Power BI Donut Chart – How to use

This Power BI Tutorial will learn how to create a Power BI Chart using Donut chart visualization using Power BI Desktop. Also, we will discuss:

• What is Power BI Donut chart?
• Rules to create Power BI DonutChart?
• Key elements of Power BI Donutchart?
• How to create a Power BI Donutchart on Power BI Desktop?
• Donut chart vs Pie chart
• Power BI Doughnut chart show/hide all label
• Power BI Donut chart colors
• Power BI Donut chart shows total on center
• Power BI Doughnut chart conditional formatting
• Power BI Donut chart top 10
• Advantages and disadvantages of Power BI Doughnut chart

What is Power BI Donut chart?

A Donut chart is also known as a Doughnut chart. A Donut chart is much similar to a Pie chart on Power BI, which is useful to visualize the high-level data.

A Donut chart demonstrates the relationship of parts to an entire. Also, a Donut chart can contain more than one information arrangement.

Donut Charts are best used to compare a particular section to the whole, rather than comparing individual sections with each other.

The sum of the Donut chart values must add up to 100%. Like Pie charts, the formula of a Donut chart is = (given data/ total data)*360.

Here is an example of a Donut Chart, which presents the data as total sales by Country. Later we will see how to create a Donut chart on Power BI.

There is a blank space inside the donut chart, used displays information inside it. Based on the dimension of the graph, the Power BI Chart is classified into a 3D Donut chart and a 2D Donut chart.

Also, there are 2 types of Donut charts. They are:

• Donut chart.
• Exploded Donut chart.

Rules to create Power BI Doughnut Chart

There are some rules to follow before creating a Doughnut chart on Power BI. These are:

1. Don’t use more than five sections.
2. Avoid to use 3-D Doughnut Chart.
3. Avoid comparing one Doughnut chart with another Doughnut chart.
4. All the values must be Zero values.
5. Don’t use negative values for Doughnut chart.
6. The categories represent parts of whole in each ring of the Doughnut chart.

Read: Power Bi Schedule Refresh

Key elements of Power BI Donut chart

There are mainly 4 key elements on the Power BI Donut chart. These are:

• Title: The title gives short information about the visual. It can be customized that tells brief information.
• Legend: The legend tells the information about each slice that represents on the doughnut chart.
• Details: Drag and drop the column on which we want to partition our Doughnut chart.
• Label: On a doughnut chart, the data represents the part of the whole and each slice of the chart has a different piece of data. It presents as a percentage of the total chart.
• Value: Any numeric value such as order, sales, profits, etc.

How to create a Power BI Doughnut chart on Power BI Desktop?

Now we will see how to create a Doughnut chart on Power BI. For this follow these simple steps:

Step-1:

Prepare the data, that you used to make the visual. Here we use data based on the Product’s financial data. You can download it here for your practice. Your data source may be Excel data, SharePoint list, SQL data, etc.

Step-2:

Go to Get data > More… > All/File > Excel workbook > Connect.

Step-3:

Select the Excel data> Open.

Step-4:

A navigate page will appear. By selecting Excel data, navigate it to Power BI. Click on load.

Step-5:

On the Report page, click on the Doughnut chart under Visualizations. For creating the visual, drag and drop the data to the field.

For Example, we will create a visual that shows the data Product’s profit by Country.

This is how to create a Doughnut chart on Power BI.

Read: Microsoft Power BI Stacked Column Chart

Donut chart vs Pie chart

Although Donut charts have originated from Pie charts, still there are some differences between them. These are:

• Based on Usage, the Donut chart compares each value contribution to the total but the Pie chart compares each value contribution except a hole in the center.
• A donut chart uses white space to show total, trend arrows or lifting comparisons but a Pie chart doesn’t have any white space in between to show related information.
• A Donut chart contains multiple numerical data series but a Pie chart contains only a single numerical data series.
• The size of the Donut segments chart is used to indicate the values, but the size of the Pie slicers is used to indicate the values.
• In the case of Pie charts, If two series are to be compared then two Pie charts are required. But in the Donut chart, a single Donut chart is sufficient to compare two series.

Power BI Doughnut chart show/hide all label

On the Power BI Doughnut chart, we can customize all labels by show or hide. Follow these easy steps to implementing this:

Step-1:

Select the Doughnut chart, that we created. Go to Format pane > Detail labels > On/Off.

The above chart, it is showing the details label on the Doughnut chart. Also, we can format the data labels selecting from Label style.

For example, we format the label style to Percent of the total. Then the chart will look like this:

This is how we can format and show the label on the Power BI Donut chart.

Read: Power BI waterfall chart

Power BI Doughnut chart hides all label

If we of the detail labels toggle, it will hide the labels on the Doughnut chart.

In this way, we can hide the label on Power BI Doughnut chat.

Donut chart show values

In the Donut chart, we can see the values in different ways by following these easy steps:

Select the Donut chart > Go to Format pane > Expand Details label > Expand Display units

This is how we can show values on Doughnut chat in various ways.

