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Advanced DAX: Problem, Design, Solution

Written by Mitchell Pearson | Jun 29, 2017

DAX is both a programming and query language that gives you the ability to extend what is possible in either your Power BI or Tabular data models. During last week’s free webinar, our Business Intelligence Consultant Mitchell Pearson walked us through the process of solving complex business problems using the DAX language. 

Expanding on his presentation,  Mitchell has addressed additional questions to help provide a clearer understanding of Advanced DAX.

  1. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FIND FUNCTION AND THE SEARCH FUNCTION?

The FIND function is case-sensitive and the SEARCH function is case-insensitive. In the webinar,  I used the FIND function in my first demo, but really this could have been replaced with the SEARCH function since I was not concerned with case sensitivity.

  1. WHERE DID YOU FIND THE SCHOOL GRADE DEMO THAT YOU USED IN YOUR WEBINAR?

The data I used in the webinar can be found in this link: http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/reports/#2014

  1. IS THERE AN UPCOMING WEBINAR REGARDING DAX AS IT PERTAINS TO SSAS CUBES RATHER THAN POWER BI?

I am not aware of any upcoming webinars that will be specific to Tabular Cubes. It is important to point out that the examples used in my last webinar are also applicable with Tabular SSAS Cubes since it uses the same backend engine as Power BI Desktop (xVelocity). If you implement these solutions in SSAS Tabular, the consumption of the data would be achieved through Excel and then the necessary filters and slicers would be applied there, instead of the report view provided in Power BI Desktop.

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