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Course Overview
How much more could you do with Power BI if you could create your own custom calculations?
DAX is considered a foundational skill for unlocking advanced analytics and custom reporting in Power BI, according to Microsoft and industry experts. Mastering DAX lets you move beyond basic visuals and deliver data-driven insights your organization can rely on.
Introduction to DAX for Power BI is a two-day, instructor-led course for business users ready to unleash the full power of their data models. You’ll learn practical DAX skills to solve real business problems: write your own calculated columns, measures, and tables; visualize how Power BI computes DAX; and confidently troubleshoot and refine your calculations. The course blends essential theory with hands-on practice, so you’ll understand not just the “how,” but the “why” behind every calculation.
Who Should Attend
This course is ideal for business users and analysts who have been using Power BI for reports and dashboards and want to take their analytic solutions to the next level. Learning DAX is a natural next step for experienced Power BI users looking to unlock more advanced data modeling and analysis capabilities.
Course Objectives
- Describe DAX syntax, data types, and errors
- Use DAX to create calculated columns, measures, and tables
- Explain how DAX calculations are evaluated, along with the differences between row context and filter context
- Configure and use Time Intelligence to perform common time-based calculations, for example to-date calculations, year-over-year analysis, moving averages, etc.
- Create calculated columns and measures that use data from multiple tables in the data model
- Write measures that handle error conditions gracefully
- Use DAX to enhance the Power BI user experience
- Use DAX Studio to connect to a Power BI data model and execute simple queries
Course Outline
Module 1 – Getting started with DAX
- Introduction to DAX
- Creating objects with DAX
- Context and rules of evaluation
- Variables, comments, and testing
Module 2 – Performing basic calculations
- Getting started with calculations
- Implicit measures and adding quick measures
- Working with DAX data types and basic math
- Using logic in calculations: IF(), nested IF(), SWITCH(), advanced SWITCH(), logical operators and functions (OR(), AND(), NOT())
- Aggregating and summarizing data with the SUM() function
Module 3 – Working with context in the data model
- Understanding context, data modeling basics, and dimensional modeling
- Relationships and their effect on the evaluation context
- Getting data from other tables: using RELATED(), RELATEDTABLE(), and looking up data without relationships
- Modifying context using CALCULATE()
Module 4 – Performing more advanced calculations
- DAX iterator functions
- Table manipulation functions
Module 5 – Working with time
- Performing date calculations and working with date tables
- Generating a date table with CALENDAR()
- Defining custom operating periods
- YTD, QTD, MTD, and custom to-date calculations
- Finding year-over-year change and moving averages
Module 6 – Enhancing the user experience
- Controlling measure visibility
- Using what-if parameters and adding banding
- Providing row-level security using DAX