Symbols, Icons (Emojis) & Hex Codes in Excel + Power BI + Power Query

If you’ve ever wanted cleaner dashboards, faster “at-a-glance” reading, and less “wall of numbers” fatigue—Unicode symbols + hex colors are a surprisingly powerful combo. In this post you’ll learn practical, copy-paste-ready tricks for Excel, Power BI (DAX + conditional formatting), and Power Query.

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Why this matters (real-life use cases)

• Status columns that actually read well: ✅ OK, ⚠ Warning, ❌ Issue, ⏳ Pending

• KPI trend indicators: ▲ / ▼ / • without extra images

• Consistent color logic across tools: use one mapping table (Status → Icon → HexColor)

• Cleaner reporting: less clutter, fewer visuals, faster scanning

Excel: Add icons that behave like data (not pictures)

1) Status icons with UNICHAR() (no add-ins, no images)

In the provided file, Status is mapped to an icon code, and Excel generates the icon dynamically.

=UNICHAR(XLOOKUP([@Status],tblStatusMap[Status],tblStatusMap[IconCode]))

Want a quick inline version without a mapping table?

=IFS(A2="OK",UNICHAR(9989),A2="Warning",UNICHAR(9888),A2="Issue",UNICHAR(10060),A2="Pending",UNICHAR(9203))

Why it’s nice: filters, pivots, and formulas still work—because it’s just text.

💡 Pro Tip: Combine icon + label for “KPI-ready” text:

=UNICHAR(9989)&" "&A2

2) Trend arrows without conditional formatting

Use a single formula for ▲ / ▼ / • based on a % change:

=IF(B2>0,UNICHAR(9650),IF(B2<0,UNICHAR(9660),UNICHAR(8226)))

This is perfect for compact tables where you don’t want extra bar charts.

3) Hex codes in Excel: great for standardizing colors (with one catch)

Excel can store hex codes like #00B050, but it doesn’t apply them as cell color by formula alone (Excel’s cell fill color is not a formula result).

What you can do reliably:

• keep hex codes as a “design truth”

• split hex to RGB numbers (useful for documentation, consistency, and VBA/macros)
  

Example splitting #RRGGBB into R/G/B:

=HEX2DEC(MID([@HexColor],2,2))
=HEX2DEC(MID([@HexColor],4,2))
=HEX2DEC(MID([@HexColor],6,2))

💡 Hidden trick (Excel formatting): you can still use Conditional Formatting rules based on Status (OK/Warning/Issue) and let hex live in a mapping table as your “source of truth”.

Optimizing Excel, Power BI, and Power Query reports with symbols, icons, and hex codes for cleaner visuals, consistent color logic, and effective KPI trend indicators.

Power BI: Hex colors become dynamic formatting superpowers

1) The “Field value” conditional formatting pattern (the big win)

Power BI can read a hex color code from a column/measure and apply it as formatting.

Create a measure like:

Status Color =
SWITCH(
    SELECTEDVALUE('DemoData'[Status]),
    "OK",      "#00B050",
    "Warning", "#FFC000",
    "Issue",   "#C00000",
    "Pending", "#7F7F7F",
    "#7F7F7F"
)

Then in a table/matrix:

• Conditional formatting → Font color (or Background)

• Format by → Field value

• Based on field → Status Color

💡 Pro Tip: This scales insanely well. You can swap themes or palettes by replacing just the mapping logic (or better: a mapping table).

2) KPI icons in DAX with UNICHAR()

Create a measure for status icons:

Status Icon =
SWITCH(
    SELECTEDVALUE('DemoData'[Status]),
    "OK",      UNICHAR(9989),
    "Warning", UNICHAR(9888),
    "Issue",   UNICHAR(10060),
    "Pending", UNICHAR(9203),
    BLANK()
)

Then create a “pretty KPI label”:

KPI Label =
[Status Icon] & " " & SELECTEDVALUE('DemoData'[Status])

✅ Works great in tables, matrices, cards (depending on visual), tooltips, and titles.

Power Query: Build one mapping table to rule them all

Power Query can generate characters from Unicode numbers and merge mappings into your data model.

Step-by-step pattern (recommended)

1. Create a small StatusMap table (Status, IconCode, HexColor)

2. Merge it into your fact table (DemoData)

3. Add an icon text column using Character.FromNumber([IconCode])

Example M snippet:

let
    Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name="tblDemo"]}[Content],
    StatusMap = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name="tblStatusMap"]}[Content],

    Merged = Table.NestedJoin(Source, {"Status"}, StatusMap, {"Status"}, "Map", JoinKind.LeftOuter),
    Expanded = Table.ExpandTableColumn(Merged, "Map", {"IconCode", "HexColor"}, {"IconCode", "HexColor"}),

    Icon = Table.AddColumn(Expanded, "Icon", each Character.FromNumber([IconCode]), type text),
    Label = Table.AddColumn(Icon, "StatusLabel", each [Icon] & " " & [Status], type text)
in
    Label

💡 Hidden trick: do all logic in the mapping table. Your fact table stays clean, and reporting stays consistent.

Practical “hidden” ideas you can steal today

• Use one StatusMap across Excel + Power BI + PQ (copy/paste or store in SharePoint/CSV)

• Use icons in titles and tooltips to reduce visual clutter

• Keep hex codes in data so themes can change without touching visuals

• Use ▲/▼ symbols in tables to avoid additional charts in tight layouts

  
  

Practice material

Use the included file:

• DemoData sheet: sample dataset + icon/trend formulas + hex split

• StatusMap sheet: status → icon code → hex color

• ReadMe sheet: quick instructions

Icons_and_Hex_Reference.zip

Download ZIP • 37KB

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