If you are new to Power BI, Power Pivot, or Analysis Services Tabular, you want to move through the first steps with DAX relatively soon. DAX is the language used to create measures, calculated columns, and calculated tables – only when you define measures will you define your data model as complete!

If you are an avid reader of SQLBI articles, you know that we have published a lot of content in many articles and videos over the years. Such content is very useful to solve specific problems, but it could be intimidating for beginners. Even our video course Mastering DAX is not appropriate for absolute beginners – it is probably deeper than necessary for users with a few days’ worth of DAX experience.

For these reasons, we felt the need to provide a more introductory piece of content. Therefore, we created a specific video course, Introducing DAX, which is completely free.

The goal is to teach the DAX language using Power BI for all the examples. You can download the initial Power BI Desktop file used in the demos and repeat all the steps shown in the videos. The same concepts can be used also on Power Pivot and on Analysis Services Tabular.

The total length of the videos is slightly more than 150 minutes. You should also consider additional time to review the demo file and add the required measures.

Once you complete the Introducing DAX free course and get some practice, you can deepen your DAX skills by attending a Mastering DAX class or video course, and by reading our books and articles.
Enjoy DAX!