Analyst in Action

Bookmark you heard it right. Power BI provides a functionality to record the state of your page. It is quite similar to creating bookmarks on your internet browser. The good part is it provides a lot of flexibility for both the developer and the user. In this blog, we will cover how to create a bookmark in Power BI and take it to the next level by using of bookmark navigator. This blog is mainly targeting Power BI users who are at the beginners level. Let's get started with the creation of bookmarks. To do so on the top ribbon you need to select View and under it, you can find bookmarks. It will open a separate pane on the side. Before you create the bookmark make sure all the changes are implemented on the page which you want to see in the bookmark. Once the bookmark is created every change you make on the particular page you need to update the bookmark with the help of the three dots available next to the bookmark. Isn't it easy? Let's take it to the next level. I am usin...

If we talk about the level of detail then data labels can make your visuals stand out and add more context to them. There is a flip side too with them. The most common issue is when you put the data labels it creates a bit of a mess in your visuals and it becomes an intricate task if you consider the readability for the end users. That's not the objective of visualization. Let's consider a use case where we are creating a basic line graph with the evolution of discount percentages over a period. We are considering Sample Superstore data. Also, we have enabled the data labels for the whole series. You can play around with the formatting of your data labels. We can adjust the position, colors, and much more. If you focus on the title of the visual it's dynamic in nature and depends on the selection in the slicer. To know more about dynamic titles you can follow the link . From a visual point of view, the abovementioned visual is not so intuitive in nature.  To make it more in...

As Power BI users, we use titles for visuals or for pages. But what if I tell you to make the title of your visual more intuitive in nature. Is it possible? Yes, it is think of a scenario you have a slicer and a bar graph on a page. The management requested to make the title on the bar graph dynamic in nature. So let's dig deep into how can we build dynamic titles for your visuals. I am considering Sample Superstore data. The use case is to create a stacked column chart with a slicer of the city on the page. On the X axis, we are taking Category and Sub Category and on the Y axis, we are taking Sales amount. Now, if you see the title of the column chart it's static and doesn't change with the selection in the slicer. To make it dynamic in nature we will create a simple measure. Selected City = "Sales for " & SELECTEDVALUE ( SampleSuperstore [City] , "US" ) The DAX is quite simple in this case if we consider the selected value first we need to specify...

Let's consider a situation- you have 4 fields and you want to depict the flow with a help of visuals. The first thought can be to use a table or matrix in Power BI. It can depict the data but how about the intuitiveness? The solution for such scenarios is Sankey Charts which can help you to show different fields and the flow associated with them. As a beginner in the BI world anyone can question- Is there a need for a Sankey chart when you already have a pool of options? Yes, we do need such charts if you are trying to visualize a process with respect to a particular field. Protip - Sankey Charts are not available in your default library. You need to get it from the online library and keep in mind to only add certified visuals. So, enough of the introduction let's showcase how the Sankey chart works. I am considering the SampleSuperstore dataset. The use case for the first visual is we are going to show the flow between Region and Category. The flow size will be governed by the...

As a Power BI developer, whenever you connect a dataset, you often see sigma in front of different fields in your table. What is the significance of this sigma and how will it hamper the performance of your dashboard? We will answer all those questions in this article. Let's dig deeper into all the fields with some symbols such as sigma called Implicit measures. Such measures are automatically created by Power BI which is a default setting so whenever you drag such a measure into a table or any visual it will provide a sum (if the sigma is in front of that field). Let's try it with a sample dataset. I am using the SampleSuperstore dataset. We will be checking the profit associated with different categories. I am taking both category and profit in the table. In the below-mentioned image, you can see we are getting profit with every category. Easy peasy!!!! in such a case default does the job but what if we don't want a sum. To obtain that go to the columns and select the dro...

Variables!!!! doesn't it sounds familiar? It is an integral part of almost every computer programming tool. Also, it plays a significant role in DAX. Let's start from square one if I introduce Var in the DAX statement that means introducing a variable. Generally, you can use variables with different combinations in DAX but there is a mandatory syntax to pass at the end of it i.e. Return where you define what value that DAX should return if the defined condition matches and the alternate result to it. So let's clear out the ambiguity I will show how the variable works by using them in DAX under different conditions. I am considering Sample Superstore data to test the VAR. The use case is getting the West region Sales. For that, we are defining the Total Sales or Overall Sales by using the Sum of Sales and we will showcase all different regions and their respective sales. Now, I am looking for West Region Sales. You can achieve the same by using the Calculate and filters ( Ho...

We have several types of ALL available in the DAX and it is quite difficult to write a DAX using any of them if you aren't aware of each of them and the purpose they serve in different situations. In today's article, we will mainly focus on ALL, ALLSelected, and AllExcept. I will highlight the purpose of each of them and the difference between them. Let's get started with the basic DAX which every BI Analyst or DAX expert is familiar with. Before diving into the DAX let's define the use case. We are currently using the Sample Superstore data. The idea is to look for corporate sales in the east region. If you want to know how to calculate Corporate Sales using filters and keep filters you can refer to one of our old blogs ( link ) Corporate Sales is another measure that we defined using simple DAX. If we are using only ALL( ) that means we are avoiding every type of filter whether it is coming from the query or it is coming from the slicers applied for that filter. You c...

Do you struggle to spot the difference between different types of filters that are available in Power BI? It can turn out to be vague for beginners in Power BI. In today's article, we will refer to these filters and explain the purpose of each one of them. If you are a novice to Power BI then you must refer to our previous blog which covers an overview of different filters that exist in Power BI. ( Different Filters in Power BI ). As most of you are aware there are countless methods to attain the same result using DAX but the key thing to keep in mind is the efficiency of the DAX formula in that particular situation. For this article I am using Sample Superstore data (you can download it from kaggle.com). I will demonstrate the purpose of every formula. Let's get started!!! so the basic idea is to calculate sales for every sub-category and by using the filter formula I need to see sales in the corporate segment.  The above-mentioned formula is the basic approach where you just ...