Hands On Business Intelligence With Dax

Implement business intelligence (BI), data modeling, and data analytics within Microsoft products such as Power BI, SQL Server, and Excel Key FeaturesUnderstand the ins and outs of DAX expressions and querying functions with the help of easy-to-follow examplesManipulate data of varying complexity and optimize BI workflows to extract key insightsCreate, monitor, and improve the performance of models by writing clean and robust DAX queriesBook Description Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) is known for its ability to increase efficiency by extracting new information from data that is already present in your model. With this book, you’ll learn to use DAX’s functionality and flexibility in the BI and data analytics domains. You’ll start by learning the basics of DAX, along with understanding the importance of good data models, and how to write efficient DAX formulas by using variables and formatting styles. You’ll then explore how DAX queries work with the help of examples. The book will guide you through optimizing the BI workflow by writing powerful DAX queries. Next, you’ll learn to manipulate and load data of varying complexity within Microsoft products such as Power BI, SQL Server, and Excel Power Pivot. You’ll then discover how to build and extend your data models to gain additional insights, before covering progressive DAX syntax and functions to understand complex relationships in DAX. Later, you’ll focus on important DAX functions, specifically those related to tables, date and time, filtering, and statistics. Finally, you’ll delve into advanced topics such as how the formula and storage engines work to optimize queries. By the end of this book, you’ll have gained hands-on experience in employing DAX to enhance your data models by extracting new information and gaining deeper insights. What you will learnUnderstand DAX, from the basics through to advanced topics, and learn to build effective data modelsWrite and use DAX functions and expressions with the help of hands-on examplesDiscover how to handle errors in your DAX code, and avoid unwanted resultsLoad data into a data model using Power BI, Excel Power Pivot, and SSAS TabularCover DAX functions such as date, time, and time intelligence using code examplesGain insights into data by using DAX to create new informationUnderstand the DAX VertiPaq engine and how it can help you optimize data modelsWho this book is for This book is for data analysts, business analysts, BI developers, or SQL users who want to make the best use of DAX in the BI and data analytics domain with the help of examples. Some understanding of BI concepts is mandatory to fully understand the concepts covered in the book.

Expert Choice to build Business Intelligence landscapes and dashboards for Enterprises KEY FEATURES ● In-depth knowledge of Power BI, demonstrated through step-by-step exercises. ● Covers data modelling, visualization, and implementing security with complete hands-on training. ● Includes a project that simulates a realistic business environment from start to finish. DESCRIPTION Mastering Power BI covers the entire Power BI implementation process. The readers will be able to understand all the concepts covered in this book, from data modelling to creating powerful - visualizations. This book begins with the concepts and terminology such as Star-Schema, dimensions and facts. It explains about multi-table dataset and demonstrates how to load these tables into Power BI. It shows how to load stored data in various formats and create relationships. Readers will also learn more about Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). This book is a must for the developers wherein they learn how to extend the usability of Power BI, to explore meaningful and hidden data insights. Throughout the book, you keep on learning about the concepts, techniques and expert practices on loading and shaping data, visualization design and security implementation. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN ● Learn about Business Intelligence (BI) concepts and its contribution in business analytics. ● Learn to connect, load, and transform data from disparate data sources. ● Start creating and executing powerful DAX calculations. ● Design various visualizations to prepare insightful reports and dashboards. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR This book is for anyone interested in learning how to use Power BI desktop or starting a career in Business Intelligence and Analytics. While this covers all the fundamentals, it is recommended that the reader be familiar with MS-Excel and database concepts. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Understanding the Basics 2. Connect and Shape 3. Optimize your datamodel 4. Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) 5. Visualizations in Power BI 6. Power BI Service 7. Securing your application

