Measures in a separate table

[TonyR]

Hi,

I noticed in one of the example dashboards, Portfolio Slicer,  that all the measures were stored in a seperate 'table'. It also has a dfferent icon to normal tables.

In the screenshop below it's called Report. Does any now how to create the Report entity itself 

http://screencast.com/t/nqAMUpTvF

Also, any thoughts on this methodology?  

Thx

tony

[Spiruni]

What I would do to get the result that you showed in the screenshot (including the measure icon as well) is the following:

1. I would create a new blank table and name it Measures Table that will create a table with a blank column names Column 1.

2. I would create my first measure in the table from step 1.

3. I would then delete the Column 1 that was created automatically when I create the table.

4. I would then create any other measures I need to create.

PowerBI will automatically understand that you have create a table for your measures and will update the icon from a table icon to a measures icon.

I hope that helped someone, I would appreciate it if you'd leave me a like 😁😁😁

[bvdm1980]

Hi , i have the same issue and search on internet gave me this topic, so couple years later a reply 🙂

anyways, when i create an empty table, it needs a column. And i cant delete that column after i have added a measurement to that same table. But i do remember, from PBI courses i took, that we created empty tables and added measurements to it. I just cant remember how it worked ...

[Anonymous]

Create a new table....

_Measures = {BLANK()}

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

In the new modelling view, you are able to assign measures to a folder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlcHMRiKLT8

[Anonymous]

That model seems to have been inherited (imported?) from the Excel version of that Portfolio Slicer - the Report table is a single row/single column table, effectively built via "Enter Data" feature.

There was some discussion recently on the topic in this forum thread: Re: How to keep the model tidy?

And it's also touched on in this Idea: Grouping Fields into dimensions and measure

And there's discussion of accessing the PBI data model here: How to hack yourself in Power BI (and Power Pivot?)

Historically, I think the recommended practice in SSAS etc. was to group Measures with Fact tables on granularity, but I wonder if that's still relevant for Power BI?  I'm not sure if it scales, and it breaks the drill-through PivotTable feature in Excel to have measures separate from the table, but it could be simpler for business users to navigate with all measures in one place, some Measures use mutliple tables anyway and, if you re-create a table by changing the query, it can trash any measures you've added to it!

In the webinar How to Design Visually Stunning Reports, Miguel Myers makes a point of surfacing Measure descriptions as Tooltip helpers on his reports.  And Excel etc. let you record a Measure description, wheras Power BI currently does not.

Until a baked-in solution for documenting measures is released, I can see a case for a "Measures" or "Report" table to hold the Description of each measure, as well as the measures themselves.  If it scales...

[TonyR]

Thank you Steve for the detail response. Much appreciciated. I'll check out the links

[GilbertQ]

Hi @TonyR the reason that it has a different icon, is that if you only keep your Calculated Measures as visible, and hide all other columns (including your Calculated Columns), when you close and then open your Power BI Desktop Model the icon will then change to show you that the table only has Measures.

This is sometimes a good way to design your Power BI Model, as @Greg_Deckler suggested. In creating your model in this manner, the end users know where to find any measures that they require. And the rest of the tables are available to slice and dice their data.

[TonyR]

Thx Guavaq

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

This is not an uncommon practice. Not sure about the icon, but you could create a Blank query, not add any steps and save it. Then, add measures to that "table". Measures are table inspecific, so they can technically live anywhere.

[TonyR]

Thx @Greg_Deckler . Appreciate the response .