Edit

Share via


Use inline hierarchy labels in Power BI

APPLIES TO: Power BI Desktop Power BI service

Power BI supports the use of inline hierarchy labels to enhance hierarchical drilling. By using inline hierarchy labels, you can see all levels of a hierarchy displayed together as you drill down into your data.

How inline hierarchy labels work

When you use inline hierarchy labels, you see hierarchy labels as you expand visuals by using the Expand All feature. By seeing these hierarchy labels, you can also choose to sort by these different hierarchy labels as you expand your hierarchical data.

Use the built-in Expand feature (without sorting by hierarchy labels)

Before you see inline hierarchy labels in action, review the default Expand to next level feature behavior. This review helps you understand and appreciate how useful inline hierarchy labels can be.

The following image shows a bar chart visual for annual sales. When you right-click on a bar, you can choose Expand to next level.

Screenshot showing the bar chart context menu with Expand to next level selected.

Note

Instead of right-clicking on a bar, you can select the Expand button on the top left of the visualization.

Screenshot showing the expand and next level icons.

When you select Expand to next level, the visual expands the date hierarchy from Year to Quarter, as shown in the following image.

Screenshot showing the visual date hierarchy expanded from year to quarter.

The Year and Quarter labels appear inline together. This labeling scheme continues as you Expand All down to the bottom of the hierarchy.

Screenshot showing the visual after Expand All is selected.

This behavior is how the built-in Date hierarchy works. The Date hierarchy associates with fields that have a date/time data type. The next section explains how the inline hierarchy labels feature is different.

Use inline hierarchy labels

Now let's look at a different chart by using data that has informal hierarchies. In the following visual, you have a bar chart with Quantity, using ProductName as the axis. In this data, ProductName and ShipCountry form an informal hierarchy. From here, you can again select Expand to next level to drill down into the hierarchy.

Screenshot showing a chart with informal hierarchy in Power BI.

Selecting Expand to next level shows the next level with the inline display of hierarchy labels. By default, inline hierarchies are sorted by the measure value—in this case, Quantity. With inline hierarchy labels enabled, you can choose to sort this data by the hierarchy too. Select More options (...) in the upper right corner, and then select Sort by ProductName ShipCountry as shown in the following image:

Screenshot showing a chart expanded to the next level with the data sorted by informal hierarchy.

After you select ShipCountry, the data is sorted based on the informal hierarchy selection, as shown in the following image.

Screenshot showing a chart with the data sorted by informal hierarchy with ShipCountry selected.

Note

The inline hierarchy label feature doesn't yet support sorting the built-in time hierarchy by value. It's only sorted by hierarchy order.

Troubleshooting

If your visuals get stuck in an expanded inline hierarchy level state where drilling up doesn't work, try deleting the visual and recreating it.