PowerPivotPro

Yes, That IS a Measure

Third and Final Mini-Post for Today

Got a question from a friend yesterday that made me realize I should share this:  in PowerPivot, your formulas do NOT have to return numbers.  As I’ve shown several times, they can return dates, but they can also return just plain and simple text.

For instance, check out the formula for that Trend measure above:

[Trend] = IF([$ - Sales] > [$ - Sales YAG], “Up”, “Down”)

[$ – Sales] and [$ – Sales YAG] are both measures (“current sales” and “sales year ago.”)  So this IF() is 100% dynamic and responds to whatever fields and filtering/slicing you’ve done on your pivot!  If sales have gone up since last year, it returns “Up,” otherwise it returns “Down.”

One of those cool little tricks that comes in handy from time to time

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 11:51 am and is filed under DAX, Quick Tips & Tricks, Usability and Appearance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.