Pls explain why why this works with measures but not with variables

[Erwin]

Hi all,

Please review below data model.

Based on this model I have created the following measures.

NumOfSickCasesReported = 
COUNTROWS ( 
     SickCases
)

NumOfSickCasesOpen = 
CALCULATE (
     [NumOfSickCasesReported],
     FILTER ( 
         ALL ( SickCases[RecoveryDate] ),
         SickCases[RecoveryDate] > MAX ( Calendar12M[Date] )
     )
)

RTOfSickCasesOpen = 
CALCULATE ( 
    [NumOfSickCasesOpen],
    FILTER (
        ALL( Calendar12M[Date] ),
        Calendar12M[Date] <= MAX ( Calendar12M[Date] ) 
    )
)

The RTOfSickCasesOpen measure gives me exactly what I need, a running total number of sick cases open per reporting date, regardless of when the first sick day occurred. Both other measure are just intermediate measures I'm not going to need when creating the dashboard.

A cleaner option would be to create just one measure RTOfSickCasesOpen, with the other intermediate measures as variables.

RTOfSickCasesOpen = 
VAR NumOfSickCasesReported = 
COUNTROWS ( 
     SickCases
)

VAR NumOfSickCasesOpen = 
CALCULATE (
     NumOfSickCasesReported,
     FILTER ( 
         ALL ( SickCases[RecoveryDate] ),
         SickCases[RecoveryDate] > MAX ( Calendar12M[Date] )
     )
)

VAR RTOfSickCasesOpen = 
CALCULATE ( 
    NumOfSickCasesOpen,
    FILTER (
        ALL( Calendar12M[Date] ),
        Calendar12M[Date] <= MAX ( Calendar12M[Date] ) 
    )
)

RETURN
RTOfSickCasesOpen

However, this cleaner version of RTOfSickCasesOpen doesn't seem to work as expected.

Can anyone tell me why this is the case?

Regards,

Erwin

[MFelix · Accepted solution]

Hi @Erwin ,

This as to do with with the context and filter transition within the calculates.

Check this blog post by @marcorusso .

Believe that you need to redo your measure having the variable within each calculate rather than putting it all before the syntax of the full calculation would be something like this:

RTOfSickCasesOpen =
VAR NumOfSickCasesReported =
    COUNTROWS ( SickCases )
RETURN
    CALCULATE (
        VAR NumOfSickCasesOpen =
            CALCULATE (
                NumOfSickCasesReported,
                FILTER (
                    ALL ( SickCases[RecoveryDate] ),
                    SickCases[RecoveryDate] > MAX ( Calendar12M[Date] )
                )
            )
        RETURN
            NumOfSickCasesOpen,
        FILTER (
            ALL ( Calendar12M[Date] ),
            Calendar12M[Date] <= MAX ( Calendar12M[Date] )
        )
    )

Don't have the data to match it but you need to place your VAR within the several measures and not all on top of the expected calculation.

@marcorusso  can you please confirm/infirm my suggestion.

Regards,

MFelix