What-If Parameters in Power BI: Create Interactive...

Power BI offers a powerful feature called What-If Parameters, which allows users to interact with their reports in real-time and perform scenario-based analysis.

In this blog, we’ll walk through:

🔹 What a What-If Parameter is

🔹 How to create one in Power BI

🔹 A practical use case with a sample dataset

Let’s dive in!

📊 Intro to the Dataset

For this example, I’m using a sales prediction dataset that estimates sales based on three conditions:

RA,A,SB

Rather than focusing on the model’s backend logic, this blog will guide you through building a user-friendly, interactive report using these three columns as parameters.

🛠️ Creating What-If Parameters

To add What-If Parameters in Power BI:

Step 1: Go to the Modeling tab and select New Parameter.

Create three parameters – one each for RA, A, and SB. Here are the settings I used for each:

⚡ Pro Tip: When you create a What-If parameter, Power BI will automatically generate:

A parameter table
A measure that returns the selected value from the slicer

📈 Using What-If Parameters

Now that our parameters are set up, we’ll use them in a measure to simulate how changes affect sales predictions.

Step 2: Create a Measure

This measure will calculate the predicted sales based on parameter values.

(You can plug in your model’s logic here using the parameter values.)

Step 3: Build the Report

🧩 Add Slicers: Drag the columns from the parameter tables onto the report canvas to create three slicers for RA, A, and SB.

🧮 Add a Card or Chart: Use your newly created measure to visualize the outcome — in our case, predicted sales.

Now when you adjust the slicer values, the sales prediction updates instantly, allowing users to explore different scenarios.

✅ Conclusion

What-If Parameters are an excellent tool to enhance interactivity and provide flexibility to end users. Whether it’s for forecasting, pricing scenarios, or operational decision-making — they bring your data to life.

💡 Want to try more What-If ideas?

Experiment with pricing changes, marketing budget simulations, or stock forecasting!

Best regards

Anmol Malviya

Sr. Data Analyst | Addend Analytics