UK Postcode Sectors not loading on the ARCGIS for PowerBI

Question

Hi, not sure what's happened but the postcode sector boundaries for the UK on PowerBI ARCGIS tool no longer renders on the map, it used to work fine but it's no longer the case. Other geography types work and do for other countries.

Could this be looked into?

pmaug · Answer

Removing all whitespace is not ideal, it can cause false matches from testing (seems like it gets confused sometimes with the postal district the sector falls under).

I've managed to find a workaround, or potentially the cause of the issue? Out of complete chance, I noticed the postcode sectors render correctly if the final whitespace on a postcode is replaced with an underscore.

I.E BS1 1 = BS1_1. Written some jank dax to fix the postcode sector field, that takes into account the necessary removal of the first whitespace, and replaces the second whitespace with  an underscore:

SUBSTITUTE(left([Postcode],4)," ","")&SUBSTITUTE(RIGHT([Postcode ],2)," ","_")

I'm not sure what's happened but I could only assume the postcode sector shapefile in ESRIs database were recently updated, but the postcode naming for it used underscores instead of spaces.

Regardless of the speculation, please can this be escalated as a bug with the software? I don't think anyone else would realise that they need to throw a ton of band aids onto their columns just to make it work, especially if it wasn't an issue beforehand and that other postcode/geography types on the tool do not have this quirk.

LeslieUK · Answer

Hello @pmaug

I have carried out some testing with that dummy data and I can confirm the behaviour you're experiencing. I have fiddled around with the data a little and found that as we are locating via the postcode sector, having the space in the formatting is actually what is stopping the process. I removed the space so it is formatted BS11 instead of BS1 1. It's a little awkward I must admit, but you should find that it locates and visualizes correctly like this.

pmaug · Answer

Hi Leslie.

It's only the UK Postcode Sector boundaries that do not work. Postcode districts, counties, etc. are not affected.

I'm on PowerBI 2.118.621.0 64-bit (June 2023).

I've recreated this issue with a completely fresh map using dummy data.

I've attached images of the exact "location type" set up used, and the blank map it renders. I've also attached an image of the postcode sector data being fed (Map postcode & Postcode fields do not work, tried both. The difference between these map postcode is that it removes middle whitespace formatting, which in the past caused issues with ESRI loading in the postcode sector boundaries).