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msmays5's avatar
msmays5
Helper II
6 years ago
Solved

Count Rows Based on Disconnected Tables

I have a 'Mapping' table with the following columns: Mapping[Country] and Mapping[Region].

 

I have a second table 'Articles' that has two columns: Article[ID] and Article[Geography_Tags]. The Article[Geography_Tags] field contains a list of countries and/or regions that were tagged for that article (separated by semicolons). For example, the below are some values in this column:

  • United States;China
  • United States;North America;Asia;United Kingdom

Because there is no common key between the Mapping[Country] and Article[Geography_Tags] columns, there is not a relationship between the two tables.

 

On the table visual, I have a list of selected Mapping[Country]. For each selected Mapping[Country], I'd like to calculate the number of Articles for which that country (or country's region) was tagged.

 

Based on the above italicized values in the Articles[Geography_Tags] column, I would expect the following results:

  • United States: 2 (notice that for the second entry above, United States get credit for the second entry only one time even though the country and region were both tagged)
  • North American countries other than United States: 1
  • China: 2 (because China is part of Asia, it would get credit for both articles)
  • Asian countries other than China: 1
  • United Kingdom: 1

Since the calculation depends on the filter context of Mapping[Country], I assume this should be a measure, but after that I'm a little stuck. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

  • msmays5's avatar
    msmays5
    6 years ago

    I was able to solve this. For anyone who comes across this:

     

    Count of Articles =
MAXX (
    Mapping,
    VAR _countrySemiColon =
        CONCATENATE ( ";", Mapping[Country ] )
    VAR _regionSemiColon =
        CONCATENATE ( ";", Mapping[Region Tag] )
    VAR _FilteredTable =
        FILTER (
            Articles,
            (
                SEARCH ( _countrySemiColon, Article[Geography_Tags],, 0 ) <> 0
                    || SEARCH ( _regionSemiColon, Article[Geography_Tags],, 0 ) <> 0
            )
        )
    RETURN
        COUNTROWS ( _FilteredTable )
)

     

     

5 Replies

  • lbendlin's avatar
    lbendlin
    Super User
    6 years ago

    Change the semicolons to pipe "|" and attack your enumerations with the PATH functions.

     

    Does it really matter if you match to country or region?  If the combined list of countries and regions is unique (ie no two countries have the same region etc)  then you could combine you Mapping columns 

     

    And lastly, use SWITCH() to exit the search after the first hit.

    • msmays5's avatar
      msmays5
      Helper II
      6 years ago

      Thanks for the response, lbendlin. There are multiple countries that have the same Region (the list of two items I included in my example was just a short list). I have a list of 95 countries, each of which belongs to a single region.

       

      Because a value in Article[Geography_Tags] could contain the country, the region, or both, my thought was to filter the Article table to include only rows where Article[Geography_Tags] contains either the selected Mapping[Country] or the country's Mapping[Region]. But I think that's where I'm getting hung up

      • lbendlin's avatar
        lbendlin
        Super User
        6 years ago

        here's another crazy idea approach

         

        add a semicolon to the front and the back of your enumeration.

         

        for example instead of 

         

        United States;Asia

         

        this would be

         

        ;United States;Asia;

         

        That helps to prevent bleedover.

         

        Next, use DAX FIND() or SEARCH() functions with that string against your Mapping columns, First against the Country column and then (if nothing found) against the region column