In DAX string comparison requires you more attention than in SQL, for several reasons: DAX doesn’t offer the same set of features you have in SQL, a few text comparison functions in DAX are only case-sensitive and others only case-insensitive,…  Read more

Using DAX as a query language you will lack a fundamental feature like projection. In fact, DAX allows you add columns to an existing table, but you cannot simply remove some column from a table. In order to do that,…  Read more

Calculating a ratio in DAX is relatively simple in case the underlying data model is a star schema, but you have to consider additional complexities whenever you have a more normalized model, even just a snowflake schema. In this article,…  Read more

Sorting a column by using another column is one of the nice features of the new version of PowerPivot introduced with SQL Server 2012 (we call it PowerPivot v2, but it really v11 because it is aligned with SQL Server).…  Read more

We presented a few session at SQLBits and the video of these sessions are available. This is the list of sessions available from SQLBits 8 and SQLBits 9 – just click the link on the title and jump to the…  Read more

A BISM Tabular model can be queried by using both MDX and DAX. These two different languages rely on different modeling concepts, because MDX has a semantic based on dimensions, attributes, hierarchies and measures, whereas DAX only knows table and…  Read more

Using Visual Studio to author SSAS Multidimensional projects, I was used to copy the project, deploy it with another name and then proceed with updates, until I was satisfied with the final result. Then, working with the two projects side-by-side…  Read more

Having read this question on the mdsn blogs, I investigated on the KEEPFILTERS function and, after having learned it, it is now time to write about it. Moreover, before start to write about it, I need to thank the dev team…  Read more

In many workshops and sessions about PowerPivot the most frequently asked question has always been: how can I automate the PowerPivot Data Refresh in Excel? I talked about that a few weeks ago.  Read more

In PowerPivot you can import data from several sources and it is often the case that you import a DateTime column from a database. From an analytical point of view, you usually make analysis over dates (day/month/year/quarter/week) and over time…  Read more