Summarization (Don't Summarize) should turn OFF by Default

[binhcao]

By default numeric columns are 'summarized with Sum'.  This should be reversed so that no columns are summarized or just limited to Currency columns only.  This is because the majority of the columns in most tables (dimensions and fact tables) are not summarizable but for display purpose only.  I realized that the PowerBI desktop is smart enough not to summarize the columns participating in relationships (foreign keys) but there are other numeric columns that are like flags (integer with more than 2 values) that are marked as summarized and it takes a long time to go through all tables (including the dates table) to change the SUMMARIZATION to DON'T SUMMARIZE.

the benefit to making DON'T SUMMARIZE as a default option is that we will save a lot of time enhancing the model.

all we need then is to go change a small number of columns we want to summarize to appropriate aggregation function given that currency values are already marked as SUMMARIZED.

thanks guys, great work.

[v-deddai1-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi，

It is by default in power bi. And you can change the summary way of them by multiple select these columns through the 'CRTL' key.

As a workaround, you can also use aggregations in Power BI Desktop.  Please refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-aggregations

Best Regards,

Dedmon Dai

[Riv]

For anyone else who is having trouble understanding this technique, it is explained more clearly here by user az38.

[Anonymous]

This "fix" does not work in my version. Granted I am just learning Power BI but this auto setting for different 20 columns in my 6 data sources is a glitch in how wonderful this program is supposed to be. It is MUCH simpler to change columns or multiple columns in Excel. The Ctrl key +click doesn't do anything in my version. I had to change every column one at a time. I have been able to test if I am going to have to do this every time I refresh these tables. This need to be corrected. 

[Greg_Deckler]

@binhcao - You would want to post this to the Ideas forum, https://aka.ms/PBI_Comm_Ideas

You can set the default summarization for columns under Column tools in the ribbon but I realize that is a pain sometimes. I would support this idea if it was made to be an option under Report settings. There you could choose the default summarization for numeric columns imported into the model and choose Sum, Average, Min, Max, none, etc.