Power BI Tips: Pivot Table from Name/Value Pairs with “M”
When the data you “Get” in Power BI doesn’t come in nicely organized rows and columns, sometimes you need to do more with “Edit Queries” than just using the functions available on the ribbon. And that’s when you need bust out some “M” code to get the job done. In what...
read moreAlteryx Tips: Look Both Ways before you Join
If you are an Excel pro who has been fortunate enough to find Alteryx Designer, you probably love the Join Tool and are feeling OK about breaking up with VLOOKUP 😊 But if you aren’t careful about how you use this new superpower, can you turn bad data into *really* bad...
read morePower BI Tips: CALCULATE 101
One of the most challenging and useful DAX functions to master in building complex measures and calculated columns is the CALCULATE function. In what follows I’ll describe two specific scenarios where knowing how and when to use CALCULATE is a must. My hope is that...
read moreAlteryx Tips: Capture (More) Insights from your Workflow’s “Lost Data”
After building a complex workflow that finally works and gets you the output you wanted, it’s tempting to give yourself a high five and move on. But do you ever think about the data you lose as it passes through Filters and Joins, from input to output, and whether you...
read morePower BI Tips: One Dataset to rule them all!
In the Power BI Desktop August Feature Summary (https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-august-2017-feature-summary/) Microsoft announced the “live connect” Power BI Service connector is generally available. Now everyone can start using this feature...
read moreAlteryx Tips: Huge Time Saver Combining XLSX Files with Different Schema
I have a client that provides a monthly snapshot of information in an XLSX file. When the data in those files are combined, it paints a historical picture of how data is changing over time that is great grist for an analytics mill. The client process that generates a...
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