Utilizing Unicode Characters in Energy BI

There are a number of eventualities to make use of Unicode characters in Energy BI together with however not restricted to:

• Creating easy KPI columns in Desk or Matrix visuals
• To point out the standing of a measure extra visually like utilizing begins
• Utilizing Unicode characters as icons in your stories representing the topic

Chris Webb defined among the above eventualities right here.

On this put up I clarify how you should utilize Energy BI as a device to generate virtually all legitimate Unicode characters in Energy BI. You may obtain the PBIT on the backside of this put up. Then you possibly can copy the Unicode characters from Energy BI and use them in all textual components of your report like visible titles, textual content packing containers and so forth.

The Unicode planes begin from 0 to 1,114,111 which is decimal equal of 0 to 10FFFF in hexadecimal numeral system. For extra data on Unicode planes test this out.

So, a easy approach to generate all potential Unicode characters is to generate a listing of decimal numbers ranging from 0 ending at 1,114,111. This fashion we generate a sequence of decimal numbers whatever the gaps between beginning and ending Unicode blocks. Then utilizing UNICHAR() perform in DAX to generate corresponding Unicode characters. With the next DAX expression you possibly can simply generate a listing and the corresponding Unicode characters:

Generate Unicode = 
SELECTCOLUMNS(
  ADDCOLUMNS(
      GENERATESERIES(0, 1114111, 1)
    , "Unicode Character"
    , IFERROR(UNICHAR([Value]), "Not Supported")
     )
, "Decimal Worth", [Value]
, "Unicode Character", [Unicode Character]
)

Whereas producing Unicode characters with the above state of affairs is technically working, however, it’s not adequate. With than 1 million rows, together with all decimal numbers even these ones that aren’t legitimate, discovering a Unicode character appears to be like to be very laborious.

So I considered a greater method of getting information from net that comes with Unicode Planes, Unicode Blocks and block vary. Among the finest on-line sources I discovered is Wikipedia.

So we simply have to:

• import information from the desk within the above Wikipedia hyperlink
• break up the “Block Vary” column to 2 columns containing Block Vary Begin and Block Vary Finish
• generate values between Block Vary Begin and Block Vary Finish

The one half which isn’t that straight ahead is changing hexadecimal values to decimal values. Bear in mind, UNICHAR() perform solely accepts decimal enter values.

I began constructing a Energy Question perform to transform hexadecimal to decimal, however, it was buggy and never environment friendly in any respect. So I googled hex to decimal and discovered this text written by “Greg Deckler” that works very effectively, a lot better than what I used to be constructing.

UPDATE: A giant shout out to Rocco Lupoi who shared his Energy Question code within the feedback. His code is NOT recursive, so it performs higher on bigger quantities of information. Give Rocco’s code a go and see the way it works in your state of affairs.

Now that I’ve the beginning and finish Unicode Block Ranges in decimal, I can simply generate a listing of values between the beginning and finish ranges in Energy Question utilizing “Listing.Generate”.

Increasing the “Unicode Decimal” record column offers us all decimal values in vary that may be handed to UNICHAR() perform in DAX.

After loading the information we simply want so as to add a calculated column with the next expression:

Unicode Character = IFERROR(UNICHAR('Unicode'[Unicode Decimal]), "Not Supported")

Now you possibly can simply discover and duplicate a Unicode Character and use it in your report pages, visuals and so forth with out consuming lots of storage. As you could already know, after September 2018 launch of Energy BI Desktop we will simply copy values from Desk and Matrix visuals which makes it simple to repeat Unicode Values.

The PBIT file is on the market to obtain, all you might want to do is to open the file, right-click on any desired Unicode Character from the Unicodes Desk then click on “Copy worth”.

Now you can paste the character in all textual components of a report in Energy BI together with within the visible titles and Textual content packing containers. You may even use the Unicode characters to rename a measure or column within the “Fields” tab from “Visualization” ache.

Obtain the PBIT file from right here.

Extra to learn: Unicode Consortium official web site.

Associated