ZERO TO DEVELOPER

by Tajamul Khan
PREREQUISITES DAX Comments TIME INTELLIGENCE
Data vs Lookup tables Error Handling Data Table
Primary vs Foreign Key Variables Calendar
Cardinality SCALAR FUNCTIONS Performance Till Date
Filter Flow Aggregate Functions Time Period Shift

CONTENTS
Iterator Functions Running Total Functions
DAX
Introduction Round Functions PERFORMANCE TUNING

Engines Information Functions Performance Analyser

Data Types Logical Function DAX Studio
Operators
CALCULATE
Vertipaq
Calculated Columns Introduction
Pillars
Measures
Evaluation Context
TABLE FUNCTIONS
GOOD PRACTICES Filter Data Functions
Naming Conventions Table Joins
Evaluation Order Relation Functions
DAX Shortcuts
PREREQUISITES
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DATA VS LOOKUP TABLE

DATA TABLE
contain measurable values or metrics about the business (quantity, revenue, pageviews)
LOOKUP TABLES
provide descriptive attributes about each dimension in your model (customers, products)

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PRIMARY KEY VS FOREIGN KEY

FOREIGN KEY
they contain multiple instances of each value, and are used to match the primary keys in
related lookup tables

PRIMARY KEY
they uniquely identify each row of a table and cannot have NULL value

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CARDINALITY
refers to the uniqueness of values in a column. It can be of many types
One to Many
Many to One
Many to Many
One to One
For our purposes, all relationships in the data model should follow a “ one to many ”
cardinality; one instance of each primary key to many instances of each foreign key

FILTER FLOW
Filter Flow always runs “ downstream ” from Lookup to Data Table
Filters cannot flow “ upstream ” (against the direction)

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DAX
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DAX
DAX also known as Data Analysis Expressions is a functional
language i.e. the execution flows with function calls, It is used in
Power BI
Analysis Services Tabular
Power Pivot
It resembles excel because it was born with PowerPivot

FORMATTING
Code formatting is of paramount importance in DAX.
=SUMX (FILTER ( VALUES ( 'Date'[Year] ), 'Date'[Year] < 2005),
IF ( 'Date'[Year] >= 2000,
[Sales Amount] * 100,
[Sales Amount] * 90) )

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DAX ENGINES
DAX is powered by two internal engines (formula engine & storage engine) which work
together to compress & encode raw data and evaluate DAX queries

FORMULA ENGINE
Receives, interprets and executes all DAX requests
Processes the DAX query then generates a list of logical steps called a query plan
Works with the datacache sent back from the storage engine to evaluate the DAX query
and return a result
STORAGE ENGINE
Compresses and encodes raw data, and only communicates with the formula engine
(doesn’t understand the DAX language)
Receives a query plan from Formula Engine, executes it, and returns a datacache

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DAX ENGINES WORKING

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DATA TYPES DAX TYPE HANDLING

Integer (64 bit) Whole Number
OPERATOR OVERLOADING
Decimal (Floating Point) Operators are not strongly typed
Currency (Fixed Decimal Number) The result depends on the inputs

Date, DateTime, Time example:

TRUE / FALSE (Boolean)
"4" + "8" = 12
String (Unicode String) 4 & 8 = "48"

Pay attention to undesired conversions

Data types represent how values are stored by the DAX storage engine

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DAX OPERATORS

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VERTIPAQ
VertiPaq uses a columnar data structure , which stores data as individual columns (rather
than rows or full tables) to quickly and efficiently evaluate DAX queries

Encoding is used to reduce the amount of memory needed to evaluate a DAX

VALUE ENCODING
Mathematical process used to reduce the number of bits needed to store integer values
HASH ENCODING
Identifies the distinct string values and creates a new table with indexes
RUN LENGTH ENCODING
Reduces the size of a dataset by identifying repeated values found in adjacent rows

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CALCULATED COLUMNS
Allow you to add new, formula based columns to tables
Values are calculated based on information from each row of a table (has row context
Appends static values to each row in a table and stores them in the model ( which
increases file size).
Recalculate on data source refresh or when changes are made to component columns
Primarily used as rows , columns , slicers or filters

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MEASURES
Values are calculated based on information from any filters in the report (has filter context
Does not create new data in the tables themselves
Recalculate in response to any change to filters within the report
Almost always used within the values field of a visual

Measure can’t be called a calculated measure, just call them measure!

