You cannot create functions in DAX, and this is a limitation to certain abstractions you might want to implement for complex models. I used a pattern that allows you to “pass an parameter” to a DAX measure, simulating the behavior of a function at least  Read more

Thanks to Darren Gosbell we have DAX Studio 2.2. In this new release: Tracing (query plans and server timings) available for Power Pivot Basic implementation of Intellisense Connect to Multidimensional SSAS servers Support for multiple Power BI Desginer  Read more

The 2015 is a special year for Italy, because the country hosts Expo 2015, which is the current Universal Exposition. For this reason, the Italian PASS chapter promotes a special edition of SQL Saturday, a free training event for SQL Server professionals.  Read more

In the last months I assisted many companies implementing solutions based on Analysis Services Tabular. There is not so much difference between the versions 2012 and 2014, because SQL Server 2014 didn’t introduce new features to the BI services. Thus,  Read more

The last update of Power BI Designer allows you to create measures (not calculated columns yet). Download the new version of Power BI Designer and you will see the New Measure button. The editor is much better than anything you have seen in Excel 2010/2013,  Read more

In the last few weeks I and Teo Lachev took the ownership of DAX Editor code. It is an add-in for Visual Studio that allows you to edit DAX measures in a text editor instead of using the Measure grid. It also provides other features (such as editing measures  Read more

In the last months, I’ve been trying to suggest a direction for Power BI, but I start to realize that in these days Microsoft is really prioritizing features based on customer feedback. This can make things harder for a new idea to be prioritized, because  Read more

After the initial release of DAX Studio 2.0, in December 2014, I started working on a few features to analyze performance of DAX queries. Darren Gosbell implemented many other features, and Daniele Perilli helped us with the graphics of the UI. We certainly  Read more

Today Microsoft announced the availability of Power BI preview also outside United States. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powerbi/archive/2015/03/16/power-bi-preview-now-available-worldwide.aspx One important thing to note is that also the mobile app for iPad  Read more

I published another article in the “From SQL to DAX” series I launched many months ago on www.sqlbi.com . This time, the goal is to analyze DAX alternatives for IN and EXISTS operators that you have in SQL. The name of the article is From SQL to DAX:  Read more