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

Enhance your career with this limited time 50% discount on Fabric and Power BI exams. Ends August 31st. Request your voucher.

Reply
BellPower
Regular Visitor

Creating data models

Hi all, I have been using Power BI in a medium sized company for about 2 years now. I have created many good dashboards and have mostly taught myself. I used to work with Transact SQL and create visuals in an ERP through creating views in SQL and using the views as my data source, so grouping, merging etc always took place in SQL. The company I work for now works with a PSA system using an API. I often work with multiple fact tables. I have read a lot that it's best to create a star schema, but I still find it easiest to merge the tables in Power Query and expand only the needed columns to have all my data in 1 table. Is this bad modeling? The data isn't huge, but I want to become better so would like to have some comments.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
amitchandak
Super User
Super User

@BellPower , When you need a measure that needs to go across rows, you should use the ALL function or time intelligence functions. This approach works best with a star schema. While it may work for smaller datasets, for complex problem solving, always use a star schema with a proper date/calendar table.

 

refer video from Guyinacube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZndrBBPiQc

Share with Power BI Enthusiasts: Full Power BI Video (20 Hours) YouTube
Microsoft Fabric Series 60+ Videos YouTube
Microsoft Fabric Hindi End to End YouTube

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1
amitchandak
Super User
Super User

@BellPower , When you need a measure that needs to go across rows, you should use the ALL function or time intelligence functions. This approach works best with a star schema. While it may work for smaller datasets, for complex problem solving, always use a star schema with a proper date/calendar table.

 

refer video from Guyinacube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZndrBBPiQc

Share with Power BI Enthusiasts: Full Power BI Video (20 Hours) YouTube
Microsoft Fabric Series 60+ Videos YouTube
Microsoft Fabric Hindi End to End YouTube

Helpful resources

Announcements
July PBI25 Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - July 2025

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

Join our Fabric User Panel

Join our Fabric User Panel

This is your chance to engage directly with the engineering team behind Fabric and Power BI. Share your experiences and shape the future.

June 2025 community update carousel

Fabric Community Update - June 2025

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric community.