Powerful DAX CALCULATE() Function

Posted On June 24, 2015 by Admin Posted in

The CALCULATE function in DAX is the magic key for many calculations we can do in PowerPivot.

Below is the syntax:

CALCULATE( <expression>, <filter1>, <filter2>… )

The expression that we put in the first parameter has to be evaluated to return the result (i.e. a value, not a table). For this reason, the expression is usually an aggregation function like SUM, MIN, MAX, COUNTROWS and so on.

This expression is evaluated in a context that is modified by the filters. A key point is that these filters can both enlarge and restrict the current context of evaluation. Let’s try to understand what it means by considering a few examples.

The following data model we have imported in PowerPivot named ‘Contract’ & ‘Project’

Scenario 1
Compare Contract & Project data model on YearMonth Column and take sum of multiple records of revenue column of Project data model into Contract data model
Project data model has StartYM & StartRevenue Column as shown below

And Contract data model has YM column, using Project data model StartYM, StartRevenue columns & Contract data model YM column, here we have derived StartR column with the help of Calculate() DAX function as shown below

Formula is
=calculate(sum(Project[StartRevenue]),filter(project,Project[StartYM]=Contract[YM]))
Scenario 2
Calculate running total of ToDo column in ‘Contract-ToDo’ data model on basis of YearMonth column as shown below