October 2023
Beginner to intermediate
288 pages
8h 28m
English
Content preview from Beginning Power BI for Business Users
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10Introducing DAX
Though we covered this definition earlier, Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) is a formula language that is used for creating calculated columns, measures, and custom tables. It is a collection of functions, operators, and constants that can be used in a formula or expression to calculate and return one or more values. You can use DAX to solve a number of calculations and data analysis problems, which can help you create new information from data that is already in your model.
In this chapter, you will be introduced to the basics of DAX. We will whet your appetite by covering a handful of DAX functions. Even though it will be minimal, it will teach you the important foundational principles.
To do this, we are going to work with a star schema–modeled Azure SQL database that contains sales data from a standard Microsoft demo database, AdventureWorks. In the next section, I'll quickly walk you through the setup of the Power BI Desktop file. However, if you'd rather just jump to the meat of this chapter, then skip the “Setup” section and find the c10base.pbix file from the book resources file.
SETUP
The following steps show how to set up the Power BI Desktop file, and we've discussed all these concepts earlier in the book. Walking through these steps yourself will be an excellent test of applying what you've learned so far. However, if you get stuck, you can find the c10base.pbix file and start with that. So, let's get going!
- Open a new Power BI Desktop session. ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.