Dynamic Matrix Heatmap
by Tino Callarisa
Let report readers pick the rows, columns and value themselves, with exact distinct counts.
Let the people reading your report build their own crosstab.
A Power BI matrix is fixed at design time. You choose the rows, the columns and the measure, and everyone gets that view. When a colleague asks "can I see this by route instead of by channel?", someone with edit rights has to change it — or you build a fifth near-identical matrix and the page fills up.
Dynamic Matrix Heatmap renders three dropdowns inside the visual: X axis, Y axis and Value. Anyone reading the report picks the combination they need. No edit rights, no model changes, no request to a developer. The selection is saved with the report.
Cells are coloured by a global heatmap scale, so the shape of the data reads before the numbers do.
Distinct counts that actually add up
There is a quieter problem this solves. Power BI evaluates a measure at the granularity of every field in the visual. Show only two of them and the rest have to be recombined. Sums, minimums and maximums recombine exactly — a distinct count does not. A customer appearing under two service levels is counted in both, and the total stops matching the card next to it.
This visual keeps the underlying rows and counts unique values itself. Drop a raw ID column into the Distinct count of field well and the figure is exact for every combination, with a grand total that matches your card visual.
Free
- Matrix with in-canvas X / Y / Value dropdowns
- Global three-colour heatmap scale
- Automatic aggregation detection — no configuration
- Full formatting: fonts, colours, sizing, header orientation
- Cross-filtering, tooltips, context menu, keyboard navigation
- High contrast support
- Up to 3 dimensions and 2 measures
Pro
- Up to 10 dimensions and 5 measures
- Distinct count of — exact unique counts for any combination
- Show value as % of row, % of column, % of grand total
- Row and column totals with true distinct counts in the margins
No watermark. No time limit. The Free tier is a complete, usable visual.
Privacy
No network access of any kind. No analytics, no telemetry, no external scripts. The privileges array is empty, so Power BI blocks outbound connections at platform level. Nothing leaves your report.
Visual capabilities
- Can access external services or resources