Lesson 21 - Pie Chart in Power BI Desktop

A pie chart is a colorful and simple way to display information. It's like a circular pie that's cut into different slices, and each slice represents a part of the whole. These slices show you the proportions and differences between categories in your data.

Pie charts are like visual summaries that turn complex data into easy-to-understand slices of information.

How to proceed?

Step 1

Launch power BI desktop app and open the new report page and import the data required.

Refer Lesson 7 - Power BI Datasets to build great visuals

Step 2

In “visualizations” pane click on “Pie chart” which is highlighted in the given figure.

Step 3

Drag the data fields into “Field Section” that you want to analyze.  

Legend- It is used to label and describe the segments or slices in the pie chart, helping viewers to understand what each part represents – Season

Values- Represent the proportion or percentage of each category relative to the whole – Number of Sports.

Step 4

Customizing the appearance 

Click anywhere on the visual and set the below properties in the Format section.

Refer Lesson 6 - Formatting the visuals in Power BI Desktop

Customizing the legend is the key part of the Pie chart since it provides information about the data being displayed.

You can adjust the position of the legend, font size, style and color or you can hide it if the data labels are already on the chart.

In this demo, I chose “Top Right Stacked position” to show the legend.

Slices refer to the individual segment or part of the Pie chart that can be customized separately. You can give colors of your choice to each slice.

Detail Label refer to the data label which display exact value of each category.

Rotation refers to the ability to change the angle or orientation of the Pie chart. Rotating a pie chart is useful for improving its visual clarity and emphasis.

Step 5

Save the visual

Finally, your Pie chart is ready. Click save button to save the visual.

When to use Pie chart?

You can use Pie charts for following scenarios.

• When you have only a few clear and separate categories that you want to show and tell apart easily.
• When you want to explain how different sections make up the whole thing, showing how big each section is compared to the entire thing.

Pros

• Pie charts provide an easy-to-understand visual representation of proportions within a whole.
• Pie charts effectively communicate the percentage contribution of each category to the whole.
• Ideal for small datasets which has minimal number of distinct categories.
• Pie charts are visually appealing and grab users’ attention.

Cons

• Pie charts won’t be suitable when there are lots of different categories, because it looks messy and hard to figure out.
• It will be bit challenging for users to compare multiple pie charts side by side due to varying angles and proportions.
• Adding data labels to each slice can lead to overcrowding and gives chaotic appearance.

Conclusion

Pie charts serves as visual storytellers, breaking down complex data into digestible slices that instantly reveal the relationship between parts and the whole. Their simple and quick way of showing information makes them a popular pick for explaining how things are divided and put together.

Tags	Power BI
Useful links	How to Create a Pie Chart in Power BI? (with Example) (wallstreetmojo.com)
MS Learn Modules	Visualization types in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Test Your Knowledge	Quiz