Analyst in Action

Another week, another blog! This week, we will cover something very basic. If you are a BI developer and work with Power BI, you will be familiar with DAX functions - Values, Value, and Distinct. This blog will cover all the common pitfalls and practical use cases for each of them. Before we start, let's start with a small question. Are distinct and unique means the same? For a very long time, I used to think they were just synonyms, but they aren't. Wait what?? How are they different? Okay, let's understand it. Distinct means each value in a specific column appeared once. In other words, you can say to count all values as 1. If you are a fan of SQL, then you already know that distinct is used to remove duplicates. While unique means you only consider the values that aren't repeated in a column. There's a subtle difference between the 2 that gets ignored easily. Okay, since you are aware of the difference between distinct and unique, we can now start the real acti...

Field parameters are widely used to change fields or measures dynamically in a visualization. If you are new to field parameters, we have covered the basics of field parameters in one of the earlier blogs. Related Read: Mastering Field Parameters in Power BI Field parameters are a powerful way to let users dynamically switch between different fields (like columns or measures) — no drill-down needed. This hands-on guide walks through how to use field parameters to create flexible visuals, build custom slicers, and improve report interactivity. You'll also learn tips on editing parameters, handling implicit vs. explicit measures, and avoiding common mistakes. In this blog, we will take it to the next level. Before we get started, I am using Sample Superstore as my dummy data. So let's get started, and we are first creating a basic field parameter taking all basic measures - Total Sales, Total Quantity, and Profit. We are dragging this field parameter in a basic table visual. Noth...

Power BI, combined with all external tools, at least the basic ones, can be a perfect BI tool to meet all your needs. Today's blog will focus on another external tool. What?? Not another one!! In my regular practice, I always rely on basic external tools such as DAX Studio, Tabular Editor, and Measure Killer. But what if I say this new tool is a transformer, combining all the basic tools in one place? If you are looking for an introductory guide for the basic external tools, we got you covered.  Beginner's Guide to DAX Studio Advanced Guide to DAX Studio Guide to Measure Killer Yes, you read it right and we will give you an introductory guide to all the functionalities that can be achieved with  Power Ops . Okay, first things first to download Power Ops you can visit their  website  and I would recommend exploring it with one of your reports. You can download the free version. It will be available under the external tools section in Power BI Desktop. Before we move f...

Let's explore the realm of security in Power BI. I am a great fan of Power BI as a BI tool that allows to create intuitive visuals with such ease. You can easily share your reports with a large audience across your organization. Let's think of a scenario - your report contains some sensitive data that should not be accessed by all users. Or there are cases where certain reports shouldn't be accessed across different multiple departments. Power BI has answers to all such questions.  Let's start from the very top and understand the different types of security that you can achieve in Power BI - Basic Row Level Security (RLS), Page Level Security (PLS), and Object Level Security (OLS). Row-level security allows to give access based on the defined role. If you are creating a Power BI report this is one of the crucial steps. Check this  article  from Microsoft to learn about RLS in detail.  In this article, we will focus on  the Page Level Security  and  Obj...