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!

[mjc543]

Visual calculations and field parameters don't see to be very compatible with one another. I can create a visual calculation, but when I click 'Return to report' and try to go back into visual calculation edit mode, it's grayed out and I can't do anything else with it.

[jeroenterheerdt]

which version of Power BI Desktop are you using? We enabled the use of field parameters in the October release, so please confirm you are using at least that version.

[mjc543]

I am using the November 2024 release. 2.138.782.0 64-bit. I think that while field parameters were enabled last month, there's still some bugs that need to be worked out. Also worth mentioning in the affected line chart visual I am using a pair of field parameters on the Y-axis; 1 for the current value of the selected measure (with month/year on rows), and 1 for the previous value of the selected measure (same period last year).

[jeroenterheerdt]

can you share a screenshot please?

[mjc543]

Well, as luck would have it I've already closed the file, and when I reopened it, the problem went away. If I happens again I will try to capture it and share (along with steps to reproduce the error, if possible). Thanks for the quick replies!

[rubenjoosen]

Hi

The combination of dimensional fieldparameters and visual calculations seema to look fine at first sight. 
It looks like its not possible with field parameters that contain a list of measures, because in the visual calculation you hardcode the current measure.

Is it possible someway or is it coming later to include the "current selected measure" and use it in the visual calculation. 
Similar to the Selectedmeasure() function in calculation groups. 

Would be quite powerful i would imagine. 

[jeroenterheerdt]

hi @rubenjoosen thanks for the feedback. You are absolutely right and we are thinking about how to resolve this, but then not just for visual calculations but for measures the same. It will take a while though, it's not easy.

[wcarter]

I was wondering, is there any update on when conditional formatting will be available to use with Visual Calculations? I have a table with conditional formatting that is pretty memory intensive and often fails to render on the PBI service, being able to apply that formatting to the completed calculation instead would be a massive boon to report performance for me.

[jeroenterheerdt]

hello @wcarter thanks for the feedback! Conditional formatting is on it's way, hopefully by the end of the year or early next year!

[mattd1]

Tried to use Vis Calc on a matrix where I had switched axis. I'm running Version: 2.137.952.0 64-bit (October 2024)

This worked fine in one PBI file but then copy paste the visual with the calc to another (pointing at same semantic model) went all screwy. If I remove the calc the switched matrix looks fine. If I add the calc back it doesn't ... 

Note the columns are a Calculation Group table.

Above is visual without calculation. If I now add a subtraction of Port - Bench ... it goes like this:

The calculation is working. This file is a PBIP. I have tried copying to another PBIX too ...

Here in another (PBIX) file - all working (note I called the field __ in this one rather than "Relative" as above):

When I copy paste this to a brand new unsaved file:

It's all flattened out. If I remove the Calculation I get this:

Help?

[jeroenterheerdt]

@mattd1what's the calculation you added? It's unclear to me in the screenshots which calculation you are adding. Please post the DAX.

[mattd1]

I mentioned subtraction of Port - Bench in the note as I didn't think the calc was relevant (it works in one file but not in another). But for info:

[Portfolio (EUR)] - [Benchmark (EUR)]

[jeroenterheerdt]

I am assuming Portfolio (EUR) and BenchMark (EUR) are measures, correct? I was a bit confused since you also used the same names in first column of your tables so I didn't know if you were trying to refer to the row "headers" in your calculation. 

I have been trying to reproduce the problem, but everything worked fine after copy/pasting, with or without adding a calculation group into the mix. Is there any chance you would be able to share the PBIX with me?

[mattd1]

Hi thanks a lot for responding.

It's funny how it worked in one file but not in another (even creating from scratch in the other file).

Yes, those names (Portfolio (EUR) and Benchmark (EUR)) are the renamed measures on the visual.

I am wondering if there is some file version thing going on - maybe the first time I did it using September release, then one of my colleagues prepared a separate PBIP file for our project perhaps using later release (or earlier) ...

Sharing the PBIX might be challenging from our development environment. Very sensitive client data, and model separated from report files etc. Could do an online Teams call or something and look over it together if any use to you?

Thanks for taking time to help.

[jeroenterheerdt]

I'll send you a direct message to exchange details so we can do some screensharing.

[Joseph_Fadero12]

Pretty good feature, My only tiny issue is editing the visual calculation, normally visual calculation requires opening the visual calculations edit mode, which can be less convenient than editing a measure. Also addition of more template expressions would be good, like the Running sum we have, more template visual cals maybe good

[jeroenterheerdt]

Hi @Joseph_Fadero12 thanks for letting me know. I am curious what kind of templates you'd like to see added?

[ToddChitt]

I don't like that when using Visual Calculation, you change the Axis Sort on me!

Case in point. Consider the following simple example of two years broken down by months (24 values for YYYYMM). I create a Waterfall chart and add to it a Visual Calculation from a Template for "Versus previous". I then hide the original [Sum of Value] and the Waterfall looks correct. The data is sorted by the X axis. Life is good.

Now I simply drag and drop [Sum of Value] from the Y-axis field well to Tooltips. I have not even made it visible yet. And magically my Watefall chart takes on a whole new shape:

Power BI has taken it upon itself to SORT MY VISUAL WITHOUT ME ASKING IT TO DO SO.

I see this happening all over the place. STOP SORTING MY VISUALS!!! You are NOT helping. You are making extra work because now I need to A) re-assign the Sort Axis (to YYYYMM) like I had it before and B) re-assign the Sort Direction to ASCENDING!

[ToddChitt]

There is a bug, I beleive in how the Running Sum template works. Consider the following simple set of five dimensional values (Class A through E) and a SUM aggregation measure. 

Notice that the Classes are NOT in alphabetical order. The data is sorted, purposefully, by the Measure.

Now I add a Running Sum Visual Calculation. The data in the data table, along with the Visual Calculation, is correct in that the Running Sum number is accurate, but that grid does NOT match the table visual. It is sorted by Class, NOT by the Measure.

The [Running Sum] for Class E should be 1101 + 1097 = 2198, NOT 5138, based on the Sort Order of the table (by [Sum of Value]). 

What good is a Running Sum calculation if I cannot dictate the ORDER in which the values should be added sequentially?

In other words, how do I get the Data Table to be sorted by [Sum of Value] so that the subsequent Running Sum calculation is correct?

[jeroenterheerdt]

hi @ToddChitt, thanks for raising this. Currently you cannot influence the sorting behavior of the runningsum calculation or the visual matrix (what you call the data table), this is something we're working through.

You could also write a running sum using a window function (WINDOW) and influence the sort order using the ORDERBY() parameter function.