Voice of the DBA

Tag: DAX

  • Live Stairways Day 1 Homework

    I recorded my first class for the Live Stairways – Learning DAX and Power BI. My apologies for anyone that wanted to join. We had an error in the Zoom meeting, and I had to create a new meeting.

    Some fits and starts, but still, an interesting first class, as I worked through Level 1. A few things I, and you, need to do to follow along. I’ll add this to the class course, but for now, some homework.

    Homework

    First, SQL Server.

    If you haven’t installed SQL Server and SSAS, do that. You can get the developer edition from the SQL Server downloads page. I’m using SQL Server 2017, but 2019 should work. Set this up on a machine somewhere, and be sure to add SSAS.

    I don’t have SSAS installed, so I’ll do a video and post on how to add that to your SQL Server installation.

    Next, Power BI Desktop.

    If you haven’t installed Power BI Desktop, go here and download it. It’s an easy, standard Windows install.

    Last, AdventureWorks DW Version

    The AdventureWorks scripts are on GitHub. You can download the install script and run this to set up the DW database.

    That’s it for now. I’ll hold off on the SSAS project for now.

    homework #1 – Install SQL Server and SSAS
    homework 2 – AdventureWorks DW version
    Homework 3 Power BI

  • DAX and Power BI Stairway Live

    As part of the Redgate Community Circle, I’m going to be running a live class on DAX and Power BI, every Thursday, from 12MDT for about 30-45 minutes. We’ll see how things go.

    I’ve been wanting to learn DAX and I keep putting it off. I can google with the best of them and fumble through things, but that’s not ideal. And it might not be correct, as I’m not sure I’m always writing the code that I need, or the best code. So I want to walk through Bill Pearon’s Stairway to DAX and Power BI live.

    Join me and we’ll work through the series, learning some DAX and applying it to Power BI, which will be interesting. I will read the articles ahead of time, and download anything I need, but for the most part, I’ll be fumbling along with you.

    If  you’ve got time, join me live. The webinar link is here, and you’re welcome to join, for the whole time or just a part. I anticipate things going for 30+ minutes, but I’ll cut off at an hour. Feel free to participate and as long as we don’t have too many people, we can all discuss the article and try things out live.

    For security, I’m not directly posting details, but here is some of it.

  • Do you use DAX?

    It’s not that often that I see many posts about DAX. Despite the Data Analysis Expressions being used in Power BI, it seems that relatively few people call this out in their work. Chris Webb writes about it often, and this week is no exception. There’s also a short piece on time series from Philip Seamark and another one on optimizing expression from Marco Russo.

    DAX came out of the Analysis Services world and was the way that Microsoft expected people to analyze data in PowerPivot. That never quite became as popular as Microsoft hoped, but the expressions were folded into Excel and still heavily used in SSAS, but it’s really become the way that you can assemble amazing reports in Power BI. If you’re looking to get started, you might check out the Guy in a Cube, Adam Saxton, and his videos on DAX.

    DAX isn’t a native part of Excel, despite the fact that many of the functions are similar or even have the same name. You can use these expressions in the PowerPivot tab in Excel, which you can easily enable. Once you’ve done this, then the power of complex analysis using DAX is available for you.

    Should you learn DAX? That depends. If you need to build reports, or your users are asking for help with more complex analysis, then this might be a skill that helps your career. Your users will appreciate the way in which they can view data with more complex time series and statistical functions available. This seems especially valuable when looking at data across time, like comparing previous periods to current ones.

    As I look around, there are seemingly endless ways in which you can express your creativity with DAX to build more interesting reports. Some of these techniques are useful, some just fun (or perhaps silly), but a change of pace or a new view can help users become more engaged in your reports. They can be fun to build as well.

    Just remember that ultimately you need to use DAX to solve problems and generate insights. Whether you use Power BI, SSAS, or just PowerPivot, don’t build complex reports just because you can. Make sure you understand how the functions enable you to analyze data and the meanings behind their results.

    If you’re looking to get started, we have a great Stairway Series on DAX that can help you, in addition to watching the Database Weekly newsletter for new resources every week.

    Steve Jones