A client contacted me recently and asked me to solve a problem for them. They have a large Power Pivot Excel workbook with lots of Pivot Tables. All was good except sometimes when they refreshed the data, the newly loaded data changed the shape of some of the pivot tables […]
Level: Intermediate This is the final article in my series about DAX as a Query Language. In my first article I introduced DAX as a Query Language and then in my second article I went in deeper to the specifics on how to use some of the more useful DAX query […]
Level: Intermediate In my last article I introduced DAX as a Query Language and explained why learning to query your data model can be useful. I covered the basics about using a tool like DAX Studio to query a database and return a table of data as a result. In this […]
Level: Intermediate I have written quite a few articles that contain embedded references to DAX Queries and DAX Table functions in the past. Today I am writing an article that introduces the DAX query language from the beginning so you can learn how to use it and how it will […]
Level: Beginners One very important concept that Excel users often struggle with when starting on their Power BI and Power Pivot journey is that they need to learn to think about data in tables rather than thinking about data in cells. In the spreadsheet world every cell can be a […]
Level: Beginners Power Pivot is a database that has been designed from the ground up to be optimised for reporting and analysis in Power BI, Power Pivot for Excel and SSAS Tabular. The technology is essentially the same across all of these products so I will generically refer to Power […]
Level: Intermediate I am currently in Melbourne for PASS SQL Saturday 2017. SQL Saturday is an annual one day conference event that occurs in many major cities around the world. It is focussed on helping SQL Server professionals learn more about their profession and also network with other like minded […]
Level: Intermediate I was helping a user on http://community.powerbi.com this week. The user had a list of service desk tickets for multiple customers and the requirement was to identify when a customer opened a second new ticket within 7 days of closing a previous ticket. This is not an uncommon scenario […]
Microsoft has recently released a technical preview of Power BI that can be installed on premise inside a company firewall and the Power BI reports can be securely published over the Intranet (not Internet) via SSRS. Today I am sharing my experiences setting up the technical preview for the first […]
Level: Beginners Edit: Sep 2019 There are many best practices for Power BI. I know these things so intuitively now that it is very easy to forget how I incrementally learnt these things along the journey. Most of these things are not “right” vs “wrong” – they are more often […]
Level: Beginners I help a lot of people on forums who ask questions about time intelligence for DAX. If you are just starting out then the chances are that you may not even be clear what time intelligence is and hence sometimes you don’t even know what to ask. Often […]
Today I am combining a few techniques to show how to build a robust cleansing approach for your data using Power Query. This article will demonstrate the following Power Query techniques Joining tables (Merge Query) Self Referencing tables Adding Custom Columns Sample Data I am using some sample data as […]
Level: Beginners I think today’s article will be of interest to my readers even though it is a little astray from my normally pure Power BI, Power Pivot and Power Query content. I will show you how to quickly and easily create an On-Line Survey that you can distribute to […]
Level: Beginners I often get asked if there is an easy way to create documentation for DAX measures when using Power Pivot for Excel. I am not a big fan of documentation for the sake of it, but I do see value in having “some” appropriate level of documentation. I […]
Level: Intermediate [Edit: April 2019] Microsoft made the PDF Connector in Power BI generally available in April 2019. This is another instance to show that Microsoft is listening to the community to add or improve the Power BI features. The PDF File connector will appear under the File category in the […]
Level: Beginners Today I explain when it is important to create a lookup table and when it is fine to use native columns in a data table. I have rated this topic as a beginner topic as it is a fundamental skill to learn on your journey to become a […]
Level: Beginners If you want to learn new skills using a new tool, then you simply must practice. One great way to practice is to weave the new tool into you daily problem solving. If you have something meaningful to do with the new tool, then you are much more […]
Level: Beginners I got this dreaded Dropbox email recently as shown below. I needed to clear out some of the files I have loaded in Dropbox so I didn’t have to upgrade my account. It occurred to me that I could make this process a lot easier by using Power […]
Level: Beginners One of the great challenges Microsoft has faced with its “new” suite of Self Service BI tools (particularly Power Pivot) is that most people that could benefit from the holy trinity (Power Pivot, Power Query and Power BI) don’t even know these tools exist, let alone how the tools […]
Level: Beginners Edit: Sep 2019 I really love Power BI, and I have learnt so much over the last 12 months that sometimes it is easy to forget the challenges I had in getting started. Today I am sharing my top 10 tips on how to get started with Power […]
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