Heat Map in Power BI

Power BI Heat Map is useful for displaying the data along with the colors. By seeing the color, one can understand the profits easily. Let me show you how to create a HeatMap in Power BI with an example.

For this Power BI Heatmap demonstration, we are going to use the SQL Data Source that we created in our previous article. So, Please refer to Connect to SQL Server article to understand the Power BI Data Source.

How to Create a Heat Map in Power BI

By default, you don’t find a heat map under Power BI Visualization. However, you have multiple options to create a heat map. 

  • Sign in using the official domain-specific email id to get map specific and table specific heat maps from the marketplace
  • Use any third-party file that you downloaded in the system.
  • Convert a Table or Matrix to a heat map using the conditional formatting of background colors.

To create a heatmap, first, click on the Matrix under the Visualization section. It automatically creates a Matrix with dummy data.

Desktop 1

Next, drag and drop the English Country Region Name to the Column Group, and product Color to the Row Group. Now, you can see a Matrix without values.

Matrix without Data 2

Next, let me drag the Sales Amount to the Values section. It automatically enables the Row totals and grand totals

Heat Map in Power BI 3

Please click on the Format button to convert this Matrix into a Heatmap in Power BI. I suggest you refer to Format a Matrix article to understand the formatting options.

Click the format button under Visualizations 4

First, go to the Grid Section. As you can see from the below screenshot, we changed the row padding to 18 and the text size to 15

Change Row padding and text size  5

By toggling Row subtotals, and column subtotals under the Subtotals section to Off, you can remove the Totals completely. So, let me remove them

Turn Off Row and column subtotals 6

Column Header section of Power BI Heatmap helps us to alter the Headers. As you can see from the screenshot below, we changed the Font Family to Cambria. Next, Outline to Top + Bottom (Outline added to the top and bottom of a Header), Text Size to 22, and Header text alignment to center.

format column headers 7

Heatmap’s row Header section helps us format the Row Headers section. Here, we changed the Outline to Left + Right (Outline added to the Left and Right of Header Column, i.e., Color). Next, Font Family to Cambria, the Text Size to 22, and the text alignment to the center.

Format row headers of Heat Map in Power BI 8

Power BI Heatmap Example

To connect that matrix to the heatmap, go to the Conditional Formatting section to add colors to the Matrix Numeric column.

As you can see from the screenshot below, we selected the Sales Amount as the field and toggled the background color scale property to On. It adds a default color to the matrix. I mean, the default color to Heatmap.

Heat Map in Power BI 9

Change Power BI Heatmap Color

To change the Power BI heat map color, click on the Advanced option. It will open the following window. If you are interested in two colors, then select the Minimum color and maximum color.

Change Color 10

We check-marked the Diverging option. Next, we selected some random colors as the minimum, Center, and Maximum values.

Heat Map in Power BI 11

Now you see the Power BI Heat map with the selected colors.

Heat Map in Power BI 12

FAQ’s

What is Heat Map in Power BI?

Heat maps, also known as density maps, use different colors to display data density. If you use it on a map, it shows the color density at each location. For instance, state or postcode-wise visits, sales, or orders. The most common one is displaying cyclone or hurricane movement.

Does Power BI have a heat map?

Yes. Either get it from the marketplace or use any file from the system.

How do I create a heat map?

If you are using the marketplace heat map, click on the icon. And then, add geographic data (State, City, Country, Postal Code) to the Location ID and Numeric Measure to the values section. You have an option for the Latitudes.
If converting a standard table to a heat map, use the conditional formatting option of the measure value.

What is heatmap used for?

Heat maps use colors to represent the data graphically. The thickness of the color means more (high) data in that region.

What does a heatmap show you?

It shows the popularity of the data in color-coded. A heat map helps easily identify which month, state, or zone has good profit and which are bad ones.

About Suresh

Suresh is the founder of TutorialGateway and a freelance software developer. He specialized in Designing and Developing Windows and Web applications. The experience he gained in Programming and BI integration, and reporting tools translates into this blog. You can find him on Facebook or Twitter.

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