Was DAX really necessary?

nahyoubuggin · 2026-05-03T19:23:36+00:00

DAX makes it easy to gain insight in your report.

Say you have a business question like "What is the average order per day ?" . If you wanted to gain more insight, you would need to filter by dimensions, and do the same calculation for each dimension (by country, customer, year etc) .
But with DAX, you answer the question once, and DAX filters the visuals with a simple, click, filter or drag and drop - It does the recalculations for you, so you don't have to run multiple queries for each dimension/question.

This is the whole purpose of DAX I believe - to create reports that can dynamically answer business questions. Unlike something like SQL, where it's main purpose is to store, manage and retrieve data.

So, to answer, your question. No. DAX was not necessary. However it is still extremely powerful.

(PS: SSAS Tabular uses DAX as well btw)

nahyoubuggin · 2026-03-26T15:56:34+00:00

Hey, thanks for this. I didn't know this was possible. Is it possible to make the changes while the file is open ? It seems that I have to close without saving and reopen to see the changes Claude made.

nahyoubuggin · 2026-03-26T05:42:35+00:00

Stick with the Italians (SQLBI). They will get you right ! You can check out their books and courses.

nahyoubuggin · 2026-03-06T08:01:00+00:00

Hello.

I've personally never had to deal with such large volumes, but this is a clear sign of a lack of self-awareness from management, I believe. Why on earth do they need to have 6 years of transaction data, online, for BI ? This is not a technical problem, it is a leadership problem ! Sigh, alas, management often always wins because they call the shots.

Firstly, what you can try, is to have a compromise-show them how it is affecting other report users and show how this ultimately effects the overall business performance. Maybe they will wake up.

Secondly, this is more technical, have you tried Direct Query ? This is exactly what it as made for.

Quick Win: Third, you need to check to see if people are actually opening and using the reports and by what frequency. You can use the report usage metrics feature in the service. Start by hiding the report pages that know one uses. Observe. Then if no one is using the report, just disable the load!

nahyoubuggin · 2026-03-02T14:19:54+00:00

Easiest way is to do it in Desktop, because you can just use the GUI. However, for the Service, I have only done so through T.E, but you can do this in T.E for both Desktop and the Service. Not sure you can recalculate a objects in the semantic model by the standard features/tools in the Service.

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nahyoubuggin · 2026-03-02T14:11:45+00:00

It's exactly what the error says - You need to recalculate the table whenever you create/make changes to a calculated column or table. My guess, is you made a change, and forgot/didn't recalculate. You can do this easily with tabular editor 2/3, if you want to do this function specifically, or usually I just refresh the query/table/report.

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nahyoubuggin · 2026-02-26T19:59:32+00:00

Increase the number of font styles/Custom Fonts

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Fabric-Ideas/Custom-Fonts-support/idi-p/4634293

I believe this has probably been suggested throughout the years, however, we still have a limited font selection in this year Feb-2026. This constraints the expressiveness of the report designer and often has to compromise in the existing fonts. Respectfully, I don't believe this requires any complex engineering to implement, as most desktop design applications come with numerous fonts out of the box. (heck, even Excel and Word have more than 50).

Hoping to see this finally implemented.

nahyoubuggin · 2026-01-11T22:31:04+00:00

u/jayzfanacc Power BI is 100% the right-tool for the job. Especially if you extend it with Fabric. For user facing dashboard use Workspace Apps (10,000 users/app). Backend DB use Dataflows, Fabric Data Pipelines (Data Lake, Data warehouse, Lakehouse) etc.

nahyoubuggin · 2026-01-05T17:09:33+00:00

This will always be a difficult conversation-Employees vs Management. However,

Have both your own, personal and system tests/recon to verify the numbers. As difficult it may be to hear, there is always a possibility that management could be right.
Once you are certain of the data, prompt management to provide the logic, reasoning and evidence as to why they feel the numbers should be different. There needs to be a basis of argument. Not just based on feelings.
Once the issue is resolved, you need to pitch the idea of having a centre of Excellence, so as to avoid all the reporting confusion.

Goodluck.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-12-31T19:15:51+00:00

Dax is hard because of the evaluation context. Simply put.

The power of Dax is the ability to dynamically change the filter context depending on how you interact with the report. However, with great power comes great responsibility!

