Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Analysis Services: The BISM Tabular Model

Chapter 5. Understanding Evaluation Context

To get the best from DAX, you need to understand the evaluation context. We introduced this terminology when we talked about calculated columns and measures in Chapter 4, mentioning that calculated columns and measures differ mainly in their evaluation context. Now we look at how the evaluation context is defined and, most importantly, how it works. In this chapter, we also introduce DAX functions to manipulate the evaluation context, functions such as EARLIER and CALCULATE.

Note

Understanding the content of this chapter is important if you want to use DAX in Tabular. Nevertheless, the topics described here are demanding, so do not be concerned if some concepts seem obscure during your first read. We suggest ...