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quantumudit
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Handling Bi-directional cross-filtering

Hello guys, Let’s say I have a simple model and I fully understand how bi-directional filtering works and I really need to optimize my model performance.

 

So, what is the best way, and why so?

 

The options are:

 

Opt-1: Enabling Bi-directional cross-filtering ?

Opt-2: Use CROSSFILTER() function instead ?

 

Notes: I do understand that bi-di are troublesome and we must avoid using it but, I just need to understand what is the best approach when we have a simple model.

So, this means my model is simple but, not the dataset, so it could have millions of rows and 20-30 columns.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
PaulDBrown
Community Champion
Community Champion

@quantumudit 

Personally I would avoid bi-directional filters at all costs (I've only used them for RLS security tables), and go for TREATAS ( I use this function very often) or CROSSFILTER





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4 REPLIES 4
quantumudit
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Thanks, @Pragati11 , @CNENFRNL  & @PaulDBrown  for your valuable inputs. 😊

Pragati11
Super User
Super User

Hi @quantumudit ,

 

I agree with @PaulDBrown. Use CROSSFILTER function.

Best practice is to avoid Bi-Directional relationships as they sometimes introduce complex joins between the tables and affect background performance a lot; specially when you are dealing with millions of rows in the dataset.

 

Thanks,

Pragati

Best Regards,

Pragati Jain


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PaulDBrown
Community Champion
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@quantumudit 

Personally I would avoid bi-directional filters at all costs (I've only used them for RLS security tables), and go for TREATAS ( I use this function very often) or CROSSFILTER





Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution!
In doing so, you are also helping me. Thank you!

Proud to be a Super User!
Paul on Linkedin.






Hi, @quantumudit , in addition to PaulDBrown's advice on CROSSFILTER and TREATAS, I'd like to recommend Expanded Table as a third option. It's a more intrinsic way of filter propagation in DAX. Pls refer to this article by Italians.

https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/expanded-tables-in-dax/


Thanks to the great efforts by MS engineers to simplify syntax of DAX! Most beginners are SUCCESSFULLY MISLED to think that they could easily master DAX; but it turns out that the intricacy of the most frequently used RANKX() is still way beyond their comprehension!

DAX is simple, but NOT EASY!

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