Marco Russo's Blog
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SQLBI+ updates in April 2026
We released a new session in SQLBI+: How to navigate the lattice of visual calculations: This video explains how to navigate the lattice of visual calculations in DAX, using COLLAPSEALL and EXPAND to move between levels. A key topic is… Read more
The Third Edition of the Mastering DAX Video Course – unplugged
Alberto and I recorded an unplugged session to talk about the new edition of the Mastering DAX Video Course. You can watch it above, but if you prefer a quick read, here are some thoughts. The question we heard the… Read more
SQLBI+ updates in March 2026
We released a new course for SQLBI+ subscribers: Understanding Visual Calculations in DAX. This is not an introduction to visual calculations for users. The goal is to explain the details of implementing visual calculations for experienced DAX developers, including new… Read more
Fixing the “Black Icons” issue in Power BI Desktop: understanding the problem and a temporary workaround
In mid-January 2026, many Power BI Desktop users began noticing a strange visual regression: several icons in the interface—including the Data, Model, and DAX icons—appeared as solid black shapes instead of their normal outlines. The issue appeared suddenly, even on… Read more
What happened in the DAX world in 2025
It is time for our annual review of what happened in the DAX and SQLBI worlds, and what we should expect in 2026! Read more
Introducing DAX Lib, the “app store” for DAX User-Defined Functions
Three months ago, Microsoft introduced the User-Defined Functions (UDFs) in the DAX language. From the first day, https://daxlib.org has been available to share libraries of functions with the Power BI community. We published DAX Lib with a low profile because… Read more
SQLBI+ updates in August 2025
For many years, SUMMARIZECOLUMNS has been a function dedicated to DAX queries and calculated tables, but it was not supported in DAX measures. Over time, Microsoft lifted the limitations, and in June 2024, the function was declared as fully supported… Read more
A few thoughts about newsletter #300 and AI
Newsletter #300 is a significant milestone for SQLBI: it marks nearly 12 years of sending our updates every two weeks. I thought this was a good time to clarify SQLBI’s position on a topic we haven’t discussed much yet: Artificial… Read more
Direct Lake vs Import vs Direct Lake+Import | Fabric semantic models (May 2025)
When I presented “Choosing Between Import Mode, Direct Lake, and Composite Models” at Fabric Conf 2025 in Las Vegas, the room overflowed, and the session was not recorded. I promised to publish the material once the new Direct Lake + Import composite model… Read more
SQLBI+ updates in April 2025
We released a new course for our SQLBI+ subscribers: Security in Tabular Semantic Models. This course explains how to implement security in Tabular semantic models, considering different requirements, data model design, DAX implementation, and performance. The training is reference material… Read more