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

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now! Learn more

Reply
tlotfi
Frequent Visitor

Power Query M or DAX

An operation that could be done both with PowerQuery M and with DAX
Is it better to do it with PowerQuery M or No difference?

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS
dilumd
Impactful Individual
Impactful Individual

Hi @tlotfi

 

Power query is better for model data (clean, transform etc.) but DAX is better for calculations (specially for measures which don't take a lot of ram when you’re doing massive computations).

 

Good thread to go through.

 

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Dax-or-M-Language/td-p/136827

View solution in original post

tjd
Impactful Individual
Impactful Individual

I would say that if it can be done in PowerQuery, that's where you should do it so that you don't slow down PowerBI after the data is loaded.  For example, if you're creating another column, it's best to do that in PowerQuery as once it's done, it's done.  If you do a calculated column in DAX, then everytime you apply a filter, cross-filter, or whatever, the calculated column get re-calculated.

View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2
tjd
Impactful Individual
Impactful Individual

I would say that if it can be done in PowerQuery, that's where you should do it so that you don't slow down PowerBI after the data is loaded.  For example, if you're creating another column, it's best to do that in PowerQuery as once it's done, it's done.  If you do a calculated column in DAX, then everytime you apply a filter, cross-filter, or whatever, the calculated column get re-calculated.

dilumd
Impactful Individual
Impactful Individual

Hi @tlotfi

 

Power query is better for model data (clean, transform etc.) but DAX is better for calculations (specially for measures which don't take a lot of ram when you’re doing massive computations).

 

Good thread to go through.

 

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Dax-or-M-Language/td-p/136827

Helpful resources

Announcements
Power BI DataViz World Championships

Power BI Dataviz World Championships

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now!

December 2025 Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - December 2025

Check out the December 2025 Power BI Holiday Recap!

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.