Share your thoughts on visual calculations (preview)

[jeroenterheerdt]

Hit "Reply" and let us know what you think of visual calculations! To learn more about this feature, please visit the blog post or our documentation.

Here are some areas that we'd like to hear about in particular:

• errors / issues you are experiencing
• functionality that is missing / does not work as you expected that is not listed as limitations in our documentation.
• suggestions on governance capabilities
• sorting behavior of visual and visual matrix

Thanks and we look forward to hearing your feedback!

[rkapil]

2 suggestions to add in documentation -

1. Governance - Centralized measures in model helps in reusability across various reports so there should be a fine balance between what to use when

2. Few example use cases where Visual Calculations will be game changer - e.g. Building Income Statement, etc

[Frankie_Vannini]

So I have the second strange behaviour
this graphic is generated in Desktop Version: 2.124.2028.0 64-bit (December 2023)
represents a YoY running totals created with DAX and is shown correctly. It also calculates the YoY variation a percentage through the tooltip

 This is the same graph loaded with the latest version of PBI Desktop. Basically it has lost the cumulative and shows a simple YoY trend and also the YoY percentage change no longer works

 This is the same graph created with the new Visual Calculation. The result is the same as the chart created with DAX but the line for the current year does not stop but continues straight ahead. Basically the chart counts the cumulative quantities up to the end of the month/year which are filtered through a slicer. So on the X-axis the days to the end of the selected month are shown, on the Y-axis the cumulative. Obviously for the previous year the line goes up to 0 i.e. the last day of the month, while for the current year the line stops at the current date i.e. -X days to the end of the month

it is weird to see that in the previous version the chart made using DAX is shown correctly, it is shown incorrectly if loaded as is with the new version, and it is shown correctly again when using the new Runningsum function

[jeroenterheerdt]

can you please share the DAX for the measure and the visual calculation?

[Frankie_Vannini]

Hi there

sorry my fault. An error in the formula. It is weird the error didn't show up with previous PBI desktop (Jan 31, 2024 version)

[jeroenterheerdt]

ok, thanks for letting me know!

[lbendlin]

You can't apply conditional formatting on visual calculations.
You can't set data categories on visual calculations.
You can't change aggregations on visual calculations.
You can't change the sort order for visual calculations.
Power BI Embedded isn't supported for reports that use visual calculations or hidden fields.
Live connections to SQL Server Analysis Services aren't supported.
You can't use conditional formatting on visual calculations.

conditional formatting mentioned twice?

[jeroenterheerdt]

oh oops, thanks for letting me know!

[Frankie_Vannini]

Hi there, Ii don't know if this is related to the new version or to visual calculation but I

 

 

have a couple of strange behaviours that i didn't have in the previous versions. The first concerns the use of the Ciclet Slicer version 2.1.10. As you can see, in the desktop version the text is visible, in the web version the text disappears completely or partially. This did not happen with all versions prior to this Version: 2.126.927.0 64-bit (February 2024)

[jeroenterheerdt]

this is not related to visual calculations, I suggest opening an issue separately for this to get help.

[lbendlin]

I think you may want to mention that in order to test this people would need to know to download the new Desktop version that was posted on friday, and that they need to enable it in the preview features section of the options and settings, and then restart Power BI Desktop.  Of course it would be much nicer if the release would have been timed with the blog post!

[jeroenterheerdt]

agreed!

[Idrissshatila]

Hello @jeroenterheerdt ,

I saw people asking about value formatting.

[ToddChitt]

Agreed. The value formatting for new Visual Calculations appears to be two decimal places, regardless. I have an INT value formatted as "Whole Number" and Visual Calculations using it default to two decimals. 

Frustrating to have to go and format every calculation I create.

[jeroenterheerdt]

thanks for the feedback @ToddChitt . What do you prefer we would do? Detect the type of the parameter you are referring to and default to that? What would happen if there are conflicting types or multiple types?

Right now, I believe the default choice is the same as for a measure.

[ToddChitt]

Hello @jeroenterheerdt and thanks for the reply.

First: I think I would prefer that the Visual Calculation take on the formatting of any *single* measure or column on which it is based.

Second: If it is based on two columns or measures, pick one, or use, as you say, the "default choice for a measure".

Third: I created a new simple measure based on the one column in my VC, and THAT was formatted as whole number, no commas, no decimals, yet the VC has 2 decimals. It is obviously NOT looking at the "default choice for a measure".

Fourth: Where do I find and set the "default choice for a measure"? I didn't see anything in Options and Settings. Is it ONLY in the Theme file? I have no theme applied so where is the VC picking up two decimals setting?

[jeroenterheerdt]

hey @ToddChitt . With "default choice" I meant our product makes measures decimal numbers by default and there is nothing you can do to influence that default choice. You can, of course, change the format, but by default every measure starts off like a decimal number and so does a visual calculation. I am sorry if my words caused confusion.

However, you do raise a valid point here about what should be default choice for visual calculations and making that more dependent on the usage. I will make a note and discuss this with the team.

[ToddChitt]

>> With "default choice" I meant our product makes measures decimal numbers by default and there is nothing you can do to influence that default choice.<<

I know it's your product, but please check the default behavior. I have an INT column that is formatted as "Whole number" with 0 decimals. I create a measure from that column and that defaults to Whole number with 0 decimals. I l like it! But then I create a Visual Calculation from the measure or the base column and get 2 decimals. 

The product is not doing what you think it is doing in regard to default formatting of Measures. Even if the column is Currency with 2 decimals, the Measure comes out as Currency with Auto decimals. 

[jeroenterheerdt]

thanks, that is on the list of limitations which will be published in the docs (Tuesday)