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I_NeedMorePower's avatar
I_NeedMorePower
Helper III
7 years ago

Using PATH(), How Do I Remove Blanks From My Hierarchy Between Levels?

Hello awesome communty!   I'm learning the PATH() function, what I'm doing is, I want to create a product category hierarchy, I'm getting a table from Dynamics 365 F&O called "RetailProductHierarch...
Need Help
I_NeedMorePower's avatar
I_NeedMorePower
Helper III
7 years ago

I found this blog explaining the workaround for the blanks in creating a heirarchy path:

https://www.wiseowl.co.uk/blog/s2479/parent-child-hierarchy.htm

 

The writer's work around is simply making the categories levels function to check if it is blank? then take the same value of the previous level.

 

here is the DAX function:

CategoryL6 = IF (

ISBLANK(PATHITEM ( [CategoryRecordId]; 6; INTEGER )) ;

RetailProductHierarchyCategories[CategoryL5];

LOOKUPVALUE (

[CategoryName];

[CategoryRecordId]; PATHITEM ( [Path]; 6; INTEGER )

)
)

What this DAX function does is, it checks if this current level (in this DAX example Level 6) is blank....so if it's blank, then take the same value of the previous level. So it should replace the blanks with the previous values ending up with no blanks.

But when I applied it on my columns. it does not replace the blanks. like it does nothing. I tried to play around the ISBLANK() part, then it turned out it does not see the blank fields as blank...so it takes the false part of the IF always.....

I don't know why.... 

what can I do to make the ISBLANK() returns true on the blank fields?

 

Thanks.

lukaszcracow's avatar
lukaszcracow
Frequent Visitor
6 years ago

Hi I_NeedMorePower ,

I am struggling with the same situation you've described. I'm creating a hierarchy and want to replace the BLANKs, but the expression IF(ISBLANK( doesn't read blank results of PATHITEM as BLANK.. 

Have you found a solution or any workaround?

All best,

Lukas 

  • I_NeedMorePower's avatar
    I_NeedMorePower
    Helper III
    6 years ago

    Hi there lukaszcracow 

    I have looked back at the file and here is what I ended up with:

    For Path Field:

    Path = PATH(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[CategoryName];RetailProductHierarchyCategories[ParentCategoryName])

     

    and for Category Levels, here is the expression for each level field (Assuming for my case I have 6 Category Depth Levels):

    CategoryL1 = PATHITEM(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[Path];1)
CategoryL2 = IF(PATHITEM(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[Path];2) = "";RetailProductHierarchyCategories[CategoryL1];PATHITEM(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[Path];2))
CategoryL3 = IF(PATHITEM(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[Path];3) = "";RetailProductHierarchyCategories[CategoryL2];PATHITEM(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[Path];3))
CategoryL4 = IF(PATHITEM(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[Path];4) = "";RetailProductHierarchyCategories[CategoryL3];PATHITEM(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[Path];4))
...
CategoryL6 = IF(PATHITEM(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[Path];6) = "";RetailProductHierarchyCategories[CategoryL5];PATHITEM(RetailProductHierarchyCategories[Path];6))

     

    If you have less or more category levels, obviusly you have to remove or add more level fields.

    What the Category Level fields that are after CategoryL1 do is, for each category level field:it looks into the path string and checks if the current level is available in the string or not.

    For example:

    Let's assume we have 6 category levels and the path string for one of the many categories is "Drinks | Cola"
    the previous string has only 2 levels (Drinks and Cola), so what the CategoryL3,L4,L5,L6 do in the expressions I provided above is: it checks the path string (Drinks | Cola) for L3,L4,L5,L6 if it is "" (Blank).

    Then If it is "" (Blank) it means it doesn't have a category for this level (L3,L4,L5,L6)..... so what I did as a workaround to remove the "Blanks" from the category trea is, I take the last Level name and duplicate it for the next empty levels.

    following our example above "Drinks | Cola", the result will be:

    Drinks > Cola > Cola > Cola > Cola > Cola
    I know this solution is not optimal, because when you are going to drill down the categories in the report visuals, you will keep drilling the cola till the 6th level.

    I ended up with this because it's at least readable. because getting the same value is better than getting blanks.

     

    I hope this helps, and I don't know if there is a better solution.

    If you found a better solution please let me know, i'm still learning too 😉

    • lukaszcracow's avatar
      lukaszcracow
      Frequent Visitor
      6 years ago

      Hi I_NeedMorePower 

       

      Thanks for reply and explanation 🙂

       

      Actually I came up with similiar solution. I have only 4 levels so it's not that complex and I could work around the problem

       

      1) I created a 3 dummy columns /dum2, dum3 and dum4/ with PATHITEM( table[hiercolumn]; 2/3/4)

      2) I created another set of 3 target coulmns /lvl2, lvl3 and lvl4/ with

      lvl3 = IF(ISBLANK(table[dum3]); table[dum2]; table[dum3])
       
      I don't understand why IF( ISBLANK( can see blank cells in dummy coulms whereas it cannot see a blank result when used in one expression with PATHITEM --> IF( ISBLANK( PATHITEM(.. 
       
      Cheers 
      Lukas
       
  • I_NeedMorePower's avatar
    I_NeedMorePower
    Helper III
    6 years ago

    Hello lukaszcracow

    I think I did...

    Haha it was long time a go, I don't remember. 

    But I will look for the file and see what I did last time and reply back to you.