Leveraging DAX

Data analysis expressions (DAX) is a formula language that made its debut back in 2010 with the release of Power Pivot within Excel. Much of DAX is similar to Excel's functions, and therefore learning DAX is an easy transition for Excel users and power users. In fact, DAX is so similar to Excel that I have seen new students become comfortable with the language and begin writing DAX within minutes. 

The goal of this chapter is to introduce you to DAX and give you the confidence to start exploring this language on your own. Because of the brevity of this chapter, there will not be any discussions on in-depth DAX concepts and theory. There are, of course, many other books that are dedicated to just that.

Now, let's take a look at what is covered in this chapter:

• Building calculated columns 
• Calculated measures – the basics
• Calculated measures – filter context
• Calculated measures – time intelligence