Forum Discussion

posterme's avatar
posterme
Frequent Visitor
8 years ago
Solved

Difference Distinctcount (formula) <-> Count (Distinct) within value

Hi,

 

where is the difference between the formula "DISTINCTCOUNT" and the "Count (Distinct)" within some visuals?

 

I do have a date/mont slicer, select 4 months. If I create a table with date and set the "Count (Distinct)" -> the value within the table is 4.

 

BUT, If a create a measure and want to divide the sales through the count of month (4), I do get another return as expected.

If I create a measure to check the value: MEASURE = DISTINCTCOUNT('Tablename'[Date].[Month]) I do get always 12 ...

 

Thanks for help.

  • Hi,

     

    I have a "workaround":

     

    Measure 1: Month_Name = 'Sales'[Date].[Month]

     

    Measure 2: Month_Count = DISTINCTCOUNT('Sales'[Month_Name])

     

    And then I can create a Measure: Average = 'Sales'[Turnover] / [Month_count]

6 Replies

  • Greg_Deckler's avatar
    Greg_Deckler
    Community Champion

    Very difficult to answer without data to test with. Please see this post regarding How to Get Your Question Answered Quickly: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/How-to-Get-Your-Question-Answered-Quickly/ba-p/38490

     

    In general, DISTINCTCOUNT takes a column as an argument and returns the distinct number of values in that column. 

     

    Now, DISTINCT, if used in a column context and not a table context will also return all of the unique values from the column. However, COUNT only counts Numbers, Dates and Strings so it is possible that it might not count something? However, it is also unclear from the documentation if DISTINCTCOUNT also only counts numbers, dates and strings or is doing something like a row count.

    • posterme's avatar
      posterme
      Frequent Visitor

      Hi, example:

       

      count of Month = 2 and 12 :

       

       

      Count of Month = 2Count of Month = 12

      • Greg_Deckler's avatar
        Greg_Deckler
        Community Champion

        OK, I see that, but I need sample data to recreate. Preferrably sample data that I don't have to manually type so something that I can copy and paste into an Enter Data query and then create calculations. I don't need the actual data, I just need a small portion of data that emulates your data.