazza

I’ve reported it internally to Power BI Team: CRI 32749094
I’ll post here once I get any update about it.

Best Regards,
Herbert

[v-haibl-msft]

@Jazza

I’ve got response from the product team.

Unfortunately By Design for now. if the user-specified value is close to the natural boundary, the d3 axes will snap to "nice" numbers. A fix would require a very large effort to allow fine-grain control of start/end values. We are aware of this limitation, and have a Scenario planned for later this year.

Best Regards,

Herbert