Blogs from Wise Owl on Measures / DAX in Power BI

Using a DAX query to show a table in Power BI

Posted by Andy Brown on 14 January 2021

Did you know that you can write an EVALUATE DAX query in software like DAX Studio and then run it from within Power BI to create a new table? You do now!

How to add cumulative totals to a visual using DAX measures in Power BI

Posted by Andy Brown on 02 December 2020

Inspired by a question from a course, in this blog Andy Brown builds up a measure to show cumulative totals for a calendar matrix, dotting his DAX i's and crossing his t's!

Three top YouTube channels for learning about DAX

Posted by Andy Brown on 24 October 2020

Following a question from a recent DAX course, here are 3 recommended YouTube tutorial channels to help you learn to master DAX.

Our series of Simple Talk tutorials on using DAX within Power BI is now complete

Posted by Andy Brown on 13 February 2020

Simple Talk provide excellent how-to guides on any aspect of Microsoft software. We are proud to have contributed a series of articles explaining how to create DAX calculated columns and measures within Power BI.

Dynamic comparison calculations in DAX

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 11 November 2019

This blogs shows a clever way in which you can use a slicer to choose which values to compare in a measure.

Explaining the VALUE argument of the RANKX function in DAX

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 29 October 2019

The RANKX function does what the name implies - it ranks values based on a calculation. However, the VALUE argument often causes confusion; this blog explains what it does!

The mysteries of context transition explained

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 25 February 2019

Context transition happens when a DAX function creates filter context within row context, or vice versa. This blog explains what context transition is, and shows which DAX functions make use of it.

Understanding row context in DAX

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 01 February 2019

Row context (along with its sibling, filter context) is one of the most important concepts in DAX. This blog explains what row context is, and how to use it!

Understanding filter context in DAX

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 28 January 2019

Understanding filter context is the key to understanding how to create measures in DAX. This blog aims to explain this vital subject as succinctly as possible!

Showing the top N values of a dimension, where you can use a slicer to vary N

Posted by Andy Brown on 06 December 2018

Following a question from a Power BI course, this blog shows how you can get a page to show the top N customers by sales value, where N is a number controlled by a slicer.

How to monitor stock levels from forecast sales using DAX measures in Power BI

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 06 November 2018

Given your current stock levels and forecast sales, it should be possible to report on future stock depletion in Power BI. This two-part blog shows you how to just that!

A DAX formatter to tidy up your code

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 30 July 2018

Use this handy web based formatter to turn shameful code into neat DAX!

Debugging (sort of) in DAX

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 30 July 2018

Learn to use DAX variables, and understand how they can be used to break up code. Not true debugging, but better than nothing!

Using the CROSS FILTER function in Power BI Desktop

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 13 June 2018

Learn about the perils of changing the cross filter direction to "Both", then discover why the CROSS FILTER function is better!

How to create dynamic report titles in Power BI Desktop

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 01 June 2018

How you can combine the use of measures and cards to create dynamic report headers in Power BI Desktop.

Weighted and numeric distribution in Power BI Desktop

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 18 May 2018

Learn to use the SUMMARIZE and CALCULATE functions to produce numeric and weighted distributions.

A simple way to move a measure from one table to another

Posted by Andy Brown on 08 June 2017

You can't drag and drop measures between tables, but there is an easy way to move them in Power BI Desktop, as this blog shows

How to create running totals or cumulative figures in Power BI Desktop

Posted by Andy Brown on 19 December 2016

There are a host of date-based functions in Power BI Desktop for producing cumulative figures, but how do you get running totals for non-date columns? This blog explains!