Attention all SQL Pros, DAX is not just for writing Excel-based formulas! Get hands-on learning and expert advice on how to use the vast capabilities of the DAX language to solve common data modeling challenges. Beginning DAX with Power BI teaches key concepts such as mapping techniques from SQL to DAX, filtering, grouping, joining, pivoting, and using temporary tables, all aimed at the SQL professional. Join author Philip Seamark as he guides you on a journey through typical business data transformation scenarios and challenges, and teaches you, step-by-step, how to resolve challenges using DAX. Tips, tricks, and shortcuts are included and explained, along with examples of the SQL equivalent, in order to accelerate learning. Examples in the book range from beginner to advanced, with plenty of detailed explanation when walking through each scenario. What You’ll Learn Turbocharge your Power BI model by adding advanced DAX programming techniques Know when to use calculated measures versus calculated columns Generate new tables on the fly from existing data Optimize, monitor, and tune Power BI to improve performance of your models Discover new ideas, tricks, and time-saving techniques for better models Who This Book Is For Business intelligence developers, business analysts, or any SQL user who wants to use Power BI as a reporting tool. A solid understanding of SQL is recommended, as examples throughout the book include the DAX equivalents to SQL problem/solution scenarios.

Now expanded and updated with modern best practices, this is the most complete guide to Microsoft’s DAX language for business intelligence, data modeling, and analytics. Expert Microsoft BI consultants Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari help you master everything from table functions through advanced code and model optimization. You’ll learn exactly what happens under the hood when you run a DAX expression, and use this knowledge to write fast, robust code. This edition focuses on examples you can build and run with the free Power BI Desktop, and helps you make the most of the powerful syntax of variables (VAR) in Power BI, Excel, or Analysis Services. Want to leverage all of DAX’s remarkable capabilities? This no-compromise “deep dive” is exactly what you need. Perform powerful data analysis with DAX for Power BI, SQL Server, and Excel · Master core DAX concepts, including calculated columns, measures, and calculation groups · Work efficiently with basic and advanced table functions · Understand evaluation contexts and the CALCULATE and CALCULATETABLE functions · Perform time-based calculations · Use calculation groups and calculation items · Use syntax of variables (VAR) to write more readable, maintainable code · Express diverse and unusual relationships with DAX, including many-to-many relationships and bidirectional filters · Master advanced optimization techniques, and improve performance in aggregations · Optimize data models to achieve better compression · Measure DAX query performance with DAX Studio and learn how to optimize your DAX

This comprehensive and authoritative guide will teach you the DAX language for business intelligence, data modeling, and analytics. Leading Microsoft BI consultants Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari help you master everything from table functions through advanced code and model optimization. You’ll learn exactly what happens under the hood when you run a DAX expression, how DAX behaves differently from other languages, and how to use this knowledge to write fast, robust code. If you want to leverage all of DAX’s remarkable power and flexibility, this no-compromise “deep dive” is exactly what you need. Perform powerful data analysis with DAX for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Excel, and Power BI Master core DAX concepts, including calculated columns, measures, and error handling Understand evaluation contexts and the CALCULATE and CALCULATETABLE functions Perform time-based calculations: YTD, MTD, previous year, working days, and more Work with expanded tables, complex functions, and elaborate DAX expressions Perform calculations over hierarchies, including parent/child hierarchies Use DAX to express diverse and unusual relationships Measure DAX query performance with SQL Server Profiler and DAX Studio

Solve real-world business problems by learning how to create common industry key performance indicators and other calculations using DAX within Microsoft products such as Power BI, SQL Server, and Excel. Key FeaturesLearn to write sophisticated DAX queries to solve business intelligence and data analytics challengesHandle performance issues and optimization within the data model, DAX calculations and moreSolve business issues with Microsoft Excel, Power BI, and SQL Server using DAX queriesBook Description DAX provides an extra edge by extracting key information from the data that is already present in your model. Filled with examples of practical, real-world calculations geared toward business metrics and key performance indicators, this cookbook features solutions that you can apply for your own business analysis needs. You'll learn to write various DAX expressions and functions to understand how DAX queries work. The book also covers sections on dates, time, and duration to help you deal with working days, time zones, and shifts. You'll then discover how to manipulate text and numbers to create dynamic titles and ranks, and deal with measure totals. Later, you'll explore common business metrics for finance, customers, employees, and projects. The book will also show you how to implement common industry metrics such as days of supply, mean time between failure, order cycle time and overall equipment effectiveness. In the concluding chapters, you'll learn to apply statistical formulas for covariance, kurtosis, and skewness. Finally, you'll explore advanced DAX patterns for interpolation, inverse aggregators, inverse slicers, and even forecasting with a deseasonalized correlation coefficient. By the end of this book, you'll have the skills you need to use DAX's functionality and flexibility in business intelligence and data analytics. What you will learnUnderstand how to create common calculations for dates, time, and durationCreate key performance indicators (KPIs) and other business calculationsDevelop general DAX calculations that deal with text and numbersDiscover new ideas and time-saving techniques for better calculations and modelsPerform advanced DAX calculations for solving statistical measures and other mathematical formulasHandle errors in DAX and learn how to debug DAX calculationsUnderstand how to optimize your data modelsWho this book is for Business users, BI developers, data analysts, and SQL users who are looking for solutions to the challenges faced while solving analytical operations using DAX techniques and patterns will find this book useful. Basic knowledge of the DAX language and Microsoft services is mandatory.

