A recent change in the DAX language transformed the behavior of IF statement, so that it should not return BLANK but only TRUE/FALSE if the results should be logical expressions. In that case, the BLANK is transformed in a FALSE condition. For example, consider that the result of the following expression is FALSE and not BLANK: IF ( 1 = 1, ...

The summer is almost over and while we are working on new content (books and other for www.sqlbi.com), I already have the plans for this Autumn’s conferences. Microsoft Ignite 2016 – September 26-30, Atlanta, GA See what’s new in SQL Server Analysis Services 2016 Tabular Models Review DirectQuery in SSAS 2016, best practices and ...

If you are used to virtual relationships in DAX (see Handling Different Granularities in DAX), you probably use the following pattern relatively often: [Filtered Measure] := CALCULATE (     <target_measure>,     FILTER (         ALL ( ...

If you already installed Analysis Services 2016, you should change the MemoryHeapType setting. There is a new default value (-1), which is an automatic choice that currently applies a new hybrid allocator (which has the number 5 as a value). It should resolve the memory fragmentation problem causing performance issue as described in an article I ...

With the release of Microsoft SQL Server 2016, there are several options to use Analysis Services Tabular. SQL Server Standard: it includes Analysis Services Tabular, and it is available in two licensing models: Server + Client Access License (CAL) and Core-based. SQL Server Enterprise: it has all the features, and is available only in a ...

If you are using Power BI Desktop or Power Pivot in Excel 2016, you should learn when and how you can use GROUPBY instead of SUMMARIZE. The SUMMARIZE function is very powerful and internally very complex, so it’s easy to find scenarios where you get unexpected results or you have performance issues. The new GROUPBY function (also available in SSAS ...

In a couple of weeks, I will move to Australia for 3 weeks, visiting Melbourne and Sydney for a number of events and training. This is the list of topics in public events you can attend (with link to registration pages – remember that SQL Saturday conferences are free events, but you still have to register first!): UPDATE 2016-02-08 - added a ...

I recently wrote an article about how to Create Static Tables in DAX Using the DATATABLE Function. Such a new DAX feature (the DATATABLE function) will be likely used in the upcoming Analysis Services Tabular 2016, but it is not used neither in Power BI nor in Power Pivot to create static table. For this reason, I think that it could be useful to ...

I have experienced (on difference customer’s databases) some performance issues related to security in SSAS Tabular models. The symptoms are that certain queries, pivot table, or reports, have good performance when you connect as a database administrator, but end users see bad performance no matter what selection and filter they use. I wrote an ...

This short blog post is a note that could help myself in the future, or anyone who is interested in writing a client tool for Analysis Services. When you establish a session to Analysis Services, you can run both DAX and MDX statements. In DAX, you can create a measure that is local to a query by using the following syntax: DEFINE MEASURE ...