Tabular Editor - Calculation groups

[Anonymous]

Hi Team,

When I started to use Calculation groups and enabeled Tabular Editor + created one calculation group in my data model, I started to experience one issue.

Prior any implementation of calculation groups, I could use default count,distinct count, etc. calculation when I drag and drop it to my canvas.

After creating one calculation group and using it in my model, I am not able to use any default calculation anymore. Please see the printscreen of the same drop down for same column bellow. The same is applicable for any other column in data model.

Thanks for your help,

J.

[marcorusso · Accepted solution]

It is not a bug, it is by design.

Calculation groups are not compatible with implicit measures.

It is described in the documentation, too:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/analysis-services/tabular-models/calculation-groups?view=asallprodu...

When you enable calculation groups, Tabular Editor enables the Model option Discourage Implicit Measure.

If you remove all the calculation groups, you can restore that property to False to enable implicit measures again.

However, it is a best practice to only expose explicit measures in a Tabular model.

If you use Tabular Editor, you can find macros to quickly create measures from numeric columns: 
https://github.com/otykier/TabularEditor/wiki/Useful-script-snippets

[Anonymous]

@marcorusso Thank you so much for posting this solution. I clicked on create calculation group in TE 2 by mistake, which I removed but completely forgot about it. Later on when my numbers stopped auto aggregations and I couldn't figure out why. Took quite a time to figure that the property needs to be set to False, thanks to your post.

[marcorusso · Accepted solution]

It is not a bug, it is by design.

Calculation groups are not compatible with implicit measures.

It is described in the documentation, too:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/analysis-services/tabular-models/calculation-groups?view=asallprodu...

When you enable calculation groups, Tabular Editor enables the Model option Discourage Implicit Measure.

If you remove all the calculation groups, you can restore that property to False to enable implicit measures again.

However, it is a best practice to only expose explicit measures in a Tabular model.

If you use Tabular Editor, you can find macros to quickly create measures from numeric columns: 
https://github.com/otykier/TabularEditor/wiki/Useful-script-snippets

[Anonymous]

Wait, why?

Pardon my ignorance, but I find implicit measures genuinely assist me in assessing the precise filters and calculations applied in a visual. You mentioned in your "7 Reasons DAX is not easy" video that as a functional language, it can be difficult to assess the execution sequence of DAX code. It seems like the GUI experience afforded by implicit measures provides an intuitive and simple means of assessing execution order. 

Personally, I wish could convert cards (and possibly other visuals) with their associated filters directly to DAX code in a single click, as is possible with the SQL query view available in Access.

[xMikeDx]

i just ran into this issue myself this morning when trying to modify a report with a basic mom and yoy calculation group.

gald i found this post by googling error: DiscourageImplicitMeasures

thank you for helping me understand this a bit more in tabEd 

[Anonymous]

Hi Marco,

Thank you very much for you detail explanation of the designed behaviour.

Would you be please so kind to just add few print screens how to restore the property to False in order to get the implicit measure working again?

Thank you,

J.

[marcorusso · Accepted solution]

 

[v-yingjl]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Based on your description, I can reproduce it in my environment. Seems like a normal phenomenon if the there has sigma field in the table after creating a calculation group but not certain. Need further confirmation whether it is a bug or how it works. I would suggest you to create a support ticket for faster help if it is urgent for you.

Best Regards,
Yingjie Li

If this post helps then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[amitchandak]

@Anonymous , if these are measures you will not have the option for aggregations. You only get this option for columns

[Anonymous]

@amitchandak, unfortunatelly the column which I specified on the print screen is really column and not meausre.

Please see the print screen of the column from the table bellow.

The problem which was specified in my first post influence any column which I try to use in my calculations.

The common factor for this issue is installed tabular editor and used calculated group in the Data model.

Thanks,

J.