Power BI Blog: Improvements to Visual Calculations

Welcome back to this week’s edition of the Power BI blog series.  This week, we look at some of the improvements that have been made recently to visual calculations.

Power BI has improved visual calculations quite significantly recently.  It is not only taking initial steps towards achieving the vision of reducing the need for typing, but is also enhancing the robustness of visual calculations, so they are less prone to error when the visual type is changed.  Furthermore, Microsoft is adding visual calculations in Explore.

It is now even easier and faster to write visual calculations thanks to the parameter pickers.  When you load a template or use one of the functions exclusive to visual calculations, the parameter pickers for all required parameters with defined options will appear.

Then it’s just a matter of selecting the value you want from the drop down and you’re done.  A couple of clicks make creating visual calculations simple, demonstrated in the screenshot example:

Of course, the coloured highlights between the Formula bar and the visual matrix will match:

If you still want to type or make more advanced changes you can: simply change the value and the parameter picker will disappear.  As soon as you enter a valid value, the parameter picker will reappear.

Note that the parameter pickers right now are only available for required parameters on functions that are exclusive to visual calculations (and select other functions) that have a defined list of options.  Required parameters that can take any text or numerical value will not get a parameter picker, and neither will many DAXfunctions.

If you previously created a visual calculation with an axis reference, such as COLUMNS, and then changed visual types resulting in the absence of COLUMNS, the visual calculation would produce an error and the visual would return an error.  Starting now, a reference to a non-existent axis is permissible and will be ignored.

Additionally, if you write RUNNINGSUM([Sales Amount], COLUMNS) on a Bar chart (which does not have a COLUMNS axis), the result will simply equal the value of Sales Amount:

Microsoft often changes visual types to find the best way to present your data.  Visual calculations should now work without breaking due to invalid axis references, making them easier to use.  For instance, here’s the same visual calculation on a card (which has no real axis):

The visual calculation did not produce an error, even though it referred to an axis that was not present.  An axis that is not present is simply ignored.

Further, Power BI has added visual calculations to Explore.  With Explore, it’s easy to perform quick and powerful data analysis.  Visual calculations do the same but for calculations.  Once you have opened your data in Explore, you can create a visual calculation from either the matrix or the visual by selecting ‘New visual calculation’:

This opens the visual calculations edit mode which should feel familiar.  Here, you may enter your visual calculation just like you are used to doing in reports.  The same tools are available, including the highlights, templates and parameter pickers:

After adding the visual calculation, the other visual will show the visual calculation as well (depending upon the visual type):

If the other visual is unable to display data after the addition of the visual calculation, it will enter an error state.  In such cases, you may either remove the visual calculation or modify the visual type.

 In the meantime, please remember we offer training in Power BI which you can find out more about here.  If you wish to catch up on past articles, you can find all of our past Power BI blogs here.