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!

[Carlotta_Fabris]

Will this be solved? If yes when? 
I published to web a dashboard that uses a visual calculation and the table that contains it is not visible. It has the following error:

[jeroenterheerdt]

it will be resolved - it's on the documented list of limitations. 

[pcourtemanche]

I need to format that new calculation. make it currency. I'm not seeing how to do that.

thanks

[jeroenterheerdt]

while FORMAT works, it changes the output to text so you can't use it for further calculations. We will add support for formatting soon.

[lbendlin]

Use FORMAT as the output of the calculation.

[zbWorkProfile]

The only issue with this is that FORMAT returns a text value, which means that if you want to do something like add data bars to the column as a cell element, nothing happens. Which is to say, we need to be able to do more than just format the data in the column; we need to be able to control its data type as well.

[jeroenterheerdt]

agreed - that is coming.

[lbendlin]

Use case for using visual calculations as basis for conditional formatting:  Highlighting value changes

Can't select the calculation.

would be nice to be able to, though.

[jeroenterheerdt]

yes, conditional formatting is on the documented list of limitations.

[jeroenterheerdt]

Agreed - conditional formatting is on the list of limitations.

[CaveOfWonders]

Hi @jeroenterheerdt,

This is a great step in the right direction. Thank you and the team for making our day jobs easier.

Going ahead, I see huge value in making these functions available in dax generally. Is that in the pipeline?

[jeroenterheerdt]

Hi, if you with "these functions" you mean functions like RUNNINGSUM then the answer is no, not at this time.

[CaveOfWonders]

That's a real shame. Thank you for your reply.

[wcarter]

I found an error / bug, I tested the visual calculation feature on a matrix but removed it when I saw conditional formatting wasn't yet available. However, when my end-users tried to export data from that matrix they recieved an error: "exporting data is disabled because it contains a visual calculation or hidden field." This happening despite the fact that the matrix did not currently contain visual calculations nor hidden fields. I had to rebuild the matrix from scratch and re-publish the report to correct the issue, so it seems like using Visual Calculations infects/contaminates whatever visual you drop them on in a way that lingers after removing the Visual Calculation.

[jeroenterheerdt]

oh no! That is not supposed to happen. I will investigate this.

[Kofod]

What are the consideration regarding these new visual calculations and functionality the field parameters introduced a while back. As far as I can see these two features does not integrate currently, and I was wondering if it would be possible to to have these two Power BI features integrate somehow. 

In many instances, we use field parameters not only to switch dimensions but also measures on visuals.

When introducing visual calculations, it also introduces the questions, if these could be used dynamically together.

It might be that they are too technically different to have working together, but I just have to raise the question.

[jeroenterheerdt]

field parameters are not supported with visual calculations yet as listed on the limitations.

[Kofod]

Hi...

Feature: Sorting usings "Visual Calculation" Measures

I was messing around with visual calculations, considering where it would be really usefull, then I thought that sorting columns like "ABS([mymeasure])" calculations would be a nice usecase for visual calculations. However, it is not available as a sorting column. 

I think you should consider adding this feature.

EDIT:

Just realised that it is because I hide the "visual calculation" - if I unhide, I get access to the sorting VC. I think it should be sortable when it is hidden as well. (it does not work to sort and then hide).

regards

[jeroenterheerdt]

so if you hide you cannot sort. the reason is because it would be hard for a viewer to understand how the visual is sorted if it's sorted by something they can't see. What would you prefer here?

[Kofod]

In many cases I would agree, and that would be a consideration while designing a visual.

However, that many cases sorting could be relevant on something you do not want to show. I might want to sort by the variance actuals vs Budget, while showing the actual numbers as columns in a chart. In this cases the variance I want to sort by could even be the absolute version, i.e. the biggest variances positive and negativ alike, while I'm not interested in showing the absolute numbers in the chart. So being able to hide these is very relevant. Currently the workaround I use is to have the ABS variance in the tooltip, while I actually do not want it there either.

Hope this makes sense 🙂

[jeroenterheerdt]

that makes sense, thanks for explaining. How would you envision your viewers to understand that though? Would you not tell them? Let them figure it out on their own? Show some kind of message / indicator that the visual they are looking at is sorted by something they can't see? Alternatives?