Example of histogram in Power BI

How to Create a Histogram in Power BI

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No Custom Visuals Required

There’s a lot of conflicting, outdated advice out there on how to create a histogram in Power BI. Some blogs advise installed the now defunct Histogram visual from Microsoft. Others advocate creating your own bin category lookup table as a new data source. But buried deep in the Clustered Column Chart visual is an easier way.

Introducing Groups

Here’s how it works:

  1. Add a new Clustered Column Chart to your report in Power BI.
  2. Add your X-axis (categories) and Y-Axis (values) fields as normal to populate the chart.
  3. Right click your X-axis field in the Build Visual screen to the right and select New Group
  4. Customize your histogram categories and sizes and click OK
Histogram settings in Power BI
The Histogram settings in Power BI (called Groups)

Excel Shortcut of the Day: CONTROL + [

Also known as TRACE PRECEDENTS, using CONTROL + [ on a selected cell that has a formula will warp the user to the first cell reference in the formula. Try it out by typing =A1 in cell L13 and then hit CONTROL + [

It’s the fast way to investigate where the numbers in your spreadsheet are coming from.