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MEASURES VS CALCULATED COLUMNS

Values are calculated based on information Values are calculated based on
from any filters in the report (has filter information from each row of a table (has
context) row context)
Does not create new data in the tables Appends static values to each row in a
themselves doesn’t increase file size table and stores them in the model (
which increases file size
Recalculate in response to any change to Recalculate on data source refresh or
filters within the report when changes are made to component
columns
Almost always used within the values field of Primarily used as rows , columns , slicers
a visual or filters

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EVALUATION CONTEXT
Evaluation contexts are the pillars of DAX i.e., Filter and Row

Filter Context TotalSales = SUMX ( Sales, Sales[Quantity] * Sales[Net Price] )

Filters tables

Row Context
Iterates rows

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FILTER CONTEXT
Filter context filters the tables in your data model
DAX creates filter context when dimensions are added to rows , columns , slicers & filters
CALCULATE can be used to systematically create or modify existing filter context
Filter context always travels (propagates) from the ONE side to the MANY side of a table
relationship

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ROW CONTEXT
Row context iterates through the rows in a table
DAX creates row context when you add calculated columns to your data model
Iterator functions (SUMX, RANKX, etc.) use row
context to evaluate row level calculations
Row context doesn't automatically propagate through table relationships (need to use
RELATED or RELATEDTABLE functions)

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GOOD PRACTICES
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NAMING CONVENTIONS
Measures should not belong to a table
• Avoid table name
• [Margin%] instead of Sales[Margin%]
• Easier to move to another table
• Easier to identify as a measure

Use this syntax when to reference:

Columns → Table[Column]
Measures → [Measure]

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EVALUATION ORDER
is the process by which DAX evaluates the parameters in a function

NON NESTED
IF( Test, True, False )
1 2 3
NON NESTED
SUMX
FILTER(
FILTER ( ‘Table’
RELATED ( ‘Table’[Column], 1 = Inner Most Filter
RELATED( ‘Table’[Column]), 2
‘Table’[Column]), 3 = Outer
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DAX SHORTCUTS

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COMMENT YOUR CODE

Comments can help other users interpret your code, and can be particularly helpful for
complex queries with multiple lines, nested functions, etc.

Single line Comment = -- or //

Multi line Comment = /* ..... */

Bad comment
Total Sales = SUM(Sales[SalesAmount]) --Sum the sales amount

Good comment
Total Sales = SUM(Sales[SalesAmount]) --Calculate total sales amount

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ERROR HANDLING
Error handling functions can be used to help identify missing data, and can be
particularly useful for quality assurance and testing

IFERROR()
Returns a value if first expression is an error and the value of
the expression itself otherwise

ISBLANK()
Checks to see if a value is blank, returns True or False

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VARIABLES
Very useful to avoid repeating subexpressions in your DAX code.
Variables can be a helpful tool for testing or debugging your DAX code

Debug Complex Measure =

VAR SalesAmount = SUM(Sales[SalesAmount])
VAR CostAmount = SUM(Sales[Cost])
VAR Profit = SalesAmount - CostAmount
RETURN
Profit

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SCALAR FUNCTIONS
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COMMON SCALAR FUNCTIONS

function that operates on a single value (or scalar) and returns a single value as a result.
AGGREGATE ROUND INFORMATION LOGICAL

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AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS
Functions that can be used to dynamically aggregate values within a column

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ITERATOR FUNCTIONS
known as iterator functions, Iterate over the table and evaluate the expression for each row

In reality, SUM is nothing but syntax sugar for SUMX

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ROUND FUNCTIONS
Functions that can be used to round values to different levels of precision

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INFORMATION FUNCTIONS
Functions that can be used to analyze the data type or output of an expression

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LOGICAL FUNCTIONS
Functions for returning information about values in a conditional expression

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CALCULATE
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CALCULATE
It is one of the most powerful and versatile functions. It allows you to modify the existing filter
context of a calculation, enabling you to perform complex calculations and aggregations.

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PILLARS OF CALCULATE FUNCTION

EXPANDED TABLES
An expanded table consists of the base table (which is visible to the user), along with columns
from any related table connected via a 1-to-1 or many-to-1 relationship

CONTEXT TRANSITION
Context Transition is the process of turning row context into filter context

By default, calculated columns understand row context but not filter context
To create filter context at the row-level, you can use CALCULATE

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EVALUATION ORDER

MODIFIERS
Modifiers are used to alter the way CALCULATE creates filter context, and are added as filter
arguments within a CALCULATE function

Calculate Modifiers Only

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TABLE FUNCTIONS
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COMMON TABLE/FILTER FUNCTIONS

FILTER DATA ADD DATA CREATE DATA

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ALL FUNCTION
Returns all the rows in a table, or all the values in a column, ignoring any filters
ALL is both a table filter and a CALCULATE modifier
Removes initial filter context
IGNORE FILTER
Does not accept table expressions
(only physical table references)
Returns Table

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FILTER FUNCTION
Returns a filtered table, based on one or more filter expressions
FILTER is both a table function and an iterator
FILTER TABLE
Often used to reduce the number of rows to scan
Returns Table

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DISTINCT
NumOfProducts =
Returns the unique values of a column COUNTROWS ( DISTINCT(
only the ones visible in the current filter context. Product[ProductCode] ))

VALUES
Returns the unique values of a column, NumOfProducts =
only the ones visible in the current filter context, COUNTROWS ( VALUES(
including the additional blank row if it is visible in the Product[ProductCode] ))
filter context.

