Forum Discussion
Solving Ambiguous Pathway Error
Hi,
I am an amateur Power BI user trying to create a project managament dashboard. I am running into an issue where i need to have a relationship between two tables, but when i make the join it gets flagged as creating an ambiguous pathway. This is because these two tables are both connected to another table. Further details below.
Three tables:
- Project table (includes all projects: project number, description, value, etc.)
- Timesheets (includes all timesheets: employee, project number, work instruction number, hours, cost, etc.)
- Work Instructions (includes all work instructions: WI number, project number, description, allowed timeframe, status [active/complete] etc.)
Current joins:
- Project > Timesheets (one to many)
- Project > Work Instructions (one to many)
The above joins have allowed me to generate multiple visuals on my dashboard. However, i need to relate the Work Instruction number column of the Work Instructions and Timesheets tables, as below, but i get an ambiguous path error.
Wanted/needed join:
- Work Instructions > Timesheets (one to many)
The reason i want/need this join is I am trying to apply a filter to a donut chart to only show the hours remaining on active work instructions. I have calculated remainaing hours as (estimated hours of work instruction - total hours worked on work instruction). I have this filter set but it only applys to the Work Instruction table data but not to the Timesheets data as theres no relationship there to allow this.
I would be very happy to hear any advice or reccomendations. Thanks.
Riley
- Anonymous1 year ago
Hi RileyPilcher ,
You can also try to create many-to-many relationship, but only allow Work Instructions to filter Timesheets.
Many-to-many relationships in Power BI Desktop - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Best regards,
Mengmeng Li
3 Replies
- Kedar_PandeSuper User
Create a bridge table that contains unique values of Work Instruction Number and link it to both the Work Instructions and Timesheets tables.
Create a new table:
WorkInstructionBridge = DISTINCT('Work Instructions'[WI Number])Create relationships:
Work Instructions[WI Number] → WorkInstructionBridge[WI Number] (One-to-Many)
Timesheets[WI Number] → WorkInstructionBridge[WI Number] (Many-to-One)
Use the WorkInstructionBridge table in your measures and slicers to avoid ambiguous paths.💌 If this helped, a Kudos 👍 or Solution mark would be great! 🎉
Cheers,
Kedar
Connect on LinkedIn - AnonymousNot applicable
Hi RileyPilcher ,
You can also try to create many-to-many relationship, but only allow Work Instructions to filter Timesheets.
Many-to-many relationships in Power BI Desktop - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Best regards,
Mengmeng Li
- RileyPilcherNew Member
Thank you very much. This solved my problem instantly.