Month: May 2018

What and when: DateAdd vs ParallelPeriod vs SamePeriodLastYear

~ Vitalie Ciobanu

Reza Rad over at http://radacad.com/dateadd-vs-parallelperiod-vs-sameperiodlastyear-dax-time-intelligence-question explains the differences and provides easy usage scenarios for DateAdd, ParallelPeriod and SamePeriodLastYear DAX functions.

Read his blog post to see how he reached to below conclusion:

  • DateAdd and SamePeriodLastYear both work based on the DYNAMIC period in the filter context.
  • ParallelPeriod is working STATICALLY based on the interval selected in the parameter.
  • ParallelPeriod and DateAdd can go more than one interval back and forward, while SamePeriodLastYear only goes one year back.
  • DateAdd works on the interval of DAY, as well as month, quarter and year, but ParallelPeriod only works on month, quarter, and year.
  • Depends on the filter context you may get a different result from these functions. If you get the same result in a year level context, it doesn’t mean that all these functions are the same! Look more into the detailed context.

Power BI: The key didn’t match any rows in the table

~ Vitalie Ciobanu ~ 4 Comments

Error:

Refreshing Power BI report generates “The key didn’t match any rows in the table” error.

Cause:

Click “Edit Queries” button. If you do not see the error message, click “Refresh Preview” button. Once you have the error message, click “Go To Error“.

Error message will remain, but you should have “Edit Settings” button now, click it.

In the next screen, Navigation, you should see what exactly Power BI is trying to access but cannot do so.

In my example, I have an Excel file as my source. When I first connected to this data source, my Table name was Table1. Yesterday I changed where my Excel file gets data from and this, in turn, changed Excel’s Table name to “report“.

Obviously, when Power BI tries to refresh the data, it cannot find Table1 table anymore.

Solution:

In the same Navigation screen, selecting my new Table name “report” will fix the issue assuming all other columns in the Excel file are the same.

Same is true for any data source, not only Excel file. Follow same steps to identify what’s causing the error and then fix it as needed.

How to get and view WordPress Statistics in Power BI

~ Vitalie Ciobanu

Soheil Bakhshi from http://biinsight.com has a super good article on how to get your stats from a WordPress site/blog and analyze them in Power BI.

For lazy guys out there, he already built a Power BI template file that you can use straight away. The only thing you’ll need is WordPress API key but don’t worry, he explains how to get that one too!

Check it out: http://biinsight.com/analyse-your-wordpress-blog-stats-in-power-bi/.