Two Ways to Automatically Set Equal Column Width in Power BI Matrix Visuals

[@giovannibianchi9392]

Nice trick, but it doesn't work when you have columns without data (i.e. sales for Aug/Sep/Oct/Noc/Dec when you are still in July) that are forced with "Show items with no data"

[@szczyps]

Solution 1 doesn't work, look at September column, it's still wider than others due to its header longer than 0000 value. It's easy to solve by adding more zeroes in that case where we have constant amount of 12 columns only, that' fine, however what it is not useful for tables with huge number of potential columns which may appear depending on page or visual filtering, when we don't exactly know, which header can be the largest one...

[@ramijackson3978]

PowerBI sucks at the little things and this is one of them. Thank you for this video!

[@MatadorSoftware]

My pleasure!

[@shahabh8942]

this works if you're not using slicers. Once you apply filters via a slicer it starts to reset the auto-width, even though it's turned off. Any thoughts on a workaround?

[@RoseLK]

What if the column names are quite long. I want to wrap the names and distribute the columns equally

[@MickaelHilcenko-ux4mq]

i'd like to know too

[@peoplecommon3811]

I'm working with power bi for almost 10y and can't believe this stupid feature still unavailable, and we must vote for something we need, and they easily drop your vote with comment vote solved, what the hell MS

[@w13ken]

Nice video James. I've tried both of these methods before but cannot crack how to use either to wordwrap a column header where it is longer than the values below.

[@MatadorSoftware]

Very interesting point and thanks for the comment! I’m hoping these features are made native in monthly feature releases soon!

[@zxccxz164]

@@MatadorSoftware Yes this is critical, you need to be able to word wrap the COLUMN header!!!!!

[@reachsahil74]

Hey @James, this is a cool workaround 👍🏻 I have not tried it yet, but does it also work when the data is refreshed or loaded after making the suggested changes into the visual? In case the data is refreshed such that the new cells have data which is bigger than the set standard size, will the table/matrix retain the column width since auto-width in On? Or will the last saved size be constant even if the loaded data exceeds the size of the column?

[@MatadorSoftware]

Hey Sahil, that’s a very good point- personally I would extend the column so much that it could accommodate any value you foresee in the future. For example if you know sales for a product won’t go over 999,999 then REPT(“0”, 6) is a safe bet!

[@chenry2754]

I use a similar DAX method to space a matrix. Instead of removing the Column with the repeating characters, I use a non-trimmable space: Column Spacer = rept(" ",15) In the Visual this measure looks empty, and with auto-width enabled this long, non-trimmable string will force the columns to a specific width. I like it in a matrix because it can serve as a line break and gives you a little whitepace in the matrix. Find it makes things a bit more readable instead of a big wall of numbers. Or use them as sub-headers.

[@MatadorSoftware]

I’ve handled the above in another “quick tips” video on the method you describe- the repeat or REPT function. Its great, and the equivalent REPLICATE() string function in SQL is handy.

[@jamelzied1350]

Hey @James , I am using PowerBI desktop in my internship and I would like to know if it allows real time visualization and if I can integrate it with a Machine learning model .

[@MatadorSoftware]

Real time Visualization- absolutely! You can use Azure SQL, for example. There are blogs and books on extending Power BI with AI & ML! But that’s a more specific use case

[@miali5550]

Power BI is so stupid just a waste of time and money to invest such effort on small things like this

[@MatadorSoftware]

There are different frustrations in each BI tool, it’s certainly not a waste of time if it’s part of your daily professional tech stack.