Basic to Advanced Part - 8

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AGENDA

• Table Manipulation functions

• Text functions
• Time Intelligence functions
• New DAX functions

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6) Table Manipulation functions

• These functions return a table or manipulate

existing tables.

➢ DISTINCT (column)

Returns a one-column table that contains the distinct values

from the specified column. In other words, duplicate values are
removed and unique values are returned.

Syntax: DISTINCT(<column>)

E.g.: =
COUNTROWS(DISTINCT(InternetSales_USD[CustomerKey]))

• There is another version of the DISTINCT function, DISTINCT

(table), that returns a table by removing duplicate rows from
another table or expression.

➢ SELECTCOLUMNS

Returns a table with selected columns from the table and new
columns specified by the DAX expressions.

Syntax: SELECTCOLUMNS(<Table>, [<Name>], <Expression>,

<Name>], …)

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E.g.: = SELECTCOLUMNS(Customer, "Country, State",
[Country]&", "&[State])

➢ SUMMARIZE

Returns a summary table for the requested totals over a set of

groups.

Syntax: SUMMARIZE (<table>, <groupBy_columnName>[,

<groupBy_columnName>]…[, <name>, <expression>]…)

E.g.:=SUMMARIZE(ResellerSales_USD

, DateTime[CalendarYear]

, ProductCategory[ProductCategoryName]

, "Sales Amount (USD)",

SUM(ResellerSales_USD[SalesAmount_USD])

, "Discount Amount (USD)",

SUM(ResellerSales_USD[DiscountAmount])

➢ TOPN

Returns the top N rows of the specified table.

Syntax: TOPN(<N_Value>, <Table>, <OrderBy_Expression>,

[<Order>[, <OrderBy_Expression>, [<Order>]]…])

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E.g.: = SUMX(

TOPN(

10,

SUMMARIZE(

InternetSales,

InternetSales[ProductKey],

"TotalSales", SUM(InternetSales[SalesAmount])

),

[TotalSales], DESC

),

[TotalSales]

There are other table manipulation functions such as

GROUPBY, ROW, UNION, etc. To know more about them refer
to the following link. Table manipulation functions (DAX) -
DAX | Microsoft Learn

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7) Text functions

• DAX includes a set of text functions based on

the library of string functions in Excel, which
have been modified to work with tables and
columns in tabular models.

➢ CONCATENATE

Joins two text strings into one text string.

Syntax: CONCATENATE(<text1>, <text2>)

E.g.: CONCATENATE(Customer[LastName],
CONCATENATE(", ", Customer[FirstName]))

• The CONCATENATE function in DAX accepts only two

arguments, whereas the Excel CONCATENATE function
accepts up to 255 arguments. If you need to add more
arguments, you can use the ampersand (&) operator.

➢ FIND

Returns the starting position of one text string within

another text string. FIND is case-sensitive.

Syntax: FIND(<find_text>, <within_text>[, [<start_num>][,

<NotFoundValue>]])

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E.g.: EVALUATE

CALCULATETABLE (

ADDCOLUMNS (

TOPN ( 10, SUMMARIZE('Reseller', [Reseller], [Business

Type])),

"Position of Bike", FIND ( "Bike", 'Reseller'[Reseller], 1,

BLANK () )

),

'Reseller'[Business Type] IN { "Specialty Bike Shop", "Value

Added Reseller", "Warehouse"}

➢ SEARCH

Returns the number of the character at which a specific

character or text string is first found, reading left to right.
Search is case-insensitive and accent sensitive.

Syntax: SEARCH(<find_text>, <within_text>[, [<start_num>][,

<NotFoundValue>]])

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E.g.: EVALUATE

CALCULATETABLE (

ADDCOLUMNS (

TOPN ( 10, SUMMARIZE('Reseller', [Reseller], [Business

Type])),

"Position of cycle", SEARCH ( "cycle",

'Reseller'[Reseller], 1, BLANK () )

),

'Reseller'[Business Type] IN { "Specialty Bike Shop", "Value

Added Reseller", "Warehouse"})

• The search function is accent-sensitive. Searching for "á"

will find the first occurrence of 'á' but no occurrences of
'a’, 'à', or the capitalized versions 'A', 'Á’. You can use the
SEARCH function to determine the location of a character
or text string within another text string, and then use the
MID function to return the text or use the REPLACE
function to change the text.

➢ FORMAT

Converts a value to text according to the specified format.

