Way to modify what day Power BI thinks it is to test Functions

[effertz12]

Hello, I have multiple measures that are calculating things based on today's date that are failing today because of the year changing to 2022. I have since corrected the issues but am wondering if there is a way to trick or change what day Power BI desktop thinks today is in order to test new measures before these issues arrise? It would be nice to have an option to change what day PowerBI thinks it is.

[v-kkf-msft]

Hi @effertz12 ,

I think you will have to use a mesaure to replace TODAY( ) in all formulas and then assign the TODAY( ) value or a specific date value to this measure.

Measure = TODAY ( ) // Today() or other dates

Best Regards,
Winniz

[AlexisOlson]

@v-kkf-msft, this is exactly what I already suggested...

[AlexisOlson]

If you're using something like TODAY() in your measures, you could replace that function with a reference to a new measure that is defined as TODAY() but you could comment that definition out and replace with whatever date you'd like instead.

[effertz12]

I guess that will be my best practice moving forward, Wondering if there are issues with a ton of measures referecing back to that orginal Today() measure. 

 Feels like PowerBI having the ability to change what date is considered today across the entire report would be mighty helpful in testing these issues. The report i have has some 40 plus measures and i'd bet 75 percent of them are dealing with some sort of relative date, and theres no way to mass change the Today() part of the formulas to reference a measure like you said. 

[AlexisOlson]

In a pinch, you could try changing your system date. I tried changing my timezone to Samoa (+13) and TODAY() returned Jan. 4 instead of Jan. 3 for my actual local date.