Stop Summarising Data in visualisation

[RobertSlattery]

When I create a table visualisation from a query, a lot of stuff seems to be going on behind the scenes: its not just the table of results that is displayed but some summarised version of it. Rows seem to be automatically aggregated depending on the structure I choose for the columns and this also affects the context for measures I create that include aggregations, I kinda get what's going on but I'm not quite clear. I am also unclear about how aggregation functions work in measures with regard to the row calculation vs the Totals calculation; counting distinct values for example.

I can't find any documentation specifying the design behaviour for these features, can anybody help me to find this?

[Phil_Seamark]

Hi @RobertSlattery

If you have a column in a table that only contains numbers, Power BI will assume you intend to sum the values in this column when grouping by something like date etc.

You can override this on the modelling tab but clicking your field and then choosing "Don't summarize" (or something else).

Does that help a little?

[Elsabe7407]

Hi Phil I don't have this "Default Summarization: Don't summarize" under my Modelling tab ... does anyone perhaps know why? Thanks!

[RobertSlattery]

Thanks for the reply,

1. this feature is greyed out for me (whether I have a table selected or not).
2. Even if I have no number field selected, text fields are still grouped left to right
3. If I try to count distinct values in the Values area, I get different behaviour for the rows and the totals which I am unclear about. Is this not documented?
4. So there is no documentation about this basic feature that you are aware of?

[v-yuezhe-msft]

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@RobertSlattery wrote:

Thanks for the reply,

1. this feature is greyed out for me (whether I have a table selected or not).
2. Even if I have no number field selected, text fields are still grouped left to right
3. If I try to count distinct values in the Values area, I get different behaviour for the rows and the totals which I am unclear about. Is this not documented?
4. So there is no documentation about this basic feature that you are aware of?

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@RobertSlattery,

Firstly, after you drag numeric fields to table visual in Power BI Desktop, choose “Don’t summarize” for the field as shown in the screenshot below.



Secondly, what do you mean by that text fields are grouped left to right?

Thirdly, please share sample data of your table and post screenshot about your visual which you are unclear about.

Regards,
Lydia

[Phil_Seamark]

Hi @RobertSlattery

The option to set the default aggregation should be enabled when you have a column or field selected that is a numeric field.  

In terms of documentation, there are some good, guided learning pages here :

 https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/guided-learning/

and the Power BI Documentation is here 

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-landing-page/

and 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg492142.aspx

[RobertSlattery]

OK, thanks.

As I said, I already searched the documentation in the obvious places and it doesn't answer my question.

Regarding the guided learning link, in the video on tables, the perky Britt waves his hands and adds columns and says: "we can add columns"

Meanwhile, the rows are also changing which is completely counterintuitive but, this is not mentioned, let alone explained.

So basically, you can nod along with all of the obvious stuff that you figured out for yourself in the guided learning but, you don't learn anything. Therefore, I don't really consider these to be "good" resources. That's why I was asking if there are any other resources that may not be so obvious.