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Physical and Virtual Relationships in DAX
DAX calculations can leverage relationships present in the data model, but you can obtain the same result without physical relationships, applying equivalent filters using specific DAX patterns. This...
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Calculated Columns and Measures in DAX
One of the first concepts to learn in DAX is the difference between calculated columns and measures. This article shortly recaps the differences and describes when to use each one. Calculated columns...
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KPIs in Tabular models for Power BI and Excel
A Tabular model can define a measure as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI), thus providing a visual indicator for status and trend. This article describes in detail the KPI settings needed to get the...
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Power BI – Star schema or single table
This article analyzes a classic modeling question: is it better to build a model as a regular star schema or as a single table in Power BI? The answer is clear: a star schema is always the best choice....
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Development tools for Tabular models in 2021
This article is the state-of-the-art guide of the development tools for Power BI and Analysis Services models, providing guidance to improve productivity and access to new features. Microsoft recently...
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Development Tools for Power BI and Analysis Services models – Live Event
Don’t miss the upcoming free SQLBI live event on Wednesday May 26, 2021! Past are days of creating data models with a single monolithic tool provided by Microsoft. The required toolbelt includes...
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Best Practices Using SUMMARIZE and ADDCOLUMNS
Everyone using DAX is probably used to SQL query language. Because of the similarities between the Tabular data modeling and the relational data modeling, there is the expectation that you can perform...
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Inventory in Power Pivot and DAX: Snapshot vs. Dynamic Calculation
You can implement the calculation of stock inventory over time in several ways in DAX. The xVelocity technology in Power Pivot and Analysis Services Tabular is so fast that you might consider both...
View ArticleChoosing Azure Analysis Services for large datasets
UPDATE 2021-06-29: also read Choosing Azure Analysis Services or Power BI Premium for large datasets – SQLBI containing updates about Power BI Premium Gen2. I often get questions about use cases for...
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Optimizing conditions involving blank values in DAX
This article describes how blank values considered in a DAX conditional expression can affect its query plan and how to apply possible optimizations to improve performance in these cases. An important...
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Launching the Mastering Tabular video course
The new video course to create enterprise-level solutions with Power BI and Analysis Services is available! After months of recording and post-production work, we are glad to announce the release of a...
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Using ALLEXCEPT versus ALL and VALUES
ALLEXCEPT is a handy DAX function to retrieve all the columns of a table except some. When used as a CALCULATE modifier, its behavior is less intuitive and might result in inaccurate measures. In this...
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Mark as Date table
Tabular models (including Power BI) require marking the Date table as a date table to get appropriate results with time intelligence calculations. This article explains why this setting is required. We...
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Creating table functions in DAX using DETAILROWS
This article describes how to use the detail rows expression of a measure to obtain the equivalent of creating table functions in DAX. This allows the reusing of a table expression in multiple...
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Controlling drillthrough using Detail Rows Expressions in DAX
The Detail Rows Expression in a Tabular model provides the user with control over the drillthrough results obtained by showing details of a measure. This article describes typical DAX expressions you...
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Header/Detail vs Star Schema models in Tabular and Power BI
In this article we perform a performance comparison between header/detail models and star schemas. Building a star schema might require a few ETL steps and some coding. Nonetheless, it is always the...
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Implementing real-time updates in Power BI using push datasets instead of...
Push datasets are an efficient and inexpensive way to implement real-time updates in Power BI reports and dashboards. They can provide better performance and scalability than DirectQuery at the price...
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Creating real-time dashboards in Power BI with push datasets
Though you can build real-time reports with DirectQuery, push datasets offer a more scalable, economical, and effective solution especially when combined with an Import model already in place. In this...
View ArticleUpdates about Multidimensional vs Tabular #ssas #msbi
I recently read the blog post from James Serra Tabular model: Not ready for prime time? (read also the comments because there are discussions about a few points raised by James) and the following post...
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Relationships in Power BI and Tabular models
This article describes the types of relationships available in Power BI and Analysis Services, clarifying the differences in cardinality and filter propagation of physical relationships. UPDATE...
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