Analyst in Action

Tabular Editor (TE), I have heard this name before. Yes, you probably had it if you work closely with Power BI, then Tabular Editor (TE)is the parallel lead to your PBIX reports. If you haven't explored Tabular Editor (TE), then this blog is for you. With this blog, we will give you all the basic use cases that get ignored in Power BI, but with TE, you can do it seamlessly. There are tons of articles and videos explaining the UI of TE, so we won't be touching it. We will be focusing on different use cases that I normally do with all my Power BI reports. First things first, we will be focusing on the TE version 2 since it's a free tool. You can also opt for version 3, which is a much-improved version than version 2, but I would recommend starting with version 2 and seeing if it suits your needs. Version 3 is a paid version. To download TE Version 2 from this very well known git hub page . Also, do check a small comparison done between the two versions on the TE official webs...

Let's think of a scenario, where you want to copy the bookmarks from one report to another. Most obvious approach is to just do a copy paste of the bookmarks. What's wrong with this approach? This approach only works for all visuals but not for bookmarks and field parameters.  If you are not familiar with basics of bookmarks and field parameters do refer to the beginners guide for bookmarks  and introduction to field parameters . Then how do you copy the bookmarks? Power BI enhanced report format (PBIR) for Power BI Project files (PBIP) will help you in achieving this. Let's check it out, I have 2 reports one contains the bookmark called Bookmarks PBIR Test (origin) and other one is Rolling Average PBIR Test (destination) .  Before we get started, you have to enable Power BI Project save option under preview features. Once enabled, restart Power BI desktop. There is a TMDL icon appearing on the left pane. What is TMDL and what's in it for me? There's a lot of possi...

DAX Studio has proved to be a great external tool for Power BI and we have prepared a beginner's guide on the most common use cases that one can encounter while using it. This week we will focus on going a level beyond and discover a bit more advanced use cases that will help you to use DAX Studio in a better way. Ultimate goal for today's article is to surpass the beginner level and reach advanced level of DAX Studio. We would recommend to first have a quick read on the beginner's guide before continuing here. In this article we will focus on running benchmark on your queries, formatting queries both short line and long line, defining dependent measures and lastly and one of my favourite importing performance data in DAX Studio. Before we start make sure you have the latest version of DAX Studio installed. Let's get started, with the simplest of the use cases - writing and formatting queries in DAX Studio. Generally, this is more towards enhancing the readability of ...

We know all the multitudes of Power BI and how it evolved over the years but have you ever thought what if you do not require all those fancy visuals and features but you need a flat table fitting in a single page and can go on for more than 100s of pages. If you are looking for something like this then Paginated Reports is the answer for you. In today's blog we will pen down everything you need to know about Paginated Reports. To know more about the Paginated Reports do read this interesting article from Microsoft. Before we start you will require - Report Builder (external tool but a FREE one) and Power BI Pro license along with the contributor rights to publish the paginated reports to different workspaces. Also, we will be working with Sample Superstore dataset. We are aiming to create a paginated report which will look something like this. Let's get started then, make sure you have published your dashboard in a workspace. For this demo, we have published the dashboard to...

Heavy dashboards and a bad data model is a nightmare for every BI Developer. Heavy dashboards can be slow due to multiple reasons. It is always advised to stick with best practices. Are you still figuring out about those best practices then you should definitely have a quick read on Best Practice Analyser ( link ). One of the most common issues with slow dashboards is unused columns and unused measures.  It is very normal to load some extra columns and create some test measures in your dashboard but as a part of cleanup process those unused columns and unused measures should be removed. Why we are removing them? Because if you keep them then ultimately it will increase the size of your data model which is not a good practice.  How to identify the culprits (unused columns and unused measures)? In today's blog we will provide you with 2 most common external tools which will help you in identifying the culprits. More external tools😒. Who's going to pay for this? To your surprise...