Join us at FabCon Atlanta from March 16 - 20, 2026, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.
Register now!The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now! Learn more
I am using a redshift database, and I can connect to that OK in Power BI Desktop. My problem comes when I try to use some calculated fields; I have simplified some down to try and find the error so for example:
Measure 2 = COUNT(evhc[flag])
Where flag is an integer. This give the error:
OLE DB or ODBC error: [Expression.Error] We couldn't fold the expression to the data source. Please try a simpler expression.
I assume that when folding this query that Power BI is using SQL syntax rather than Redshift?
Is this a bug or am I missing something?
p.s. I know I can do this without using a measure, but this is a test as my measures are more complex than this.
Solved! Go to Solution.
@DrBiker I'm assuming you are connecting to RedShift in DirectQuery mode. This error is thrown when some aggregation (in this case the count) is been translated to M for execution, so it's not really SQL yet.
I think this is related to a bug that we know about, is [flag] a nullable column? Counting on nullable column wasn't working in the preview bits, we will be fixing it in the next release.
Has this been resolved?
@DrBiker I'm assuming you are connecting to RedShift in DirectQuery mode. This error is thrown when some aggregation (in this case the count) is been translated to M for execution, so it's not really SQL yet.
I think this is related to a bug that we know about, is [flag] a nullable column? Counting on nullable column wasn't working in the preview bits, we will be fixing it in the next release.
@pqian is right, this should be fixed in the next release (~end of august). Thanks
Hi,
I am getting the same error message (although different DAX formula!!!
Is this fixed or not?
Thank you!
Redshift is in preview mode, so I guess it is a bug. Send a frown using the desktop frown so the developers can look at it.
The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now!
Check out the November 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.
| User | Count |
|---|---|
| 65 | |
| 46 | |
| 43 | |
| 26 | |
| 19 |
| User | Count |
|---|---|
| 198 | |
| 126 | |
| 102 | |
| 68 | |
| 51 |