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DAX calculations at visual level of reports

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Marco Russo on 22 May 2020 15:48:20

Provide a simple way to write formulas that work with the data displayed in a visual. For example, the running total of a measure in a table or in a chart according to the sort order of the visual should be something like this:

Running Total = ReportData[Sales] + PREVIOUS ( ReportData[Running Total] )

Where ReportData is the content of the current visual, Sales and Running Total are the names of the columns in the current visual. The user is not expected to know the model content, the calculation can be executed on top of any data currently being displayed.

More details about a proposal for visual calculations in DAX here:
https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/a-proposal-for-visual-calculations-in-dax/

Jeroen ter Heerdt (administrator) on 20 Feb 2024 22:23:33

Visual calculations are in preview since February 2024: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/visual-calculations-preview/.

 

Update 10/17: This is now in our upcoming roadmap and we will share more details in the coming months.

March 2022 update: We are planning to support this, but we currently do not have a timeline

Comments (68)
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Oladapo Power BI User on 06 Jul 2020 00:15:02

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

Life is Simple, DAX should be simpler

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Ron on 06 Jul 2020 00:15:02

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

Time intelligence table should be native to the app

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Power BI User on 06 Jul 2020 00:15:01

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

This is a great idea to simplify DAX syntax. As an addition to this, I would like to see something like F9 in Excel to see intermediate results. I know DAX studio could help with materialising tables, but couldn’t we have something similar in PBI?

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Power BI User on 06 Jul 2020 00:14:56

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

Thank you for your contribution, Marco Russo.

Happy for being 800'th voter:)

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Power BI User on 06 Jul 2020 00:14:54

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

This feature is required for Power BI

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Hector Cedeno on 06 Jul 2020 00:14:54

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

This would make it easier, DAX needs to be more intuitive.

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Farid J on 06 Jul 2020 00:14:53

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

This is the gold standard UX that visual calculations should evolve to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1drTEAuKiQ

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Allan Vilela on 06 Jul 2020 00:14:52

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

It will be extremely useful! I have worked with Excel and VBA for at least 10 years and with good confidence. I believed that when I started to learn PBI and DAX, it would be easier. But, in fact, I feel like an idiot! The context and its inability to visualize our measures make understanding and proficiency difficult. To create a simple measure like Running Total, you need a lot of background knowledge. If experienced users have a hard time dealing with this, try to imagine newbies ... Power BI and DAX are really good tools and language. Although, as proposed by Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari, these new visuals features can make the PBI exceed any user's expectations.

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Carson on 06 Jul 2020 00:14:50

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

This is needed for Power BI to keep pace with other BI tools like Tableau and Alteryx.

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Melissa Martin on 06 Jul 2020 00:14:49

RE: DAX calculations at visual level of reports

Great idea! I have been struggling for days to find some dax formula that gives me an easy table calculation I can do in excel and of course all the models I develop in power bi can only changed by me because other people in the organization does not understand DAX...strong support this idea!