Syntax: FORMAT(<value>, <format_string>[, <locale_name>])

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E.g.: = FORMAT( 12345.67, "General Number")

= FORMAT( 12345.67, "Currency")

= FORMAT( 12345.67, "Fixed")

= FORMAT( 12345.67, "Standard")

= FORMAT( 12345.67, "Percent")

= FORMAT( 12345.67, "Scientific")

• Using FORMAT changes a measure result to a text data

type. If the measure result is originally of numeric data
type, then with FORMAT, the measure can't be used on
visuals where the values section requires a numeric data
type, like with charts. In Power BI, you can alternatively
use Dynamic format strings for measures specify a
conditional format string that maintains the numeric data
type of the measure.

➢ LEFT

Returns the specified number of characters from the start of

a text string.

Syntax: LEFT(<text>, <num_chars>)

E.g.: =
CONCATENATE(LEFT('Reseller'[ResellerName],LEFT(Geogra
phyKey,3))
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• If the num_chars argument is a number that is larger than
the number of characters available, the function returns
the maximum characters available and does not raise an
error.

➢ MID

Returns a string of characters from the middle of a text

string, given a starting position and length.

Syntax: MID(<text>, <start_num>, <num_chars>)

E.g.: MID("abcde",2,3))

➢ REPLACE

Replaces part of a text string, based on the number of

characters you specify, with a different text string.

Syntax: REPLACE(<old_text>, <start_num>, <num_chars>,

<new_text>)

E.g.: = REPLACE('New Products'[Product Code],1,2,"OB")

➢ SUBSTITUTE

Replace existing text with new text in a text string.

Syntax: SUBSTITUTE(<text>, <old_text>, <new_text>,

<instance_num>)

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E.g.: = SUBSTITUTE([Product Code], "NW", "PA")

• Use the SUBSTITUTE function when you want to replace

specific text in a text string; use the REPLACE function
when you want to replace any text of variable length that
occurs in a specific location in a text string.

• The SUBSTITUTE function is case-sensitive. If the case

does not match between text and old_text, SUBSTITUTE
will not replace the text.

There are other text functions such as TRIM, UPPER, LEN,

etc. To know more about them refer to the following link.
Text functions (DAX) - DAX | Microsoft Learn

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8) Time Intelligence functions

• DAX includes time-intelligence functions that

enable you to manipulate data using periods,
including days, months, quarters, and years,
and then build and compare calculations over
those periods. Before using any time-
intelligence functions, make sure to mark one
of the tables containing the date column as a
Date Table.
➢ DATEADD

Returns a table that contains a column of dates, shifted either

forward or backward in time by the specified number of
intervals from the dates in the current context.

Syntax: DATEADD(<dates>,<number_of_intervals>,<interval>)

E.g.: = DATEADD(DateTime[DateKey],-1,year)

➢ DATESBETWEEN

Returns a table that contains a column of dates that begins

with a specified start date and continues until a specified end
date. This function is suited to pass as a filter to the
CALCULATE function. Use it to filter an expression by a
custom date range.
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Syntax: DATESBETWEEN(<Dates>, <StartDate>, <EndDate>)

E.g.: Customers LTD =

CALCULATE(

DISTINCTCOUNT(Sales[CustomerKey]),

DATESBETWEEN(

'Date'[Date],

BLANK(),

MAX('Date'[Date])

➢ DATESINPERIOD

Returns a table that contains a column of dates that begins

with a specified start date and continues for the specified
number and type of date intervals. This function is suited to
pass as a filter to the CALCULATE function. Use it to filter an
expression by standard date intervals such as days, months,
quarters, or years.

Syntax: DATESINPERIOD(<dates>, <start_date>,

<number_of_intervals>, <interval>)

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E.g.: Revenue PY =

CALCULATE(

SUM(Sales[Sales Amount]),

DATESINPERIOD(

'Date'[Date],

MAX('Date'[Date]),

-1,

YEAR

))

➢ SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR

Returns a table that contains a column of dates shifted one

year back in time from the dates in the specified dates
column, in the current context.

Syntax: SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR(<dates>)

E.g.: =
CALCULATE(SUM(ResellerSales_USD[SalesAmount_USD]),
SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR(DateTime[DateKey]))
There are other time intelligence functions such as
DATESYTD, ENDOFYEAR, TOTALYTD, etc. To know more
about them refer to the following link. Time intelligence
functions (DAX) - DAX | Microsoft Learn

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9) New DAX functions

DAX is continuously being improved with new functions and

functionality to support new features. New functions and
updates are included in service, application, and tool updates
which in most cases are monthly.

While functions and functionality are being updated all the

time, only those updates that have a visible and functional
change exposed to users are described in the documentation.
New functions and updates to existing functions within the
past year are shown here.

Not all functions are supported in all versions of Power BI

Desktop, Analysis Services, and Power Pivot in Excel. New and
updated functions are typically first introduced in Power BI
Desktop, and then later in Analysis Services, Power Pivot in
Excel, and tools
To know more about them refer to the following link. New DAX
functions - DAX | Microsoft Learn

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Thank you!

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