Learn the intricate workings of DAX and the mechanics that are necessary to solve advanced Power BI challenges. This book is all about DAX (Data Analysis Expressions), the formula language used in Power BI—Microsoft’s leading self-service business intelligence application—and covers other products such as PowerPivot and SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular. You will learn how to leverage the advanced applications of DAX to solve complex tasks. Often a task seems complex due to a lack of understanding, or a misunderstanding of core principles, and how certain components interact with each other. The authors of this book use solutions and examples to teach you how to solve complex problems. They explain the intricate workings of important concepts such as Filter Context and Context Transition. You will learn how Power BI, through combining DAX building blocks (such as measures, table filtering, and data lineage), can yield extraordinary analytical power. Throughout Pro Dax with Power BI these building blocks are used to create and compose solutions for advanced DAX problems, so you can independently build solutions to your own complex problems, and gain valuable insight from your data. What You Will Learn Understand the intricate workings of DAX to solve advanced problems Deconstruct problems into manageable parts in order to create your own recipes Apply predefined solutions for addressing problems, and link back step-by-step to the mechanics of DAX, to know the foundation of this powerful query language Get fully on board with DAX, a new and evolving language, by learning best practices Who This Book Is For Anyone who wants to use Power BI to build advanced and complex models. Some experience writing DAX is helpful, but not essential if you have experience with other data query languages such as MDX or SQL.

Attention all SQL Pros, DAX is not just for writing Excel-based formulas! Get hands-on learning and expert advice on how to use the vast capabilities of the DAX language to solve common data modeling challenges. Beginning DAX with Power BI teaches key concepts such as mapping techniques from SQL to DAX, filtering, grouping, joining, pivoting, and using temporary tables, all aimed at the SQL professional. Join author Philip Seamark as he guides you on a journey through typical business data transformation scenarios and challenges, and teaches you, step-by-step, how to resolve challenges using DAX. Tips, tricks, and shortcuts are included and explained, along with examples of the SQL equivalent, in order to accelerate learning. Examples in the book range from beginner to advanced, with plenty of detailed explanation when walking through each scenario. What You’ll Learn Turbocharge your Power BI model by adding advanced DAX programming techniques Know when to use calculated measures versus calculated columns Generate new tables on the fly from existing data Optimize, monitor, and tune Power BI to improve performance of your models Discover new ideas, tricks, and time-saving techniques for better models Who This Book Is For Business intelligence developers, business analysts, or any SQL user who wants to use Power BI as a reporting tool. A solid understanding of SQL is recommended, as examples throughout the book include the DAX equivalents to SQL problem/solution scenarios.

This comprehensive and authoritative guide will teach you the DAX language for business intelligence, data modeling, and analytics. Leading Microsoft BI consultants Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari help you master everything from table functions through advanced code and model optimization. You’ll learn exactly what happens under the hood when you run a DAX expression, how DAX behaves differently from other languages, and how to use this knowledge to write fast, robust code. If you want to leverage all of DAX’s remarkable power and flexibility, this no-compromise “deep dive” is exactly what you need. Perform powerful data analysis with DAX for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Excel, and Power BI Master core DAX concepts, including calculated columns, measures, and error handling Understand evaluation contexts and the CALCULATE and CALCULATETABLE functions Perform time-based calculations: YTD, MTD, previous year, working days, and more Work with expanded tables, complex functions, and elaborate DAX expressions Perform calculations over hierarchies, including parent/child hierarchies Use DAX to express diverse and unusual relationships Measure DAX query performance with SQL Server Profiler and DAX Studio

Use JSON theme files to standardize the look of Power BI dashboards and reports. This book shows how you can create theme files using the Power BI Desktop application to define high-level formatting attributes for dashboards as well as how to tailor detailed formatting specifications for individual dashboard elements in JSON files. Standardize the look of your dashboards and apply formatting consistently over all your reports. The techniques in this book provide you with tight control over the presentation of all aspects of the Power BI dashboards and reports that you create. Power BI theme files use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) as their structure, so the book includes a brief introduction to JSON as well as how it applies to Power BI themes. The book further includes a complete reference to all the current formatting definitions and JSON structures that are at your disposal for creating JSON theme files. Finally, the book includes dozens of theme files, from the simple to the most complex, that you can adopt and adapt to suit your own requirements. What You Will Learn Produce designer output without manually formatting every individual visual in a Power BI dashboard Standardize presentation for families of dashboard types Switch presentation styles in a couple of clicks Save dozens, or hundreds, of hours laboriously formatting dashboards Define enterprise-wide presentation standards Retroactively apply standard styles to existing dashboards Who This Book Is For Power BI users who want to save time by defining standardized formatting for their dashboards and reports, IT professionals who want to create corporate standards of dashboard presentation, and marketing and communication specialists who want to set organizational standards for dashboard delivery