Power BI Donut chart colors

On the Power BI Donut chart, we can customize the background colors and data colors.

For formatting each slice/data color on the chart, expand the Data colors.

Here we can format each of the data colors from the color chart. For example, we will format France’s color Blue to Yellow. Then it will look like this:

Like this, we can format all the slice/data colors on the Power BI Donut chart.

For formatting the background color on the chart, expand the Background.

Here we can show or hide the background color by turn on/off the Background’s toggle. Also, we can customize the colors and add transparency to make the chart more attractive.

We can remove all the formats by clicking on the Revert to default.

Read: Power bi row-level security tutorial

Power BI Donut chat total on Center

Now we will see how to display the total on the Power BI Donut chart, by following these simple steps:

Step-1:

Create a donut chart (here we will use Financial data), that shows the Total profit by Product.

• Legend: Products
• Values: Profit

Step-2:

Add a card chart, on that report page, Which shows the total Profit of the product and displays each product’s profit.

Step-3:

Put that Card chart on the center of the Donut Chart. It will show the total profit of the Product like this:

It is showing the Total profits of all Products. Also, we can see the profit of a particular slice when we select a date. Then the chart will look like this:

If you are unable to see the total value on the center of the donut chart, then click on the outside of the chart to see the value.

This is how to show the total on the center of the Doughnut chart.

Read: Power BI Funnel Chart

Power BI Doughnut chart conditional formatting

Now we will see conditional formatting on Power BI. For implementing this format follow these steps:

Example-1: Format by a color scale

Step-1:

As there is no option for conditional formatting on the data color of the Doughnut chart, we will convert this Doughnut chart to Clustered column chart.

Step-2:

Under Format pane > select the data colors > click on the function(conditional formatting function)

Step-3:

It will navigate a page, on which we will do the conditions on the data color for visual.

In this above example, here we set the data colors according to lowest value, middle value, and the highest value on minimum, center, and maximum respectively.

Step-4 :

After clicking OK, the data color will change on the clustered column chart. Also, we can see this chart having conditional formating.

Step-5:

Now convert this column chart to a Donut chart by selecting this visual. It applies the color on each product based on its count.

Example-2: Format by Rules

Step-1:

Similarly, choose Rules by expanding Format by(on selecting the function of bar chart’s data color).

Step-2:

Here, let’s do some Rules-based format on the Donut chart.

In this above format, we applied 3 rules having different colors. Click on OK. It will appear on the chart based on the sum of the Profit.

Step-3:

Similarly, now convert the bar chart to a Doughnut chart. It will look like below:

This is how we can do conditional formatting on the Power BI Donut chart.

Read: Microsoft Power BI Combo Chart

Power BI Donut chart top 10

Now, we will see how to filter the top N element on the Doughnut chart. Here, N stands for any natural number. Maybe it’s 5,10,2,etc…

By following these easy steps, we can filter the Top N element on the Doughnut chart.

Step-1:

Create a Donut chart that shows the data as Profit by Month name.

• Legend: Month name
• Values: Profit

Step-2:

Go to Filter section > Expand Filters on this visual > Select Top N from Filter type > add Fields.

The above chart showing the top 10 profited months from the total month. We can customize the shown item to Top or Bottom.

This is how to do Power BI Donut chart top 10.

Read: Power bi gauge chart – How to use with examples

Advantages and disadvantages of Power BI Doughnut chart

There are some advantages and disadvantages of using the Power BI Doughnut chart.

Advantages of Power BI Doughnut chart:

• Beginners friendly and easy to use.
• It is easy to read when its done correctly.
• It’s round shape represents data visually, as a fractional part of a whole. Which can be interpreted easily by the human brain.
• It allows the reader to see a data comparison.
• We can visualize the all the information at a glance.
• We can highlight certain values of each chart by manipulating the display.

Disadvantages of Power BI Doughnut chart:

• This can be become difficult to interpret when we have more than seven categories.
• It can get cluttered easily.
• It take a lot of spaces.
• When having similar quantities it can be difficult to interpret the data.

You may like the following Power BI tutorials:

• Power BI combine columns from two tables
• Power bi create a date table
• Power bi desktop vs Power bi service vs Power bi premium
• Power BI Clustered Column Chart
• Power bi calculated column vs measure

Conclusion

In this Power BI Tutorial, we learned the Power BI Donut chart. Also, we discussed these below topics:

• What is Power BI Donut chart?
• Rules to create Power BI DonutChart and Key elements of Power BI Donutchart?
• How to create a Power BI Donutchart on Power BI Desktop?
• Battle round on Donut chart vs Pie chart
• Power BI Doughnut chart show/hide all label
• Power BI Donut chart colors
• Power BI Donut chart shows total on center
• Power BI Doughnut chart conditional formatting
• Power BI Donut chart top 10
• Discuss Advantages and disadvantages of the Power BI Doughnut chart