Explanation as to why firstnonblank is showing blanks

[rtaylor]

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone can provide an explanation as to why firstnonblank function shows blanks? It doesn't seem to make any sense as to why first NON BLANK would show a blank value.  Anyhelp is appreciated. Thank you.

Formula Used:

calculate(FIRSTNONBLANK('Actual Details All'[SupplyDetailCat1],1))

SupplyDetailCat1 is the column category

SuppliesServicesLineRankExp is the firstnonblank formula.

[jdbuchanan71]

The measure Act_Detail_SUB_Act_Detail_PY1 returns a value for even the blank row so the FIRSTNONBLANK can't find anything on that line but a blank so it returns it.

Why not just apply a visual level filter to [SupplyDetailCat1] of IS NOT BLANK?

[rtaylor]

>The measure Act_Detail_SUB_Act_Detail_PY1 returns a value for even the blank row so the FIRSTNONBLANK can't find anything on that line but a blank so it returns it.

I disagree. If this were the case I would only see a blank value for the firstnonblank on a blank category. For example if you look at emergency related services, the entry is clearly not blank and there is value in the the measure Act_Detail_SUB_Act_Detail_PY1, so should it show "emergency related services" when using the firstnonblank calculation. 

Why not just apply a visual level filter to [SupplyDetailCat1] of IS NOT BLANK?

I was only using this visual to display the information I needed. This formula is part of a more complex formula to rank these categories and use that rank to display information.