Report builder transformations

[powerbiexpert22]

can i apply transformations in Report Builder same as in Power BI Desktop

[v-pnaroju-msft]

Hi powerbiexpert22,

We would like to follow up and see whether the details we shared have resolved your problem.
If you need any more assistance, please feel free to connect with the Microsoft Fabric community.

Thank you.

[v-pnaroju-msft]

Thankyou, @jaineshp, @Cookistador, for your responses.

Hi powerbiexpert22,

We appreciate your inquiry through the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.

To the best of my understanding, Power BI Report Builder is intended for paginated report layout and rendering rather than comprehensive data shaping. It does not include the full Power Query transformation engine found in Power BI Desktop, consequently, complex transformations cannot be performed within Report Builder.

For transformation requirements, you may consider the following options:

1. Use Power BI Dataflows in the Power BI service to prepare and transform data online using the Power Query interface. Once the dataflow is configured, connect Report Builder directly to it as a dataset source. This approach enables reuse of the same transformation logic across both Power BI Desktop and Report Builder.
2. Perform transformations at the source level for systems such as SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Analysis Services, etc., so that data is already in the desired shape before being consumed by Report Builder.

Please refer to the following link for further information:
Utilize Power BI Semantic Model within Power BI Re... - Microsoft Fabric Community

We hope that the information provided will help resolve the issue. Should you have any further queries, please feel free to contact the Microsoft Fabric Community.

Thank you.

[Cookistador]

If you need to make some transformation on your data source, you can use Power Query like it is the case in Power BI

To create some measures, you cannot use DAX, but there are some alternatives in Paginated reports

• MDX or DMX: For querying multidimensional or data mining models

• VB.NET-style expressions: For calculated fields, formatting, and logic inside the report (like the IIf() expression you showed earlier) 

For example, this is the structure of a Sum IF in paginated report

=SUM(
IIf(
  Fields!PRODUCT_TYPE.Value = "Billable",
  Val(Fields!HTVA.Value),
  0
 )
)

But you are starting another stake which is more related to SSRS, my advise would be to create your dataset in Power BI desktop with DAX and then import the model in your paginated report

[jaineshp · Accepted solution]

@powerbiexpert22 

Report Builder has very limited transformation capabilities compared to Power BI Desktop - it only supports basic Power Query operations in preview.

Best approach: Do all your transformations in Power BI Desktop first, then connect Report Builder to the processed dataset for paginated reporting.

Report Builder is designed for formatting, not data transformation.

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Best Regards,
Jainesh Poojara | Power BI Developer