Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now! Learn more

Reply
SBePicas
Regular Visitor

Counting column items based on column selection

I have created three independent columns

columns.jpg

What I'd like to do is to select a column and get the number of items.  For exmple if I select Col1, I get 3 but selecting COL3 would get 6.  

May be using a measure and drop it in a card...

 

Many thanks in advance.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Anonymous
Not applicable

HI @SBePicas,

I'd like to suggest you create a new table with three field names and use it as source of slicer.

NewTable =
DATATABLE ( "ColName", STRING, { { "Col1" }, { "Col2" }, { "Col3" } } )

After these steps, you can create a measure formula with switch function to check current selected value and redirect to different calculation expressions.

 

DC based on selection =
VAR selected =
    SELECTEDVALUE ( NewTable[ColName] )
RETURN
    SWITCH (
        selected,
        "Col1", COUNTROWS ( VALUES ( Table1[Col1] ) ),
        "Col2", COUNTROWS ( VALUES ( Table1[Col2] ) ),
        "Col3", COUNTROWS ( VALUES ( Table1[Col3] ) ),
        COUNTROWS ( VALUES ( Table1[Col1] ) )
    )

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

View solution in original post

4 REPLIES 4
FreemanZ
Super User
Super User

hi @SBePicas ,

 

What do you mean by "independent"?

Are they from the same table? If they are from different tables, are the tables related?

Sorry, still learning the proper terminology.

I have one table with 3 columns.  Each field (column) is dragged into the report editor and thus I have three visuals in the report editor.

Anonymous
Not applicable

HI @SBePicas,

I'd like to suggest you create a new table with three field names and use it as source of slicer.

NewTable =
DATATABLE ( "ColName", STRING, { { "Col1" }, { "Col2" }, { "Col3" } } )

After these steps, you can create a measure formula with switch function to check current selected value and redirect to different calculation expressions.

 

DC based on selection =
VAR selected =
    SELECTEDVALUE ( NewTable[ColName] )
RETURN
    SWITCH (
        selected,
        "Col1", COUNTROWS ( VALUES ( Table1[Col1] ) ),
        "Col2", COUNTROWS ( VALUES ( Table1[Col2] ) ),
        "Col3", COUNTROWS ( VALUES ( Table1[Col3] ) ),
        COUNTROWS ( VALUES ( Table1[Col1] ) )
    )

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

sevenhills
Super User
Super User

 

Distinct count = 
VAR _val1 = VALUES(Tablename[Col1])
VAR _val2 = VALUES(Tablename[Col2])
VAR _val3 = VALUES(Tablename[Col3])
VAR _union = DISTINCT(UNION(_val1,_val2, _val3))
RETURN COUNTROWS(_union)

 

 

Try this!

Helpful resources

Announcements
November Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - November 2025

Check out the November 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.

Fabric Data Days Carousel

Fabric Data Days

Advance your Data & AI career with 50 days of live learning, contests, hands-on challenges, study groups & certifications and more!

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.

Top Kudoed Authors