topic Dealing with Measure Totals in DAX Commands and Tips

Dealing with Measure Totals

Greg_Deckler — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 19:18:59 GMT

This one has come up quite a bit recently. The issue surrounds using Measures in Table visualizations with a Total row. The complaint is that the "Total" row is "wrong" for the measure. Technically, the total row is correct for the measure, it's just not what most people expect. What people expect is for the "Total" to display the sum of the values in the column. Measures do not do this. Measures respect the context of the Total row and is calculated within that context. Therefore, a Measure used in a column in a table visualization will likely have an unexpected value in the Total column.

There are a couple ways of fixing this. The easiest is to turn off the Total row.

Assuming that is not what you want, you can use the HASONEFILTER function to get around this issue. However, the ultimate solution will depend on how your measure is calculated.

For example, given the following data:

Year Amount

Year1	500
Year2	1500
Year3	2000
Year4	100
Year5	800

We wish to find the total extra Amount spent above 1000 for each year. If the amount is not over 1000, we wish to display 0. To this end, we create a measure:

MyMeasure = IF(SUM(Table[Amount])<1000,0,SUM(Table[Amount])-1000)

Adding this to a Table visualization along with Year, we get the correct answer for each of the rows, but the Total line displays 3900, not 1500 as we would expect. The figure 3900 is calculated because the Measure is performing its calculation for ALL of the rows in the table, so the calculation is (500 + 1500 + 2000 + 100 + 800) - 1000 = 3900.

Correct, but not what was expected.

To get around this problem, use HASONEFILTER to calculate the Measure one way within a row context and another way within the Total row context, such as:

MyMeasure2 = IF(HASONEFILTER(Table[Year]),
IF(SUM(Table[Amount])<1000,0,SUM(Table[Amount])-1000),
SUMX(FILTER(Table,[Amount]>1000),[Amount]-1000)
)

Breaking this down, we essentially wrap our original measure in an IF statement that has the HASONEFILTER function as the logical test. If HASONEFILTER equals true, we calculate our Measure as before. However, if HASONEFILTER is false, we know that we have a Total row and we calculate our Measure a different way.

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Michiel — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 07:36:20 GMT

I tend to avoid measures that are designed with a specific visualization in mind, but indeed, in the case of non-standard totals it's inevitable. In your example, the assumption is that the years are the identifiers for the rows in the table. When an additional level, e.g. Month, is added, then the behaviour of the measure will be - different.

But this aside, the part of your formula for the total would work just as well on the detail rows when iterating over VALUES(Table[Year] instead of Table itself:

MyMeasure3 = SUMX(FILTER(VALUES(Table[Year]),[Amount]>1000),[Amount]-1000)

On a detail row, VALUES(Table[Year]) would contain only one row and the filtered table is empty when [Amount]<=1000. This means that rows for years with [Amount] lower than 1000 will have a blank value. If you do want to have 0 instead of blank, just add 0 to the result:

MyMeasure3 = SUMX(FILTER(VALUES(Table[Year]),[Amount]>1000),[Amount]-1000) + 0

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

quratzafar — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 05:48:31 GMT

This was quite informative, thanks.

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

OKgo — Tue, 15 May 2018 14:52:32 GMT

Great post. It give insight into why PBI is the way it is. My attempt to apply the knowledge above is failing. This matrix has muliple at a page level so the HASONEFILTER is not working out? The HASONEVALUE is not working out for me either.

Here is the measure. Edit tips appreaciated. (Credit to Ashish_Mathur)

Forecast = if(MIN('Calendar'[Date])<[First month in which data is available],BLANK(),if(EOMONTH(MAX(Workfront[Due On]),0)>=EOMONTH(MAX('Calendar'[Date]),0),
    CALCULATE([3 month av],DATESBETWEEN('Calendar'[Date],[Month till where data is available],[Month till where data is available])),BLANK()))

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Ashish_Mathur — Tue, 15 May 2018 23:12:32 GMT

Hi,

What result are you looking for? What is your data? Explain.

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

OKgo — Tue, 15 May 2018 23:23:35 GMT

I'd like those 86 values to be 82.

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Ashish_Mathur — Wed, 16 May 2018 00:28:20 GMT

Hi,

I really do not know how you arrive at 82. It is defenitely not a summation of the numbers in the column above. Put in some more effort and explain your data/question.

