I need to filter a table based on another table, however there is not a direct relationship between the two. Here is the data model.
attr_Tkpr_vw contains all company employees, both current and historical.
attr_Time_vw contains date/time info.
My goal is to filter attr_Tkpr_vw for all employees between arbitrary hire and termination dates. These dates are supplied by a slicer based on the column attr_Time_vw[DateFull]
Here are my results. My slicer is set to dates between 1/1/2022 and 3/31/2022. When I put the measues "MinDate" and "MaxDate" into a vizualization I get the expected results. However, when I try and use these measures to filter attr_Tkpr the formula returns a table with ALL dates.
I'm clearly missing something key about how filter contexts work.
I have tried using the fuctions VALUES, SELECTEDVALUE, ALLSELECTED. None returns expected results.
Related
I'm trying to figure out the best way to build a relationship from a table that has records in a daily format (one record represents a single date) to a table that contains records in a date-range format (one record has a start-date and end-date, consequentially representing a period or range of dates).
Since my actual datafiles contain work-related information, I created 2 demo tables that contain dummy data that reflects the date columns in question.
Here is my DailyDate table
Here is my DateRanges table
Here is the current model view
I would like to be able to have a relationship built between the tables so that if I were to have 2 tables/matrices in the Report view, with one table showing the Daily Date Data and the other table showing the Ranged Data Data, I would be able to select a record in the Daily table and Power BI's highlight functionality would filter the records in the Ranged table so that only date ranges containing my selected date appear, and vice-versa (if possible).
For example, referencing this screenshot, if I were to select index 0 in the 'Daily Data Data' table, the 'Ranged Date Data' table should be filtered to only show records with index of 0 in the other table. If I were to select Index 2 (01/03/2022) in the Daily Date Data table then the Ranged Date Data table should be filtered to only show indices (0, 1).
In the model view, when trying to build this relationship, I can create a relationship from DailyDates.Date to DateRanges.StartDate and then from DailyDates.Date to DateRanges.EndDate; however, only a single relationship can be active so the highlight and slicer functionality will not give me the results I'm looking for.
As you can see from this demo, the datasets are small; however, my actual datasets contain around 50 million records in the Daily table and 10+ million records in teh Ranged table, so I'm hoping there can be an efficient method of getting this functionality that will not be too much of a load on memory.
Any advice into how to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated.
I'm using Power BI Desktop to explore some data. I have a table called "Reports" which contains a list of reports that need to be filed. There are two date fields, "Due Date" and "Date Completed".
I have a single date table, Dates. It has been marked as my date table in Power Bi.
My goal is produce a matrix where each row is a month in the due date and each column is a month in the date completed. However, I can't figure out how to get Power BI to use the dates table for both of my date fields. I can join it in the relationships pane - but it looks like I can have only a single active relationship at a time. I've also tried the "Get Data" feature to add the date table multiple times, but it will only add once.
How can I use my date table for more than one date field at a given time?
You need to create two relationships to the dates table-- one is Active, one is Inactive. All measures will use the Active relationship, and to calculate data in the reports using the inactive relationship you create DAX Measures using the USERELATIONSHIP() function.
Here is a couple resources:
https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/userelationship-in-calculated-columns/
https://carldesouza.com/power-bi-dax-userelationship-multiple-dates/
I have two tables as indicated below. The first is a list of dates, the second a list of contracts with their contract start and end dates. The tables are not related since there are two date realtionships. I need to give a summary of how many contracts started and ended on each day. This works fine using a calcualted column, however, when I try and slice on Type or Contract customer, the results in the Date table's calculated columns do not apply, even though ALLSELECTED is applied. How can I get the slicers to filter the rows returned to the to calculated column so that the number of contracts are calculated accordingly.
Calculated column:
StartedContracts = COUNTROWS(FILTER(ALLSELECTED(Contracts), Contracts[StartDate] = DateData[Date]))
Reproduction PBIX here
To get this displaying correctly, an easy way is to go ahead and set up the relationships between the tables. You'll have an active relationship and an inactive relationship, something like this with an active relationship to [StartDate] and an inactive relationship to [EndDate]:
Having done this, defining the measures is simplicity itself!
StartedContracts = COUNTROWS(Contracts)
EndedContracts = CALCULATE(COUNTROWS(Contracts), USERELATIONSHIP(Contracts[EndDate], DateData[Date])
Since the active relationship is to the Contracts[StartDate] column, you don't need to specify any additional filters for StartedContracts.
When calculating EndedContracts you just need to add USERELATIONSHIP() to the CALCULATE() function to tell it to use the inactive relationship which was previously defined to the Contracts[EndDate] column.
Slicers on other columns work as expected.
I'm trying to figure out how to get a measure to adhere to the filter set by a slicer in Power BI.
My DAX query is: Block Time Cost = SUMX( FILTER(v_Invoice_Line_Items, v_Invoice_Line_Items[IV_Item_RecID]=9), v_Invoice_Line_Items[billable_ext_price_amount])
I know very, very little about DAX so my initial query may be way off base.
It calculates as I expect, but when filter with a date range silcer the value does not update as expected or at all.
I'm pulling my data from two views in the same database, v_Invoice and v_Data_Combined. I have a page level filter on the row Record_Description to limit the data to the types I'm looking for and the measure pulls it's data from rows in the v_Data_Combined view.
The rows in v_Invoice are below.
A sample copy is here.
and the rows for v_Data_Combined, if you click they will enlarge.