Manage and work with business data effectively by learning data modeling techniques and leveraging the latest features of Power BI Key Features Understand data modeling techniques to get the best out of data using Power BI Define the relationships between data to extract valuable insights Solve a wide variety of business challenges by building optimal data models Book DescriptionThis book is a comprehensive guide to understanding the ins and outs of data modeling and how to create data models using Power BI confidently. You'll learn how to connect data from multiple sources, understand data, define and manage relationships between data, and shape data models to gain deep and detailed insights about your organization. In this book, you'll explore how to use data modeling and navigation techniques to define relationships and create a data model before defining new metrics and performing custom calculations using modeling features. As you advance through the chapters, the book will demonstrate how to create full-fledged data models, enabling you to create efficient data models and simpler DAX code with new data modeling features. With the help of examples, you'll discover how you can solve business challenges by building optimal data models and changing your existing data models to meet evolving business requirements. Finally, you'll learn how to use some new and advanced modeling features to enhance your data models to carry out a wide variety of complex tasks. By the end of this Power BI book, you'll have gained the skills you need to structure data coming from multiple sources in different ways to create optimized data models that support reporting and data analytics.What you will learn Implement virtual tables and time intelligence functionalities in DAX to build a powerful model Identify Dimension and Fact tables and implement them in Power Query Editor Deal with advanced data preparation scenarios while building Star Schema Explore best practices for data preparation and modeling Discover different hierarchies and their common pitfalls Understand complex data models and how to decrease the level of model complexity with different approaches Learn advanced data modeling techniques such as aggregations, incremental refresh, and RLS/OLS Who this book is for This MS Power BI book is for BI users, data analysts, and analysis developers who want to become well-versed with data modeling techniques to make the most of Power BI. You’ll need a solid grasp on basic use cases and functionalities of Power BI and Star Schema functionality before you can dive in.

Deliver eye-catching Business Intelligence with Microsoft Power BI Desktop. This new edition has been updated to cover all the latest features, including combo charts, Cartesian charts, trend lines, use of gauges, and more. Also covered are Top-N features, the ability to bin data into groupings and chart the groupings, and new techniques for detecting and handling outlier data points. You can take data from virtually any source and use it to produce stunning dashboards and compelling reports that will seize your audience’s attention. Slice and dice the data with remarkable ease and then add metrics and KPIs to project the insights that create your competitive advantage. Make raw data into clear, accurate, and interactive information with Microsoft’s free self-service business intelligence tool. Pro Power BI Desktop shows you how to choose from a wide range of built-in and third-party visualization types so that your message is always enhanced. You’ll be able to deliver those results on the PC, tablets, and smartphones, as well as share results via the cloud. This book helps you save time by preparing the underlying data correctly without needing an IT department to prepare it for you. What You'll Learn Deliver attention-grabbing information, turning data into insight Mash up data from multiple sources into a cleansed and coherent data model Create dashboards that help in monitoring key performance indicators of your business Build interdependent charts, maps, and tables to deliver visually stunning information Share business intelligence in the cloud without involving IT Deliver visually stunning and interactive charts, maps, and tables Find new insights as you chop and tweak your data as never before Adapt delivery to mobile devices such as phones and tablets Who This Book Is For Everyone from CEOs and Business Intelligence developers to power users and IT managers

Architect and deploy a Power BI solution. This book will help you understand the many available options and choose the best combination for hosting, developing, sharing, and deploying a Power BI solution within your organization. Pro Power BI Architecture provides detailed examples and explains the different methods available for sharing and securing Power BI content so that only intended recipients can see it. Commonly encountered problems you will learn to handle include content unexpectedly changing while users are in the process of creating reports and building analysis, methods of sharing analyses that don’t cover all the requirements of your business or organization, and inconsistent security models. The knowledge provided in this book will allow you to choose an architecture and deployment model that suits the needs of your organization, ensuring that you do not spend your time maintaining your solution but on using it for its intended purpose and gaining business value from mining and analyzing your organization’s data. What You'll LearnArchitect and administer enterprise-level Power BI solutions Choose the right sharing method for your Power BI solution Create and manage environments for development, testing, and production Implement row level security in multiple ways to secure your data Save money by choosing the right licensing plan Select a suitable connection type—Live Connection, DirectQuery, or Scheduled Refresh—for your use case Set up a Power BI gateway to bridge between on-premises data sources and the Power BI cloud service Who This Book Is For Data analysts, developers, architects, and managers who want to leverage Power BI for their reporting solution