DAX Introduction for Power BI

In this two-day course, students will be introduced to using Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), which is the expression language that is used to create custom calculations in the Power BI Data model. The course covers some of the theoretical underpinnings of the data model and DAX, but the emphasis is on using DAX to solve common business problems. Students will learn how to write their own calculated columns, measures, and tables, how to visualize the way Power BI computes DAX calculations, and how to troubleshoot custom code. This instructor-led course consists of a combination of lecture, demonstrations, and hands-on labs.

DAX functions that are covered in this class include:

• Date and time functions: CALENDAR(), CALENDARAUTO(), DATE(), NOW(), TODAY(), WEEKDAY(), WEEKNUM(), YEAR(), MONTH(), DAY()
• Filter functions: ALL(), ALLEXCEPT(), CALCULATE(), CALCULATETABLE(), FILTER(), LOOKUPVALUE(), REMOVEFILTERS()
• Information functions: CONTAINS(), HASONEFILTER(), HASONEVALUE(), ISINSCOPE(), ISBLANK(), ISEMPTY(), ISERROR(), USERNAME()
• Logical functions: AND(), COALESCE(), IF(), IFERROR(), NOT(), OR(), SWITCH(), TRUE(), FALSE()
• Math and Statistical Functions: DIVIDE(), SUM(), SUMX(), AVERAGE(), AVERAGEX(), COUNT(), COUNTROWS(), COUNTX(), DISTINCTCOUNT(), MAX(), MAXX(), MEDIAN(), MEDIANX(), MIN(), MINX(), RANKX()
• Table manipulation functions: ADDCOLUMNS(), SELECTCOLUMNS(), CROSSJOIN(), DATATABLE(), NATURALINNERJOIN(), SUMMARIZE(), VALUES()
• Text functions: CONCATENATEX(), FIND(), LEFT(), LEN(), MID(), REPLACE(), SEARCH(), TRIM(), VALUE()
• Time intelligence functions: DATEADD(), DATESBETWEEN(), DATESMTD(), DATESQTD(), DATESYTD(), PARALLELPERIOD(), SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR(), TOTALMTD(), TOTALQTD(), TOTALYTD()

Although experience with Power BI Desktop is not strictly required for this class, students with at least some familiarity will be better equipped to get the most out of the lab work.

This course is intended for business users who have been using Power BI to build analytic solutions and are ready to take advantage of the power and flexibility that DAX provides. Learning DAX is a very common “next step” for experienced Power BI users.