Power BI Dates and Date Hierarchies for Beginners

Power BI lesson: dates

Original diagram created for this blog.

Why dates need care

Power BI can recognise a date and offer Year, Quarter, Month and Day levels. A date stored as text cannot reliably sort or group.

Check the type

1. Open Data view and select the date column.
2. Set Data type to Date or Date/Time.
3. Use a line chart when the order of time matters.
4. Use a separate Month Number column when month names sort alphabetically.

Day names

In Power Query, add a column from Date > Day > Name of day. Sort Day Name by a numeric weekday column if Monday-to-Sunday order is important.

Practice

Create a table with Year, Month and Amount. Compare the same data as a line chart and a column chart. Explain which makes the trend easier to see.

Return to the Power BI hub · Microsoft date guidance