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stalerik
Helper II
Helper II

DAX Get Second-to-LASTNONBLANKVALUE

Hello,

 

I created a measure using the formula to get the last non-blank value in a column.

 

LASTNONBLANKVALUE('Table1'[date], MAX('Table1'[value]))

 

I would like to compare this value to the previous row, or the second last non-blank value.  Is there a formula to do this?  Thank you.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Anonymous
Not applicable

Please first read this: https://dax.guide/lastnonblankvalue/

You are not using CALCULATE to wrap MAX(...), so you're most likely calculating this incorrectly, as there's no context transition under LASTNONBLANKVALUE (which is in fact an iterator).

By the way, this function is much slower than the alternatives that Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari describe in this article: https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/optimizing-lastnonblank-and-lastnonblankvalue-calculations/

To get the second non-blank value once you've established the date of the first non-blank value you just do the same thing but this time you restrict the date table to only those days that are before the one you've already found. Easy.

View solution in original post

4 REPLIES 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Please first read this: https://dax.guide/lastnonblankvalue/

You are not using CALCULATE to wrap MAX(...), so you're most likely calculating this incorrectly, as there's no context transition under LASTNONBLANKVALUE (which is in fact an iterator).

By the way, this function is much slower than the alternatives that Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari describe in this article: https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/optimizing-lastnonblank-and-lastnonblankvalue-calculations/

To get the second non-blank value once you've established the date of the first non-blank value you just do the same thing but this time you restrict the date table to only those days that are before the one you've already found. Easy.

@Anonymous

 

Thank you for the articles.  I was trying the other solutions offered on this post and they did not work but I think I have a basic misunderstanding on what LASTNONBLANK and LASTNONBLANKVALUE were doing.  I was getting what looked like the right answer with my formula, but I was going about it the wrong way.  I appreciate the resources.  

mahoneypat
Microsoft Employee
Microsoft Employee

Here is one way to do it.  I split it into multiple variables to make it easier to follow.

 

SecondLastBlankValue =
VAR summary =
    FILTER (
        Table1,
        NOT (
            ISBLANK ( Table1[Value] )
        )
    )
VAR top2 =
    TOPN (
        2,
        summary,
        Table1[Date], DESC
    )
VAR top1 =
    TOPN (
        1,
        top2,
        Table1[Date], ASC
    )
RETURN
    MAXX (
        top1,
        Table1[Value]
    )

 

Regards,

Pat

 





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amitchandak
Super User
Super User

@stalerik ,  Try like

calculate(LASTNONBLANKVALUE('Table1'[date], MAX('Table1'[value])), filter('Table1', 'Table1'[date] <max('Table1'[date])))

or
calculate(LASTNONBLANKVALUE('Table1'[date], MAX('Table1'[value])), filter(all('Table1'), 'Table1'[date] <max('Table1'[date]))) //or allselected , depending on need

 

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