Forum Discussion

mp390988's avatar
mp390988
Post Partisan
1 year ago
Solved

RELATED function not working despite a join

Hi,   I have this model:     I am trying to create a calculated column to bring in the DealerID from the Clients Table into my Payments Table.   But i get an error saying...
Need Help
  • shashiPaul1570_'s avatar
    shashiPaul1570_
    1 year ago

    mp390988  

    Glad that helped! 
    Yes, LOOKUPVALUE is a good alternative when RELATED doesn’t behave as expected, especially if the relationship setup is tricky. Just make sure the Clients[ClientID] column is unique, so you always get a single match.

    Happy reporting, and if this solved your issue, please don’t forget to give a Kudos 👍 and mark it as Accepted Solution ✅ so others can benefit too.

    Thanks
    Shashi Paul 

mp390988's avatar
mp390988
Post Partisan
1 year ago

I can see a relationship betweent the Clients and Payments table but I just noticed some weird thing as marked in red in the snapshot:


The relationship between these 2 tables is active:

 

shashiPaul1570_'s avatar
shashiPaul1570_
Responsive Resident
1 year ago

Hi mp390988 

Thanks for sharing the update.
For some reason, I am unable to see the screenshot that you might have shared. 
Since the relationship is active, here are a few things you can check

 

  1. Cardinality & Direction

    • Ensure it’s a 1 → * relationship with Clients on the “1” side and Payments on the “*” side.

    • If the arrow direction is set incorrectly (e.g., both sides * or a two-way cross filter causing ambiguity), the Related() function may fail.

  2. Column Reference

    • Double-check that the column name you’re trying to bring in is exactly Clients[DealerID] and not a different name (sometimes spaces, casing, or hidden columns cause confusion).

  3. Multiple Relationships

    • If there are multiple paths between Clients and Payments, Power BI may deactivate one and mark it with a dotted line. In such cases,  Related() won’t work unless the active path is the correct one.

  4. Alternative Approach

    • If the model design makes Related() fail, you can still achieve it with

DealerID =
LOOKUPVALUE(
Clients[DealerID],
Clients[ClientID], Payments[ClientID]
)

This works even if the relationship is not straightforward, as long as Clients[ClientID] is unique.

If you just want to use the Related() function only, just try the same senario in different file with sample tables which fulfills the conditions of Related(). Hopefully it will give you better idea. 

Hope this helps! Please give a Kudos 👍 if useful, and mark as Accepted Solution ✅ once it resolves your query.

 

Thanks 
Shashi Paul