There are a number of situations 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 indicate the standing of a measure extra visually like utilizing begins
• Utilizing Unicode characters as icons in your reviews representing the topic

Chris Webb defined a few of the above situations right here.

On this submit I clarify how you should use 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 submit. Then you may copy the Unicode characters from Energy BI and use them in all textual components of your report like visible titles, textual content bins 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 info on Unicode planes test this out.

So, a easy approach to generate all attainable Unicode characters is to generate a listing of decimal numbers ranging from 0 ending at 1,114,111. This manner we generate a sequence of decimal numbers whatever the gaps between beginning and ending Unicode blocks. Then utilizing UNICHAR() operate in DAX to generate corresponding Unicode characters. With the next DAX expression you may 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 ok. With than 1 million rows, together with all decimal numbers even these ones that aren’t legitimate, discovering a Unicode character appears to be very onerous.

So I considered a greater manner of getting information from internet 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. Keep in mind, UNICHAR() operate solely accepts decimal enter values.

I began constructing a Energy Question operate 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 properly, a lot better than what I used to be constructing.

UPDATE: An enormous 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 “Record.Generate”.

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

After loading the info 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 may simply discover and duplicate a Unicode Character and use it in your report pages, visuals and so forth with out consuming a number of storage. As you could already know, after September 2018 launch of Energy BI Desktop we are able to simply copy values from Desk and Matrix visuals which makes it simple to repeat Unicode Values.

The PBIT file is offered to obtain, all it is advisable 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 bins. 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.