Updated Feb 2020 Gartner released the 2020 magic quadrant for Business Intelligence early in Feb 2020. As expected (by me at least), Microsoft is continuing its trail blazing and has maintained a clear lead over Tableau in both ability to execute and completeness of vision. Last year (in 2019) I […]
I was delivering an advanced DAX class recently and was chatting with the bright students in the class about various topics. Through the discussions it occurred to me that it may be possible to create a compound join between 2 tables using a combination of the inactive relationship feature and […]
Back in 2018 I wrote an article showing how to extract data from websites using Power Query in Excel. For simple websites this process is very straightforward. For more complex websites the process is not always that easy. Microsoft is working on improving the “from web” experience and is building […]
Last week I held a free Power BI webinar for people starting out with Power BI who are wondering why they should invest time in learning about DAX. I had more than 700 people register and was completely overwhelmed by the response. There were a few questions that I didn’t […]
Level: Intermediate Recently Microsoft introduced a new function in DAX called REMOVEFILTERS(). This is a very useful and well named function and it does exactly what its name suggests. Its purpose is to act as a table filter parameter inside CALCULATE() as shown in the following example. Total Sales All […]
In this article I am going to share with you a concept to manage refresh failures in production PowerBI.com reports. In a perfect world, you should configure your queries so that they “prevent” possible refresh failure issues from occurring, but also to notify you when something goes wrong without the […]
There are some valid reasons why you may need to change the names of all the columns in a table for use in Power BI. It is of course possible to change each column name by editing it manually, but what I am going to show you today is changing […]
One common requirement I have come across a few times is to limit a Power BI visual to only show completed months and exclude the current active month. This is common if you load data on a daily basis, but some of your reporting is done on a monthly basis. […]
A few weeks ago I wrote an article “Conditional Formatting Using Icons In Power BI” about the Power BI Icon feature released in July 2019. There were 2 common questions/themes coming from readers’ comments, and I want to address those here. Where can I find a list of Power BI […]
Level: Intermediate In my last article, I introduced the basics of the DAX FILTER() function. Hopefully that introductory explanation to FILTER() helped you get your head around what FILTER() is doing under the hood. With that knowledge in place, let me help you take your understanding to the next level. […]
Level: Intermediate FILTER() is one of the most important functions in the DAX language. It is quite a simple function and yet many people are scared off when they see it. In this article I will explain the basics of using the FILTER() function. Make sure you then read the […]
I blogged about the various ways to use Measure tables and Measure Sub Folders in Power BI a few weeks back. I discussed why measure tables may be required, and also a few reasons why you may choose not to use a measure table. I also mentioned some alternatives to using […]
Level: Intermediate I have had a couple of requests for help during my live training classes and online training classes on how to build a Six Sigma Control Chart. Now I am not professing to be a Six Sigma black belt, but I do know how to write DAX and […]
Updated: 17 Jan 2020 I have written a few articles in the past that toy with the ideas of changing visibility and text colour based on selection. I started to wonder if it was possible to make a visual appear (or not) based on a selection from the user. There […]
Level: Intermediate There is a concept in the DAX language called “Syntax Sugar”. Simply put, the developers have created simplified versions of more complex formulas to make it easier for people to learn and use the DAX language. Here are a couple of examples Total Sales Syntax Sugar = SUM(Sales[ExtendedAmount]) […]
One of the things I like about my live, online training courses is that I get to hear great questions from the trenches from people learning DAX and Power BI. Last week, John asked me how to apply conditional formatting with a Text field (not a numeric field). I knew […]
Updated Feb 2019. This is an edited version of my original article which first appeared on my site in Feb 2016. The rate of change in the tools available to a Business Analyst has never been faster than it is today. The market is changing so quickly that many Business […]
I was chatting to my wife the other day discussing all the things we want to do next year. It has long been a pain in the butt to get a high level (big picture) view of your Outlook diary to see what is happening (think forest, not trees). In […]
Microsoft recently released a new feature in Power BI called “Dataflows”. You may have seen it pop up in a recent release of Power BI Desktop under Home\Get Data\Power BI Dataflows (beta) as shown below. It is also visible when you log into PowerBI.com and go to an App Workspace […]
Note: This is copied onto the original Post – How and Where to Get Help for Power BI Level: Beginners/Intermediate Regardless of what stage you are at in your Power BI/Power Pivot/Power Query journey, at some stage you are going to need some help. Believe me I am no different to […]
Matt shares lots of free content on this website every week. Subscribe to the newsletter and you will receive an update whenever a new article is posted.
Excelerator BI | Expert Power BI Training | © 2020