Better Handle Column Types on Load in Dimension Tables

When you load a dimension table (say a calendar table) in Power BI desktop, there are often lots of numeric columns that are not additive. Examples include Year, Month Number, Day of Week etc. By default (unless you set the data type to text) these numeric columns will have the default aggregation behaviour set to SUM. But they are not additive (of course). It would be much better to set these (dimension numeric columns) as "do not summarize". This could be managed in various ways that would be better than the current state. eg, you could simply mark all numeric columns in a calendar table as "do not summarize" by default and allow the user to change truly additive days (like isWorkingDay) to SUM when required. Even better, use the AI capabilites of Azure to work it out.

This idea was mentioned by Jeffery Wang in a meeting at the end of the MVP Summit 2019. No doubt Jeffery has his own ideas of how to execute this. It is a great idea and would add a lot of value to the majority of users.