Stream & Ribbon

When two categories have the same value in a period, one of them has to be drawn first. If nothing decides the order, the pair can swap from one month to the next with no change in the data, and readers see an overtake that never happened. Ties are common in units, tickets, headcount and any value that is rounded before it is ranked.

Here equal values share the rank ("#2 (tied)", the next one is #4) and keep the previous period's order, then go by name. Ranking > Tie Rule can switch to Name (A to Z), and Footnote > State the Rank and Tie Rule writes the rule under the chart. The ranks are golden-tested against scipy's rankdata and the drawing order against a pandas sort on value, previous position and name.

Labels Inside Bands puts the name, value, share or rank inside each band, sized by its thickness and never overlapping; a label that does not fit is left out rather than drawn over its neighbour. Start Labels and End Labels name the bands at the edges, so End Labels with Rank and name lists the ranking at the right end (#1 Munich, #2 Chicago).

The legend follows Ranking > Legend Order: rank in the last period, total over all periods, data order or name. With Let Readers Change the Order on, a small button inside the visual lets readers cycle through those orders themselves. Tooltips can add the share of the period, the rank with ties and the period total.

That is Premium. Compare (What Changed) > Compare With sets the reference: the previous period, the same period last year from the data, or a Comparison field such as a prior-year or budget measure. Labels and tooltips then show the rank change (▲2, ▼1) and the change as Δ, Δ % or both, and the old rank can be drawn as a ghost.

Top N and Other keeps the top N per period with the rest in one Other band and marks entries and exits. Rank by (premium) orders the bands by a second measure while the thickness stays the first, so the chart can be big by revenue and ranked by margin. Risers and Overtakes highlights the biggest riser and faller and writes a callout such as "Valencia overtook Hamburg in Mar 2026". Playback steps through the periods with a live ranking, Small multiples draws one chart per region, and Forecast of the Total adds 80 % and 95 % prediction intervals from exponential smoothing.

There is no series limit of our own: Power BI sends up to 1,000 legend values, and colours do not repeat past the palette. The visual reads 30,000 rows per window and fetches up to 150,000; when Power BI sends less than the model has, an icon says only part of the data is shown. Negative values have no thickness in a stream or ribbon, so they are drawn as zero, keep their value in the tooltip and are mentioned in the footnote.

The layout adapts to the visual's size: below 480 px wide or 300 px high the legend moves under the chart, below 320 x 200 the legend and y-axis drop and the x-axis keeps its first and last period, and below 160 x 100 only the bands remain. Chart > Orientation turns both charts horizontal, with time from top to bottom and room for long names.