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

OKgo — Wed, 16 May 2018 14:28:49 GMT

Edit: The red 86 should be 82 for July & August. As one of the proejects have ended (now blank). The total is in matrix > subtotals > row sub totals.

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

OKgo — Wed, 16 May 2018 16:18:00 GMT

Sorry for all the posts. Sending form my cell phone browswer was a nightmare. Here is a sample file

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j144i4hfe8k5su0/PowerBi%20Timesheet%203.pbix?dl=0

It would be great if there was only one subtotal row that respected the data. For example 2017-07 would be 45.34 not 78.67

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

dgenatossio — Wed, 30 May 2018 14:38:33 GMT

My situation is different because I have 3 tables. One is a table with employee IDs (Table 'ID'). One is a table with employee IDs and their 2017 sales for one business (Table 'A'). The third table has employee IDs and their 2017 sales for the other business (Table 'B'). Tables A and B are connected to the employee table by the employee ID. The employees are not exactly the same for each business, though there is some overlap where the employee ID could appear on A and B. I have columns on the ID table that are used as filters on the page, based on where the employee is located and how long they have been at the company.

I want to calculate the overlapping 2017 results. I have created a measure on the ID table that says this:

Overlap = if(SUM('A'[Sales])>0,SUM('B'[Sales]),0)

Basically: if the employee had Sales for A, give me their sales for B

It works for each ID on the table and the row shows 0 for the row if sales for A were 0, but the Grand Total returns the entire Sales for B (not just the sum of the sales for IDs that had more than 0 sales for A).

The post is a bit different because mine is returning the value from table B if the sum of the values on table A is more than 0. Any ideas on how to get the total to work correctly?

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 12:33:17 GMT

Are you able to provide a visual of what this looks like when it's completed?

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

jcarville — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 15:29:24 GMT

A really useful write-up, and one I have used previously.

I have a strange issue where using HASONEFILTER or HASONEVALUE has not worked for me in calcualting the totals I would expect. See my post here, if anyone can help me: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Incorrect-Measure-Total/m-p/454679#M210659

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

jcarville — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 08:49:57 GMT

Just an update to my cry for help above!

I was given a solution that worked for me that involved having a SUMMARIZE function wrapped within my SUMX function. It could be useful if anyone else comes upon this guide, but is still having an issue with what they expect the total to be.

http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Incorrect-Measure-Total/m-p/454679#M210659

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 17:40:10 GMT

Dude, this by far has been my most frustrating experience working with Power BI is to get the totals row for a table to calculate measures as I'd expect.

Thanks for the tip

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 21:02:18 GMT

I believe I understand how it works but I do not know how to get it rto work with Division.

I need to multiply Sales x Discount. I have a Measure Discount Amount that is correct on the rows. The Total would have to be a weighted average calculation as Sales and Discount Amounts are different across the Clients.

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Greg_Deckler — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 13:16:34 GMT

Would need to see some sample data and what you expect as output. Please see this post regarding How to Get Your Question Answered Quickly: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/How-to-Get-Your-Question-Answered-Quickly/ba-p/38490

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

PaddyEnFrance — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 09:20:03 GMT

Hi, this is my first post, so apologies if I inadvertently do something wrong. I get the HASONEFILTER trick, but I cannot resolve my formula for the end. I would like my total to be a simple sum of the values above. My example is a purchase price variance sheet.

The basic maths for the rows is Qty x Price, average prices CY vs PY, Qty variance (in Kg), Value Variance (in €) which then breaks out into a "Volume Valued Variance" and then a "Price Variance". I would like the column totals of the PPV column & Vol_Val_Var column to equal the sum of the rows above. It seems like a simple question, but in all of my trawling the solution does not jump out at me...

I would love if anyone could break my deadlock..

Thanks

Paddy

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Ashish_Mathur — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 00:21:19 GMT

Hi,

Share the link from where i can download your PBI file.

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 08:11:42 GMT

Thanks Greg, you saved the day :)

Re: Dealing with Measure Totals

Greg_Deckler — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 13:14:29 GMT

Anonymous, Awesome! Glad to hear it. I also just posted Measure Totals, The Final Word, that provides a general solution to the problem.

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Quick-Measures-Gallery/Measure-Totals-The-Final-Word/m-p/547907