Forum Discussion
Power BI Service – Column Summary & Row Count Feature
Hi Team,
I wanted to check if Power BI Service provides a feature to display column-level summaries (for example, min, max, average, distinct count) and the total row/record count for the report data at the end that a user is currently viewing.
This capability is available in some other BI tools, such as ThoughtSpot, where users can easily view column summaries and the overall record count for the selected dataset or report view.
Could you please let us know if a similar feature exists in Power BI Service, or if there are any recommended workarounds or best practices to achieve this?
Thanks in advance.
Short answer: no, Power BI Service does not have a built-in feature that automatically shows column-level summaries (min, max, avg, distinct count) and total row count for whatever data the user is currently viewing, like ThoughtSpot does.
But not in the way you’re probably expecting, you can calculate column summaries (min, max, avg, distinct count, row count) in a Fabric notebook using Spark or SQL, but that happens outside the report experience. It’s more suitable for data profiling, validation, or pre-calculation, not for showing live summaries based on what a user is currently filtering in a Power BI report.
Also, You can compute min, max, avg, distinct count, and row counts in Power Query, but it all happens at refresh time. Once the data is loaded, those results are static and cannot respond to slicers, filters, or what the user is currently viewing in the report.
5 Replies
Thank you v-hjannapu!
This is helpful for now, will reach out in case of any additional assistance is required.Short answer: no, Power BI Service does not have a built-in feature that automatically shows column-level summaries (min, max, avg, distinct count) and total row count for whatever data the user is currently viewing, like ThoughtSpot does.
But not in the way you’re probably expecting, you can calculate column summaries (min, max, avg, distinct count, row count) in a Fabric notebook using Spark or SQL, but that happens outside the report experience. It’s more suitable for data profiling, validation, or pre-calculation, not for showing live summaries based on what a user is currently filtering in a Power BI report.
Also, You can compute min, max, avg, distinct count, and row counts in Power Query, but it all happens at refresh time. Once the data is loaded, those results are static and cannot respond to slicers, filters, or what the user is currently viewing in the report.
Thank you for the information cengizhanarslan
Hi Anonymous,
Thanks for the update. Glad to know the information shared by the cengizhanarslan was helpful.
If you face any issues or have more questions, please feel free to reach out here. We’ll be happy to help.
Regards,
Community Support Team.