A sample copy is here.
I have no relations set between the views.
How can I have a measure adhere to slicer filters?
The slicer has to be on the same table as the measures you're filtering, or on a table related to that table. If your slicer is on a column in v_Invoice and your data is from v_Data_Combined - and the 2 tables are unrelated in Power BI, the slicer from one table will have no effect on the data from the other table.
Without sample data (which can be fake data), it's hard to make further recommendations.
However, if the two tables you have aren't really related to each other, then I would recommend exploring the possibility of "lookup" tables. E.g. if you have Company_Name in both tables, then you might add a 3rd table that is a unique list of companies (their name, address, etc). Then, when you want to slice by company you would slice on this 3rd table. That slicer will then filter both related tables (without having to have the tables related to each other).
You can read more about data modeling in Power BI, and how to design lookup tables, here: https://powerpivotpro.com/2016/02/data-modeling-power-pivot-power-bi/
I have two tables from Azure SQL in PowerBI, using direct query:
EMP(empID PK)
contactInfo(contactID PK, empID FK, contactDetail)
which have an obvious one-to-many relationship from EMP.empID to contactInfo.empID. The foreign key constraint is successfully enforced.
However I can only create a many-to-one relationship (contactInfo.empID to EMP.empID) in PowerBI. If I ever try the opposite, PowerBI always automatically converts the relationship to many-to-one (by swapping the from and to column), which prevents me from creating visuals. Does PowerBI think the two are equivalent?
Update:
What I'm doing is to just create a table in PowerBI showing the join results of these two tables. The foreign key constraint is contactInfo.empID REFERENCES EMP.empID, which is many-to-one. That should not be a problem, I guess, since I can directly query the join using SQL.
Please also suggest if I should create the foreign key in the opposite direction.
More info on failure to create visual
The exact error message is:
Can't display the data because Power BI can't determine
the relationship between two or more fields.
Version: 2.43.4647.541 (PBIDesktop)
To reproduce the error:
DB schema is as follows:
What I want is a table in PowerBI showing contact and sales info of am employee, that is, joining all the four tables. The error will occur when VALUES of the table visual contains "empName, contactDetail, contactType, productName", however, error will NOT occur if I only include "empName, contactDetail, contactType" or "empName, productName". At first I thought the problem may lie in the relationship between contactInfo and emp, but it now seems to be more complicated. I guess it may be caused by multiple one-to-many relationships?
Expanding my comments to make an answer:
Root of the Problem
In your data model, a single employee can have multiple contacts and multiple sales. But, there's no way for Power BI to know which contactDetail corresponds to which productName, or vice versa (which it needs to know to display them together in a table).
Deeper Explanation
Let's say you have 1 emp row, that joins to 10 rows in the sales table, and 13 rows in the contactInfo table. In SQL, if you start from the emp row and outer join to the other 2 tables, you'll get back (1*10)*(1*13) rows (130 rows in total). Each row in the contactInfo table is repeated for each row in the sales table.
That repetition can be a problem if you do something like sum the sales and don't realize a single sales record is repeated 13 times but might be fine otherwise (e.g. if you just want a list of sales and all associated contacts).
Power BI vs. SQL
Power BI works slightly differently. Power BI is designed primarily to aggregate numbers, and then break them down by different attributes. E.g. sales by product. Sales by contact. Sales by day. In order to do this, Power BI needs to know 100% how to divide numbers up between the attributes on your table.
At this point, I'll note that your database diagram doesn't include any obvious metrics that you'd use Power BI to aggregate. However, Power BI doesn't know that. It behaves the same whether you have metrics to aggregate or not. (And failing all else, Power BI can always count your rows to make a metric.)
Let's say that you have a metric on your sales table called Amt Sold. If you bring in the empName, productName, and Amt Sold columns, Power BI will know exactly how to divide up Amt Sold between empName and ProductName. There's no problem.
Now add in contactDetail. Using your database diagram, Power BI has no way of knowing how an Amt Sold metric in the sales table relates to a given contactDetail. It might know that $100 belongs to empID 27. And that empID 27 corresponds to 3 records in the contactInfo table. But it has no way of knowing how to divide up the $100 between those 3 contacts.
In SQL, what you'd get is 3 contacts, each showing the $100 amount sold. But in Power BI, that would imply $300 was sold, which isn't the case. Even equally dividing the $100 up would be misleading. What if the $100 belonged entirely to 1 contact? So instead, Power BI shows the error you're seeing.
My Recommendations
If you can, I recommend changing your data model before your bring it in. Power BI works best with a single fact table, which would contain your metrics (like amount sold). You then join this fact table to as many lookup tables as you like (e.g. customer, product, etc.), directly. This allows you to slice & dice your metrics with any combination of attributes from any of the lookup tables. I would recommend checking out the star schema data model and the concept of lookup tables: powerpivotpro.com/2016/02/data-modeling-power-pivot-power-bi
At the very least, you would want to flatten your tables (i.e. merge the contactInfo and sales tables into a single table before importing them into your data model.
It may be that Power BI isn't the best tool for what you're trying to accomplish. If all you want is a table showing all sales & contact info for an employee, without any associated metrics, a regular reporting tool + SQL query might be a better way to go.
Side Note: You can't reverse a many:one relationship to get past this error. The emp table contains one row per empID. Both the contactInfo and sales tables contain multiple rows with the same empID. This means the emp table is necessarily the "one" side of the relationship to both those tables. You can't arbitrarily change that.