Measure format can't be changed to Text and Smart narrative stopped working

[molegris]

Hi,

In the last few days, a lot of my smart narrative stopped working for measure I didn't even touched.

As you can see here, the CohorteCode.Max measure works fine in a card viz but stopped working when placed in a smart narrative textbox.

Since I save my files on OneDrive, I was able to restore an older version of the report before the narrative stopped working.

I noticed something with the format of the measure...

In the old, working version, the format of the measure is Text and it's actually the only option visible in the dropdown.

In Tabular Editor, type is String/Text

In the new, broken version, the format is set the General.  The Text option is available in the dropdown but it won't accept it!  When I select "Texte", it goes right back to "Général".

In Tabular Editor, type is Variant.... and it's not possible to change it from there either.

Questions :

Q1. Do you think those two issues are related ?

Q2. Do you have any idea how I got myself in this mess?  What manipulations lead to the measure datatype being stock to Variant?

Q3. Do you have any idea how to fix it ?  Or how to force change the data type for the measure ?

Thank you

--mo

[erpfau]

I have the same issue and I'm pretty sure this is related to having a calculation group in your model, which switches all measures to 'variant'.
Related: 

Smart Narrative & Calculation Groups incompatibility 
Format Strings don't work on a SSAS Model with Calculation Group(s) 

[v-yangliu-msft]

Hi  @molegris ,

My test show text values correct with text measure. For this issue：

Here is my Power BI Desktop version number:

What is your version of Power BI Desktop, is it updated to the latest version, if not, you can update it to the latest version

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=58494

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/desktop-latest-update?tabs=powerbi-desktop

You can check the official limits of smart narrative below:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/visuals/power-bi-visualization-smart-narrative#considerati...

You might consider using format to convert the value to text according to the specified format：

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/format-function-dax

Can you share sample data and sample output in table format? Or a sample pbix after removing sensitive data. We can better understand the problem and help you.

Best Regards,

Liu Yang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[molegris]

Hi @v-yangliu-msft ,

Thanks for your reply.

My Power Bi Desktop version is up to date thought it seems to be 1 month behind yours.  I'm following our IT guilines to update Power BI Desktop throught the Microsoft Store.  I'm not sure why but it seems like Microsoft has not yet made the July release available in the Microsoft store.  The latest available vertsion is : 

Version: 2.106.883.0 64-bit (juin, 2022)

I took the broken pbix file and I deleted the confidential data.  Let me know if you can find anything that would explain why 1. I cannot create text measure anymore, 2. Text meausres cannot be added as a variable in a textbox.

SIPIA_sample_for_community_post.pbix  (pwd : powerbihelp)

Thank you
--mo

[molegris]

Hi @v-yangliu-msft ,

Do you have any update reagrding this issue?  It just happened to me again and it's really frustrating.  

One your model is BORKEN this way, it becomes impossible to any String/Text measure in a Textbox viz.

Please help.