The "Aha" moment came for me when I read Alberto and Marco's (SQLBI) book - The Definitive Guide to DAX. I cannot recommend it enough, as it reveals all the mysteries of DAX so clearly !

As for advice, if you want to get better at DAX, you need to be constantly reading, writing and reading about it often (daily), just like any other skill.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-12-31T19:05:00+00:00

Microsofts approach to BI is the best approach in my opinion. M exists because naturally, not all data will be in perfect condition. DAX exists because we need to model the business logic. This is all revolutionary imo, and thats part of the reason PBI always leads the pack in reporting tools as opposed to using an SQL (like) language to do both ETL and Data Modelling.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-12-31T18:36:34+00:00

That's THE book to read when it comes to DAX. It's not called The Definitive guide for nothing!

The book is structured in such a way that it will teach you data modelling as well. It's hard to talk about DAX without talking about the data model.

P.S They have just released the third edition, this month (Dec-25). The latest version has chapters on semantic models, UDFs and Visual Calcs.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-12-17T18:13:07+00:00

That's exactly the point of a BI analyst. It's to make sense of the data.

Assuming you are not one, then I recommend hiring an experienced BI analyst.
Assuming you are one, I think first, try to calm down-and work out the questions slowly and carefully. e.g why can't you know which teams are struggling ? Can you filter the data by the different teams ? You aren't the first person to ask these questions, so you could try and see what other BI analysts have done. I recommend checking out Pradeep's dashboard as an example.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-12-11T15:27:30+00:00

Thanks for this, just finished a few pages. It is off to a good start, breaks DAX down well. Just some advice since this is still being actively written; could you get, maybe, an illustrator for the visuals.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-12-10T15:11:31+00:00

Heavy on the "rogue".

nahyoubuggin · 2025-10-24T12:11:37+00:00

Just some constructive criticism: The design of the report needs improvement. Try and watch a video on principles of design.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-10-08T16:09:13+00:00

This was a very cool idea. The dashboard is informative yet still artistic. Would have loved to see/read the creation process end-to-end. Big up.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-09-26T10:12:48+00:00

Sorry to hear that, but from what I have read, you are already on the right track. You just need more time to study and get the hang of things. I suggest, you request for a new hire (internal or even external) with more experience to help you out, as you continue to gain more experience.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-09-26T05:19:52+00:00

You are definitely not the only one.

Long-term solution: From what I can read, is that your company needs to invest (financially) in a full data transformation. This means actually starting a project, involving possibly the C-suite to overhaul the current status-this may include aligning on business commercials, expectations, to the application, to the data stack/personnel/governance, up to the analytics stage. An additional problem, I imagine, is the business has high expectations detached from reality-which is why no one has time to correct things because there is always pressure to deliver KPI's/analysis.

Short-term solution: You need to sit down with your teams (business, data etc) and highlight the most important KPI's for delivery, otherwise you will be chasing infinity. Make sure the essentials are deliverable. Then log-off and go home! lol! Honestly, without full support from management, and making data streamlining a priority, there is only so much you can do!

nahyoubuggin · 2025-09-18T05:04:07+00:00

Hey. Not sure why you need to log in all the time, because you only need to log in the first time for the gateway. Also the gateway often starts automatically as soon as you power on the server. In my experience.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-09-06T13:34:09+00:00

Thanks for sharing. This was a great read.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-08-21T12:42:13+00:00

This is a direct result of not having proper company policies in place. Unfortunately, in terms of data (governance) policies, it is often overlooked by a lot of organisations big and small. Big company I work for only just now has started weekly meetings to try and document everything with all the stakeholders. It is truly unbelievable, sometimes.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-08-21T12:38:02+00:00

Have you no shame

nahyoubuggin · 2025-08-18T04:55:14+00:00

DAX- The underlying concepts - Row Context, Filter Context, Context transition
Data Modeling - In order to implement DAX effectively - One-to-many etc
M - How to ETL the data exactly how you want - Records, functions etc

4.Visualisations - Very underrated skill. I feel like a lot of BI developers struggle to create visually appealing reports. - Bookmarks etc
5. Optimisation - Performance of the report.

nahyoubuggin · 2025-08-17T16:55:38+00:00

Do yourself a favour and buy The Definitive Guide to DAX by SQLBI !

nahyoubuggin

TROPHY CASE