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

Power BI is turning 10! Let’s celebrate together with dataviz contests, interactive sessions, and giveaways. Register now.

Reply
Earl40
Helper I
Helper I

Get previous month value from formatted date field

I currently have  date/time column  (short date format 11/27/2023). I then have a column to format it to just show as  "November 2023" (FORMAT(date, "MMMM YYYY") . Is there a way I can add to the formula to change it to automatically show the prior month so it shows October 2023

 

Thank you in advance

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Hmm. With the DATEADD function, it will only have dates if there is a previous month in your existing date column - from the docs https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/dateadd-function-dax. So I think the dateadd function might have been the issue.

 

To get around this, you can try use FORMAT(EOMONTH('calendar'[Date], -1), "MMMM YYYY")

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
vicky_
Super User
Super User

You can use the following formula: 

last month formatted = 
var lastMonthsDate = DATEADD('calendar'[Date], -1, MONTH)
return FORMAT(lastMonthsDate, "MMMM YYYY")

 

vicky__0-1701122000949.png

 

Thanks @vicky_ . i tried the formula but the end result just comes up with blank values for the column

Hmm. With the DATEADD function, it will only have dates if there is a previous month in your existing date column - from the docs https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/dateadd-function-dax. So I think the dateadd function might have been the issue.

 

To get around this, you can try use FORMAT(EOMONTH('calendar'[Date], -1), "MMMM YYYY")

Helpful resources

Announcements
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 Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - June 2025

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

June 2025 community update carousel

Fabric Community Update - June 2025

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