Calculation groups are one of the most powerful features to reduce the data model complexity and measure redundancy! — Mastering DP-500: Direct Query in Power BI Mastering DP-500: External tools in Power BI If you’ve carefully read the previous article in this series (the one related to external tools), you probably noticed that creating calculation groups is not feasible from the Power BI Desktop, but from the Tabular Editor…

Circular dependency error is one of the most annoying things in Power BI data modeling! Learn why this is happening and how to avoid it — As you may have already understood reading my previous articles, creating a Star-schema doesn’t necessarily mean that your data modeling tasks are completed. There are many more aspects to be aware of — and, while you can sneak without fine-tuning each and every detail — some of these “details” are…

External tools provide additional functionalities and features, that will make your life as a Power BI developer much easier! — This article is the part of the series related to mastering the DP-500 certification exam: Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI Become a member and read every story on Medium! Power BI is an awesome tool! There is no discussion about that. Finally, it’s been recognized as an industry leader by Gartner for a few years in a row. However, when it comes to Power BI development, there are certain features…

How would you call going from 380 tables in 18 Excel sheets, to one table on a single report page in Power BI?! Magic? Miracle? Check how Calculation Groups can help you to achieve the (im)possible! — Dear reader, before you proceed, keep in mind that the following example was a real-life use case! Of course, numbers and metrics in this article were adjusted not to discard the real client’s data, but the structure and overall idea is 100% identical as it was in reality!

Thinking of taking the DP-500 exam? Let’s start learning about the Power BI alternative for the Import mode — This article is the part of the series related to mastering the DP-500 certification exam: Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI Become a member and read every story on Medium! As soon as you plan to get some data to work with, Power BI asks you to choose Data Connectivity mode. If you’ve read this article, or even better, started with this one, you should probably be familiar with the Import…

Hybrid tables are one of the most powerful features in Power BI! And, it’s not (just) about separating “hot” and “cold” data…You can basically leverage hybrid tables in whole spectrum of business scenarios — If you regularly follow my blog, you might’ve noticed that I already wrote about the Hybrid tables feature in Power BI. From my perspective, Hybrid tables are one of the most powerful features as they open up a whole spectrum of possible implementations. In Microsoft’s official announcement, there is a…

Do you know who is the biggest “enemy” for the optimal data model size? Meet the Cardinality, and learn how to boost the report performance applying some simple techniques for improving cardinality levels — As you may have already learned from the previous articles, creating a Star-schema doesn’t mean that your data modeling tasks are completed. There are many more aspects to be aware of — and, while you can sneak without fine-tuning each and every detail — some of these “details” are of…

You’ve heard that bi-directional relationships are “evil”? Is it true? Check why it’s not (100%) true and how to avoid potential “road to hell” — If you carefully follow my “Data Modeling” series, you may recall that I’ve used a theatre to illustrate the concept of role-playing dimensions. In this article, however, there will be no actors and no theatre…But, models with bi-directional relationships, or bi-directional filters if you prefer, can quickly turn into a…

Import mode and DirectQuery within the same table??? Yes, with the latest Hybrid tables features in Power BI, it’s possible to get the best from both worlds! — Do you know these nice new cars that will take you through the city jam by using electric power, while on the highway they help you to unleash the full power of the engine, by leveraging the traditional gasoline system? Sometimes the electric motor does all the work, sometimes it’s…