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 functions. 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 […]
Edit: Sep 2019 Power BI is an enigma. On the surface Power BI is an alluring product that promises to change your world of data analytics for the better – and indeed it can and will. But sitting just beneath the surface, hidden from view, is the reality that there […]
Level: Beginners/Intermediate (originally posted 2015, updated 2017, 2018, 2022). This article is one of the most frequently read on my blog site and I wanted to update it to continue to improve the value people get from my site. Even if you have read this article before, why not take […]
There is nothing worse than having a Power BI report that has 50% of the space taken up with slicers. When this happens, you only get half the page to visualise the actual data. But on the flip side, if you don’t have the slicers it can be harder for […]
One thing I often get asked is “How do I create good looking Power BI Reports?”. This is a very good question and unfortunately the answer is not straight forward. I like to think of the visual appeal as the “Art” of communicating data insights. The other major consideration is […]
It’s pretty early in the morning here in Sydney Australia (just after 6 am actually). I just finished a fun YouTube session with Avi Singh where I demonstrated my approach to using variables in DAX to help write more complex formulas. Avi streamed the session live on YouTube, and it […]
Level: Intermediate Matt: This is the second one in a series of articles from Parker Stevens. In this article he talks about using R with Power BI. If you missed his first article “Introduction to DirectQuery” you can read it here. Parker: Power BI comes with a ton of built-in […]
One thing I did a long time ago was set up my own forum called PowerPivot Forum. This forum is open to anyone to join and to ask questions and/or help others. If I have any spare time (decreasingly so these days), I help people out on the forum too. It occurred […]
Level: Intermediate A couple of weeks ago I posted a list of my ideas that I have created at ideas.powerbi.com and asked you to vote for them if you agree with the concept (please go back and take a look if you missed it). I thought it would be interesting […]
Level: Intermediate. I had a great question pass my way last week while I was at the Microsoft Business Application Summit. The problem presented by Matt (a different Matt, not me) was that he had around 200 measures already written, but wanted to be able to toggle the report pages […]
Level: Intermediate I do lots of live training, face to face and online, and I always encourage students to bring along any business problems they would like some help with. Last week I had a great problem that Debbie shared with me that I thought was worth creating this blog […]
Level: Intermediate I wrote an article earlier this year that showed how you can take a table of future growth rates (different growth rates each year) and then calculate the future value of an investment using DAX. I had a follow up question from Steve asking if it is possible […]
Matt Here: I first met Ivan via Twitter when he was living in Russia, and then in person when he moved to Australia to live in Sydney with his family. Ivan is a talented Power BI professional and I have learnt many things from him over the last few years. […]
Level: Intermediate I got my haircut today (pretty spiffy one too, even if I do say so myself). While I was chatting I asked my hair dresser “on average, how often should I get my hair cut”? She told me (for men) around 4-6 weeks. Then I got thinking (as […]
After what seems like a lifetime of waiting for the paperback book economy to tick its required boxes, both of my new books Supercharge Excel and Supercharge Power BI are now available to ship to most countries in the world from Amazon.com. This is a good opportunity for me to […]