Posted by
Andy Brown
on 07 April 2016
Looping over Excel workbooks is one thing, but how can you loop over all of the worksheets in a single workbook, importing the contents of each? This blog explains the steps you need to follow.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 07 April 2016
If you've been given the output from a pivot table or a cube, you can collapse it back into its original state using the UNPIVOT transform in Integration Services.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 23 March 2016
It's only a small thing, but … this blog shows how you can click and drag with the ALT key held down, then type to apply a table alias to lots of tables simultaneously.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 26 February 2016
Perspectives in Analysis Services let you show different parts of your tabular model to different people, but they don't have any security. To ensure that the right eyes see the right bits of your model, you'll need to create and manage security roles, as explained in this blog.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 22 February 2016
This blog gives an outline of how to add administrators to an instance of SSAS, and how to set whether some accounts are automatically made administrators by default.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 22 February 2016
DirectQuery mode allows you to run queries in Analysis Services (Tabular) directly against the underlying SQL Server tables imported into the model. This blog explains what DirectQuery is, shows how to enable it and gives an idea of its pros and cons.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 19 February 2016
You can partition a table in SSAS Tabular, which involves processing it in chunks rather than in one fell swoop. This blog explains how partitions work, and how to set them up and use them.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 19 February 2016
Processing tables involves loading data into your model, and can take a long time. This blog explains how processing works in SSAS Tabular and the different options available to you, shows how to process tables or models, and gives some ideas on how to make processing run more quickly.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 18 February 2016
Perspectives in SSAS tabular are windows which allow you to control who sees which bits of your model. They're really easy to set up, as this blog shows, but aren't a substitute for setting security roles.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 18 February 2016
Knowing how to write DAX queries is one thing, but where are you going to use them? This blog shows how you can integrate DAX queries into SSMS, SSRS, SSIS, Excel and PowerPivot.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 12 February 2016
As well as creating measures to aggregate data in tabular models using DAX, you can also write queries to extract data - this blog shows you how!
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 11 February 2016
Hiearchies allow you to group related columns together, to make for prettier pivot tables and happier users. This blog shows you how to create and use hiearchies in SSAS Tabular, considers whether they're worth it, and also looks at the specific case of how to model parent-child hierarchies.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 08 February 2016
If you've worked with date measures (or any others) in DAX for a while, you'll know they can clutter up your pivot table. This clever technique allows you to tick a single box to add lots of measures into a pivot table in one go.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 08 February 2016
There are some wonderful date functions in DAX, with evocative names like TotalYtd, SamePeriodLastYear and ParallelPeriod. This blog shows how to use DAX date functions to summarise data, assuming that you have already created a calendar table.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 01 February 2016
CTEs (or Common Table Expressions) allow you to divide complicated queries up into two or more simple discrete tasks, as this blog explains.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 01 February 2016
It's not often that this owl learns new things about SQL when giving a course, but when I do, I like to share my new knowledge! This blog shows a new way to create aliases for columns in SQL.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 28 January 2016
You can create key performance indicators (KPIs) within Analysis Services Tabular, but there a couple of foibles that you need to be aware of, as shown by this blog.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 22 January 2016
In the real world (or at least, the DAX version of it), calendars and dates aren't quite as simple as one would like. This blog shows how to solve a number of common scenarios, including where different tables have different levels of "granularity", coping with special days like bank holidays, handling non-standard finanical year-end dates and dealing with a table which contains more than one date column.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 21 January 2016
Analysis Services has lots of wonderful DAX functions like TOTALYTD and SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR which allow you to summarise your results by date, but to get them to work you'll need to create and use a calendar table first. This blog explains how, and why.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 13 January 2016
Although the EARLIER function in DAX is complicated, it's also very useful! This blog shows how the function works, and how to use it to create running totals, sort rows, create group statistics and divide data into bands.