How to compare time series that occur in different periods by standardizing the timelines to days since a specific event ..read more

This article describes how to compare time series that occur in different periods by standardizing the timelines to days since a specific event. In a previous article about format strings, we showed an example of how format strings can improve visualizations. The visualizations in that article compared the performance of a company’s marketing videos on a streaming platform to the average of all their videos released that year. In this article, we explain how to conduct this analysis yourself in DAX, where you compare series that occur in different periods. This analysis compares the initial ..read more

Digital media content creators have an ethical responsibility to journalistic integrity. All of them do; all of us… including myself. At the last few international conferences I attended (SqlBits and Microsoft Fabric Conference), I had several interesting discussions with various content creators about their experience creating content about software products and services. I also talked with many attendees who consume the content and who rely on this content for self-education, to stay up-to-date, and even to make important company decisions – decisions they sometimes regret because of incor ..read more

Almost a year ago, we announced the release of three sections (core concepts, formula engine, and VertiPaq); in November 2023, we released the DirectQuery over SQL section; now, in April 2024, we release the last section of Optimizing DAX about Composite Models. What’s new in the Composite Models section The fifth and last section of Optimizing DAX second edition covers composite and complex models: that is, any scenario where a model has multiple data sources of different types, including other semantic models. This new section adds another 5 hours of lectures in three modules: Understandi ..read more

See when EXPAND and COLLAPSE are required to obtain the correct result with visual calculations in Power BI ..read more

This article provides examples of visual calculations where the use of EXPAND and COLLAPSE is required to obtain the correct result. In previous articles, we introduced the concepts of visual context, the visual lattice, and the two visual context navigation operations: EXPAND and COLLAPSE. In this article, we build on that knowledge to first compute a simple percentage over the parent: a simple calculation to consolidate the understanding of EXPAND and COLLAPSE. Next, we move on to a much more complex scenario, computing the inflation-adjusted sales using visual calculations. Computing the p ..read more

What is the right choice between Direct Lake and Import mode in Power BI? At SQLBI, we do not publish content until we have had enough time to experiment with and collect data about new features. We usually don’t break the news unless we have enough time to test a feature in preview and consider the released service solid enough. This did not happen with Direct Lake, and we have not published any Direct Lake content yet, but it seemed not urgent for reasons we will see soon. However, the feedback collected from many attendees of SqlBits 2024 and the first Microsoft Fabric Conference raised th ..read more

This article describes how you can use a scatterplot visual to make more effective Power BI reports. In many reports, it is common to find large tables or matrixes with a lot of information. Business users come to these reports to get the details they need to answer questions, make decisions, and take actions. However, these detailed tables can be inefficient, requiring users sort, drilldown, and filter them to find actionable data. Consider the following example of a matrix to analyze gaps in year-over-year growth by product, and dissect those by region. In this scenario, the intended purpos ..read more

Bubble plot, quadrant plot, volcano plot, joint plot, swarm plot: they are all types of scatterplot visuals to make more effective #powerbi reports. Learn how to use them in this video from Kurt Buhler ..read more

We did it again! Yesterday, as an April Fool, we published an article written by ChatGPT-4 (Revolutionizing Power BI: Introducing the Ultimate Formula Language), which described better than I could have ever done the excitement for a new revolutionizing language: A syntax that introduces hierarchical calculations as a first-class concept in the DAX language. Clearly, it was a joke, a nerdy joke. However, what you have seen in the article/video is real: the syntax works, and you can create hierarchical calculations with it. So, where is the joke? Well, it’s just not a new thing. The Ultimate F ..read more