How to Sort Stacked Bar Chart in Power BI

You’ve dragged your fields onto the canvas, selected the stacked bar chart visual in Power BI, and suddenly, you have a problem. The bars are sorted alphabetically or in some other random order that makes no sense for the story you’re trying to tell. This common frustration point can derail otherwise great reports, but sorting your chart correctly is easier than it seems. This tutorial will walk you through exactly how to get your stacked bar charts sorted by total value, a specific category, or even in a completely custom order.

Why Sorting Stacked Bar Charts Can Be Tricky

The confusion with sorting stacked bar charts stems from what Power BI is trying to sort by default. A stacked chart has multiple dimensions working at once: an axis (like 'Region' or 'Month'), a value (like 'Sales'), and a legend (the categories that make up the stacks, like 'Product Type').

When you click the default sort buttons, Power BI often sorts by the axis field alphabetically (e.g., Atlanta, Boston, Chicago) or by the legend field. However, most of the time, what you really want is to sort the bars by their total combined value, showing the highest-performing category first. Or, you might have a specific order in mind that isn't alphabetical at all, like "Small," "Medium," and "Large."

Let's go over the three main methods to get the precise sort order you need.

Method 1: Sort by the Total Value of Each Bar

This is the most common and straightforward sorting need. You've built a chart showing total revenue by marketing channel, with each channel's bar stacked by campaign. You want to see the channels with the most total revenue at the top. This is the easiest fix.

Follow these steps:

1. Click on your stacked bar chart to select it.
2. In the top right corner of the chart visual, click the three-dot icon (... More options).
3. A menu will appear. Hover over Sort axis.
4. In the sub-menu, you'll see your various fields. To sort by the highest total amount, select your value field (like 'Sum of Revenue').
5. Just below, ensure Sort descending is also selected to show the highest value bar first. To flip the order, choose Sort ascending.

That's it! Your chart's X-axis will now be correctly ordered based on the total combined size of each bar, allowing you to instantly see your top performers.

Method 2: Sort by a Single Category Within the Stack

Sometimes you need to sort based on the performance of a single, specific segment within each bar. For instance, imagine you're analyzing sales across different countries. While you want to see the full sales mix, your primary goal is to prioritize countries with the highest sales of a new product line, "Gadgets."

To do this, you need to create a helper measure. It sounds technical, but it’s a quick copy-paste formula that tells Power BI to isolate the value of that one specific category for sorting purposes.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Create a New Measure for Sorting

From the main Power BI ribbon, click on New Measure. This will open the DAX formula bar. Enter a formula like this, replacing the table, column, and category names with your own:

Sort by Gadgets = 
CALCULATE(
    SUM(Sales[SalesAmount]),
    'Sales'[ProductCategory] = "Gadgets"
)

This DAX formula creates a new measure named 'Sort by Gadgets'. It calculates the sum of the 'SalesAmount' but only for rows where the 'ProductCategory' is "Gadgets." Press Enter to save the measure.

2. Apply the Hiding Trick (Best Practice)

This new measure is only for sorting, you don’t need it cluttering your fields list. With your new measure selected in the Data pane on the right, click on it and hide it from the report view. This keeps your workspace clean.

3. Apply the New Sort

Now, go back to your stacked bar chart and repeat the steps from Method 1:

• Click the ... More options icon.
• Hover over Sort axis.
• This time, select your new measure, Sort by Gadgets.

Your chart will instantly reorder itself, placing the countries with the highest "Gadgets" sales at the top, even though the bars still display the total mix of all product sales.

Method 3: Create a Fully Custom Sort Order

What if your sort order has nothing to do with numbers or the alphabet? This is common for things like customer lifecycle stages (Lead, MQL, SQL, Closed Won), satisfaction survey scores (Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent), or service tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold). Alphabetically, "Bronze" would come first and "Silver" last - not what you want.

The solution is to use Power BI's Sort by Column feature. This involves creating a new column in your data table that defines the correct order numerically.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Navigate to the Data View

On the far left of the Power BI interface, switch from the Report view (bar chart icon) to the Data view (table icon).

2. Create your Sort Order Column

Find and select the data table that contains the column you want to set a custom sort for (e.g., your 'Service Tiers' table). In the ribbon at the top, click New Column. In the formula bar, use the DAX SWITCH function to assign a numerical order:

Tier Sort Order = 
SWITCH(
    'Service Tiers'[TierName],
    "Bronze", 1,
    "Silver", 2,
    "Gold", 3,
    "Platinum", 4,
    5  // This acts as a default value
)

This formula checks the TierName column. For every row that says "Bronze," it enters a 1 in our new column. For "Silver," it enters a 2, and so on. Hit Enter to create the column.

3. Set the 'Sort by Column' Rule

This is the crucial step that connects your text column to your new number column.

• While still in the Data view, select the original text column you want to sort (in this example, TierName). You’ll know the column is selected because it will be highlighted grey.
• Click on the Column tools tab in the ribbon.
• Click the Sort by Column button.
• From the dropdown menu, choose your newly created numeric column (Tier Sort Order).

Nothing will visibly change on the data table, but you've just taught Power BI a new rule: whenever it needs to sort the TierName column, it should use the logic from the Tier Sort Order column instead.

4. Test Your Chart

Return to the Report view. Select your stacked bar chart. Then, use the sort menu (... More options > Sort axis) and choose your axis field (TierName). Finally, select Sort ascending. Your chart will now be perfectly ordered: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum.

Final Tip: Sorting the Legend Order

If you also need to control the order of the segments within the bars (and in the legend), you use the same "Sort by Column" trick from Method 3. You'd apply it to the column that you're using in the Legend field of your visual. For example, if your legend is ProductCategory, you would create a ProductCategorySortOrder column in your 'Products' table and set the sort rule there.

Final Thoughts

Getting your stacked bar charts sorted correctly in Power BI moves your report from being mildly confusing to perfectly clear. While it seems tricky initially, once you learn whether to sort by the total value, a specific measure, or a custom helper column, you gain complete control over how your data is presented to your audience.

All that clicking through menus and handwriting DAX measures can really eat up time, especially for busy teams that need to build dashboards quickly. At Graphed, we designed our platform to eliminate this friction. Instead of manually applying sorting, you can just ask in plain language, "Create a stacked bar chart showing sales by country, sorted by the highest total revenue." Our AI connects directly to your marketing and sales data, then instantly builds and sorts the chart for you, saving you the steps in between so you can get right to the insights.