SQLBI Newsletter #319

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NEW ARTICLE

Understanding parameter types in DAX user-defined functions (UDF)

This article describes the parameter types available in DAX user-defined functions, focusing on the specialized reference types MEASUREREF, COLUMNREF, TABLEREF, and CALENDARREF.
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COMICS

AI BI Blunders

This comic has been generated by Grok using so many prompts...

#319 · Apr 2026

LEARNING

Course calendar

DATA MODELING - 3 DAYS

	Jul 21-23 - Amsterdam

Mastering DAX - 3 DAYS

	May 5-7 - Copenhagen
	May 27-29 - Baltimore
	Jun 10-12 - Zürich
	Jun 15-17 - Berlin
	Jun 30-Jul 2 - Amsterdam

Stop guessing DAX. Start mastering it with Mastering DAX Video Course 3rd Edition.

video courses

	Introducing DAX
	Mastering DAX
	Optimizing DAX
	Intro to Data Modeling
	Data Modeling for Power BI
	Mastering Tabular
	DAX Tools Video Course
	DAX Patterns
	Power BI Dashboard Design

BI-WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST

Latest news

	• Power BI and support for third-party semantic models At SQLBI we might be biased, but when it comes to semantic models, Microsoft is ahead of the competition, by far. The issue is that a proprietary technology (like the DAX language) makes semantic models difficult to consume for other vendors, whereas the opposite is much easier. Doesn't this say a lot about the capabilities of the platforms? However, this article provides some clarification, and we suggest you read the comments, too: it still doesn't seem to be the right time for a serious conversation about this topic. We're waiting for someone else to reach the conclusion that SQL cannot be the language for the metrics: doesn't seem like the past 40+ years have sufficed. Apr 12, 2026 · Chris Webb
	• Power BI agentic development We are in the midst of a big change. Everybody has accepted the fact that AI is going to change the world, yet nobody has the final answer as to how this will produce the reports you want - you know, the ones with the correct numbers. Let's start with the more comprehensive effort to help Power BI report developers. Start from this GitHub repository. Now that the changes are weekly instead of daily, you might get a taste of one option for agentic development of Power BI reports. This one is for Claude Code. Apr 18, 2026 · Kurt Buhler
	• Agentic semantic model development for Power BI using GitHub Copilot on Windows If you want to edit your semantic model by using Visual Studio Code and GitHub Copilot, here are the instructions to setup a complete environment. Forget click-click-click-ok. Keyboards is back! Apr 15, 2026 · Gilbert Quevauvilliers
	• I built a Power BI DAX agent Writing DAX is hard for an LLM. Not because they don't know the syntax (we are past that), but because it's hard to fully understand the context and the requirement. This agent for writing DAX tries to validate the output not just from a syntax point of view. Will it be enough? Final call is still human-based. Mar 30, 2026 · Kristína Bachová

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