Forum Discussion

CliffordAP's avatar
CliffordAP
Icon for Helper II rankHelper II
4 years ago
Solved

Difference between what-if parameters and DAX table?

Hello all,

I am looking into ways to have user input for some reports I am making. My first idea was to make dedicated tables that store values for the user to select (like categories, or numbers). On the report level we can make Dax logic for calculations based on the informaiton the user selects from these tables.

 

Then I looked into What-if parameters. I saw 1 example, and I feel like they do the same thing. Defines a table with a set of values defined by what you specify when creating the What-if Parameter.

 

Is there a difference between using what-if parameters and defining DAX tables in the model?

  • Hi, CliffordAP 

    When you create and use 'what-if parameters'  to visualize variables in Power BI Desktop, it will generate a slicer, a measure, and a Dax table based on "GENERATESERIES" function.

    The different from the ordinary Dax table is that it returns a single column table containing the values of an arithmetic series, that is, a sequence of values in which each differs from the preceding by a constant quantity.

    For more details, you can refer to the demo provided in the official document.
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-what-if 

     

    Best Regards,
    Community Support Team _ Eason

2 Replies

  • YukiK's avatar
    YukiK
    Icon for Impactful Individual rankImpactful Individual

    I don't think there is much difference in each mechanics, but when creating a what-if parameter, it comes with a selectedmeasure. That's the only difference I see. 

  • v-easonf-msft's avatar
    v-easonf-msft
    Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support

    Hi, CliffordAP 

    When you create and use 'what-if parameters'  to visualize variables in Power BI Desktop, it will generate a slicer, a measure, and a Dax table based on "GENERATESERIES" function.

    The different from the ordinary Dax table is that it returns a single column table containing the values of an arithmetic series, that is, a sequence of values in which each differs from the preceding by a constant quantity.

    For more details, you can refer to the demo provided in the official document.
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-what-if 

     

    Best Regards,
    Community Support Team _ Eason