Filtering a Calculation Group

[Bnjmin]

Hi all,

I have found some unexpected behaviour related to calculation groups and filters.

In a simplified example, I have created a data model with sales data (fctSales) for 5 products in total (dimProduct). The product dimension table has three copies linked with an inactive relationship (dimProduct_Filter1, dimProduct_Filter2, dimProduct_Filter3). A calculation group (cgVisibleProducts) is created with 3 calculation items that each activate the corresponding relation with the original product dimension table.

This setup allows me to dynamically select which product I want to see as Product 1, Product 2 and Product 3 using 3 slicers. Filtering the calculation group allows me to dynamically select which of those 3 chosen products I want to show/hide.

This all works fine. Bar charts correctly show the average sales for the selected and visible products.

Now I'm trying to display the selected products in the subtitle of the bar charts using the following measure.

-- Helper measure
Selected Product = SELECTEDVALUE(dimProduct[Product])

-- Actual title measure
Visible Products Title = CONCATENATEX(
    cgVisibleProducts,
    cgVisibleProducts[Visible Products] & ": " & [Selected Product],
    " | "
)

This all gives the following result:

Without any filters on the visual, it works as expected. With an advanced filter, it also works. However, with a simple filter, the subtitle breaks. Trying to catch a blank by wrapping the title in COALESCE doesn't work, so I'm assuming the title doesn't actually return a blank.

I'm trying to find out if this is a bug. Specifically, if a bug is causing it to break or causing it to work (in the version with the advanced filter).

Any information is appreciated!

Link to PBIX file: https://we.tl/t-qMuXJqk4bF

[ajohnso2]

Sorry yes i missed it the first time around, I dont have an answer for you unfortunately, however if you run performance analyzer you will notice that when you change the Basic Filter no new dax query is submitted, with the advanced filter a new query is generated.

UPDATED: Tested this on a Non calc group model and works fine. There are some really big draw backs to using calc groups - im adding this to my list of funnies - shame as its so slick.

[Bnjmin]

Thank you for your exploration! The basic filter not triggering a new dax query is indeed an interesting find.

Did you manage to create the same functionality without a calculation group? I could only think of creating explicit measures for each Product 1, Product 2 and Product 3, but in my actual use-case this quickly becomes unmanageable.

My workaround for the moment is to additionaly add an advanced filter to all pages, using a search term that doesn't actually filter out anything:

This appears to trigger something that makes the subtitle work on the simple filtered visual too:

This does however feel very much like a hacky solution and I'm not sure how badly this affects the overall performance (in my case it doesn't seem to be a big problem).

Would love to understand why the simple filter behaves like this.

[ajohnso2]

Could you share the model?

[Bnjmin]

Sure, the link to the model was perhaps a bit hidden at the top. I've added it at the bottom as well now.

https://we.tl/t-qMuXJqk4bF

Thanks!