Use DISTINCT to create new dimension table by extracting unique values from fields in data table!

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DISTINCT VS VALUES VS ALL

VALUES will always show the blank row but DISTINCT will not
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SELECTEDVALUE
SELECTEDVALUE is a convenient function that simplifies retrieving the value of a column, when
only one value is visible.

SELECTEDVALUE (
'Product Category'[Category],
"Multiple values"
)
Equivalent to:
IF ( HASONEVALUE ( 'Product
Category'[Category] ), VALUES ( 'Product
Category'[Category] ), "Multiple values" )

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ALLEXCEPT
The ALLEXCEPT function in DAX is used to remove all context filters in a table except for the
filters specified in the function arguments.

Our slicer is an external filter

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ALLSELECTED
ALLSELECTED() returns all rows in a table or values in a column, ignoring inner filters i.e.,
specified in the visual but respecting other existing filter context.

Our slicer is an external filter

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ADD DATA FUNCTIONS

Functions used to specify or add columns based on existing data in the model

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CREATE DATA FUNCTIONS

Functions used to specify or add columns based on existing data in the model

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TABLE JOINS
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RELATION FUNCTIONS
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TERMINOLOGY
PHYSICAL TABLE VS VIRTUAL TABLE
Physical relationships are manually created, and visible in your data model
Virtual relationships are temporary, and defined using DAX expressions

PHYSICAL RELATION VS VIRTUAL RELATION

There are two key types of table relationships: PHYSICAL and VIRTUAL
Physical relationships are manually created, and visible in your data model
e.g., using data modelling
Virtual relationships are temporary, and defined using DAX expressions
e.g., using Treatas

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RELATIONSHIP FUNCTIONS

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TIME INTELLIGENCE
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DATE TABLE
Date Table is very important for Time Intelligence

If you import or create your own date table, it must meet these requirements:

Must contain all the days for all years represented in your fact tables
Must have at least one field set as a Date or DateTime datatype
Cannot contain duplicate dates or datetime values
If using a time component within a date column, all times must be identical (i.e. 12:00)
Should be marked as a date table (not required but a best practice)

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BUILDING RESUABLE DATE TABLE

DateTable =
ADDCOLUMNS (
CALENDAR (DATE(2020, 1, 1), DATE(2030, 12, 31)),
"Year", YEAR([Date]),
"Month", FORMAT([Date], "MMMM"),
"Month Number", MONTH([Date]),
"Quarter", "Q" & QUARTER([Date]),
"Weekday", FORMAT([Date], "dddd"),
"Weekday Number", WEEKDAY([Date], 2), -- where 1 = Sunday, 2 = Monday
"Is Weekend", IF(WEEKDAY([Date], 2) > 5, TRUE(), FALSE()),
"Is Holiday", FALSE() -- You can replace this with logic to identify holidays )

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CALENDAR
Returns a table with one column of all dates between start and end date

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CALENDARAUTO()
Returns a table with one column of dates based on a fiscal year end month. The Range of dates
is calculated automatically based on data in the model.
Calendarauto(6) means it starts from 01/07

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DATE FORMATTING
Use the FORMAT function to specify date/time formatting. Common examples include:

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TIME INTELLIGENCE FUNCTIONS

Time Intelligence functions allow you to define and compare custom time periods

PERFORMANCE PERIOD SHIFT RUNNING TOTAL

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PERFORMANCE TILL DATE FUNCTIONS

Functions commonly used to calculate performance through the current date

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TIME PERIOD SHIFT FUNCTIONS

Functions commonly used to compare performance between specific periods

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RUNNING TOTAL FUNCTIONS

Functions commonly used to calculate running totals or moving averages

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PERFORMANCE TUNING
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PERFORMANCE ANALYZER
Power BI’s Performance Analyzer can help us troubleshoot issues, measure load times for
visuals/DAX queries, and optimize your code

Power BI Desktop’s Performance Analyzer records user actions (like Excel’s macro recorder),
and tracks the load time (in milliseconds) for each step in the process:

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DAX STUDIO
DAX Studio is a free tool that allows you to connect to your Power BI data model to test and
optimize your DAX queries

DAX Studio

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Tajamul Khan