Solve business challenges with Microsoft Power BI's advanced visualization and data analysis techniques Key FeaturesCreate effective storytelling reports by implementing simple-to-intermediate Power BI featuresDevelop powerful analytical models to extract key insights for changing business needsBuild, publish, and share impressive dashboards for your organizationBook Description To succeed in today's transforming business world, organizations need business intelligence capabilities to make smarter decisions faster than ever before. This Power BI book is an entry-level guide that will get you up and running with data modeling, visualization, and analytical techniques from scratch. You'll find this book handy if you want to get well-versed with the extensive Power BI ecosystem. You'll start by covering the basics of business intelligence and installing Power BI. You'll then learn the wide range of Power BI features to unlock business insights. As you progress, the book will take you through how to use Power Query to ingest, cleanse, and shape your data, and use Power BI DAX to create simple to complex calculations. You'll also be able to add a variety of interactive visualizations to your reports to bring your data to life. Finally, you'll gain hands-on experience in creating visually stunning reports that speak to business decision makers, and see how you can securely share these reports and collaborate with others. By the end of this book, you'll be ready to create simple, yet effective, BI reports and dashboards using the latest features of Power BI. What you will learnExplore the different features of Power BI to create interactive dashboardsUse the Query Editor to import and transform dataPerform simple and complex DAX calculations to enhance analysisDiscover business insights and tell a story with your data using Power BIExplore data and learn to manage datasets, dataflows, and data gatewaysUse workspaces to collaborate with others and publish your reportsWho this book is for If you’re an IT manager, data analyst, or BI user new to using Power BI for solving business intelligence problems, this book is for you. You’ll also find this book useful if you want to migrate from other BI tools to create powerful and interactive dashboards. No experience of working with Power BI is expected.

Learn the intricate workings of DAX and the mechanics that are necessary to solve advanced Power BI challenges. This book is all about DAX (Data Analysis Expressions), the formula language used in Power BI—Microsoft’s leading self-service business intelligence application—and covers other products such as PowerPivot and SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular. You will learn how to leverage the advanced applications of DAX to solve complex tasks. Often a task seems complex due to a lack of understanding, or a misunderstanding of core principles, and how certain components interact with each other. The authors of this book use solutions and examples to teach you how to solve complex problems. They explain the intricate workings of important concepts such as Filter Context and Context Transition. You will learn how Power BI, through combining DAX building blocks (such as measures, table filtering, and data lineage), can yield extraordinary analytical power. Throughout Pro Dax with Power BI these building blocks are used to create and compose solutions for advanced DAX problems, so you can independently build solutions to your own complex problems, and gain valuable insight from your data. What You Will Learn Understand the intricate workings of DAX to solve advanced problems Deconstruct problems into manageable parts in order to create your own recipes Apply predefined solutions for addressing problems, and link back step-by-step to the mechanics of DAX, to know the foundation of this powerful query language Get fully on board with DAX, a new and evolving language, by learning best practices Who This Book Is For Anyone who wants to use Power BI to build advanced and complex models. Some experience writing DAX is helpful, but not essential if you have experience with other data query languages such as MDX or SQL.