Column v. Measure

[BekahLoSurdo]

Hi experts,

I need help wrapping my head around Column v. Measure. It was always my understanding that a Column calculation was limited (for the most part, without special functions) to the current row while a Measure depended on the evaluation of a cell within the current context (including column selection, filters, slicers, etc.). What I am seeing with the CONTAINS function seems to be the opposite:

Column = CONTAINS( 'Table', 'Table'[Dimension], "DEF", 'Table'[Value], 456 )

Measure = CONTAINS( 'Table', 'Table'[Dimension], "DEF", 'Table'[Value], 456 )

The column seems to be evaluating the table as a whole and saying that my combination exists somewhere whereas the measure seems to be iterating row by row so what am I missing here?

I know this is more of a conceptual question but I'm hoping one of the experts can speak to the behind-the-scenes aspect as understanding these things is just as important as making a report just "work right" (and this has real world implications for a report of mine as well).

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

@BekahLoSurdo - Your observation is correct:

1. The Calculated Column evaluates the entire table. The function evaluates a table, and the column does not add a filter context.

2. Measures are always evaluated within a filter context. Each row of the table visual is filtered by the Dimension column. Therefore, the table is reduced to only those rows associated with the value for the dimension.

I hope this helps. If it does, please Mark as a solution.
I also appreciate Kudos.

[BekahLoSurdo]

Thank you @Anonymous, this really helps. The only thing I'm still fuzzy on is why the Calculated Column is evaluating the table as a whole rather than giving the row level results. Is this just a characteristic of this particular function?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@BekahLoSurdo  - It's a characteristic of the 1-Many relationship. The problem is that you can't assume that the "many" side will provide a single value - it can, but usually won't.

I hope this helps. If it does, please Mark as a solution.
I also appreciate Kudos.