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How to use DAX date-based functions in Analysis Services tabular model Part three of a six-part series of blogs
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. Creating date-based functions in DAX in SSAS Tabular Cumulative totals (TotalYTD, DatesYTD, etc) The same period in a previous month, quarter or year (this blog) Using PARALLELPERIOD to get the whole of the last period Moving averages using DAX date functions Semi-additive measures in DAX This blog is part of our online SSAS Tabular tutorial; we also offer lots of other Analysis Services training resources.

How to use DAX date-based functions in Analysis Services tabular model

Part three of a six-part series of blogs

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.

Creating date-based functions in DAX in SSAS Tabular
Cumulative totals (TotalYTD, DatesYTD, etc)
The same period in a previous month, quarter or year (this blog)
Using PARALLELPERIOD to get the whole of the last period
Moving averages using DAX date functions
Semi-additive measures in DAX

This blog is part of our online SSAS Tabular tutorial; we also offer lots of other Analysis Services training resources.

Posted by Andy Brown on 08 February 2016

The same period in a previous month, quarter or year

It's often useful to compare a figure with the equivalent figure in a previous year. This page shows two ways to do this, using either the SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR function or the DATEADD function.

For example, the figure for January 2014 shows up as 733, since it's picking up the figure for the same time period 12 months earlier.

Using the SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR function

If ever a function was well-named, it's this one! Here's the syntax:

The function gives the set of dates for the same period, but 12 months earlier.

So a measure which would achieve the results shown above could be:

Last year:=CALCULATE(

SUM('Transaction'[Quantity]),

SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR(Calendar[Date])

)

And there's not much more to say about this!

Using the DATEADD function

I must admit I prefer this solution, since it's more generally applicable, the function name is shorter and I think it's easier to understand. The format of the DATEADD function is as follows:

Add a specific number of intervals of the required type to the current set of dates.

The arguments are:

Argument	What it means
Dates	The calendar dates corresponding to the pivot table query context.
NumberOfIntervals	How many periods forward (if positive) or back (if negative) you want to go in time.
Interval	Which period you want to use (MONTH, QUARTER or YEAR).

Here's what our measure could look like:

Last year using DATEADD:=CALCULATE(

sum('Transaction'[Quantity]),

DATEADD(

Calendar[Date],

-1,

YEAR

)

It takes quite a bit of confidence to type the YEAR interval, since SSAS keeps trying to autocorrect it to the YEAR() function.

This measure should give the same result as the previous one:

The two measures compared (the results are the same).

Time now to look at a function which shows the value of a measure for the whole of a previous period: PARALLELPERIOD.

Parts of this blog
Creating date-based functions in DAX in SSAS Tabular Cumulative totals (TotalYTD, DatesYTD, etc) The same period in a previous month, quarter or year (this blog) Using PARALLELPERIOD to get the whole of the last period Moving averages using DAX date functions Semi-additive measures in DAX

Some other pages relevant to the above blogs include:

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