The DAX Workshop - Part 1

The DAX evaluation context is a critical concept to master and here we spend some time discussing it.

You will have a thorough understanding of calculated columns and measures, and when to use them. All exercises in this section use the Contoso database (not Contoso 2). The final Contoso database, after all exercises have been completed can be downloaded as a resource.

The most commonly used DAX table functions are discussed in this lecture. They include FILTER, VALUES and ALL. A PDF file can be downloaded that contains a list of all table functions with links to obtain information about each.

All exercises in this section were done against the Contoso 2 database. This is the same as the Contoso database except the Online Sales table does not have the Sales Key column which greatly reduces the size of the file. That column is not needed for these exercises.  You can download both Contoso 2 and Contoso 2 - Final, which contains the solution for all the exercises in this section.

There is also a PDF which can be downloaded listing all DAX table functions.

In this lecture we explain the concept of iterator functions and cover the most commonly used iterators such as MINX, MAXX, SUMX, AVERAGEX and CONCATENATEX. The final Contoso 2 and Baseball PBIX files for this section can be downloaded. There is also a PDF containing all the DAX iterator functions with a link for each to obtain more information.

The CALCULATE function, which is the most important function in DAX, will be discussed. We'll cover the most common ways it is used and the most common functions used with CALCULATE to modify the filter context. You may download the final Contoso 2 and Baseball PBIX files used in this section.

In this lecture we will be discussing the two functions in DAX to build a date table, and why you need one for your Power BI projects.

You can download a production ready Dates table includes as a resource in this section. We'll walk through how this was built in Tutorial 1.

Time intelligence functions are a fascinating part of the DAX language and we'll discuss some things to be aware of, the need for a date table and how the granularity of your data table is very important.

We're going to wrap up this course by working through a miscellaneous set of exercises covering many aspects of DAX in various business scenarios. A final chance to hone your skills!