Quick Tips: Converting Hexadecimal, Oct and Binary to Decimal in a Single Power Query Function

A Power Query Function to Convert HEX, OCT and BIN values to DEC

A while ago I wrote a blogpost on how to use Unicode characters in Power BI. In that blogpost I used a recursive Power Query function to convert Hex values to Dec values. A few weeks back one of my site visitors kindly shared his non-recursive version of Power Query function which beautifully does the job. A big shout out to Rocco Lupoi for sharing his code. So, I decided to share it with everyone so more people can leverage his nice Power Query function. I have touched his code a bit though, but it was more of a cosmetic change, so all credits of this blogpost goes to Rocco. The benefits of his code is not limited to being non-recursive. The code below converts numbers of any base when the base is smaller than 16 like Binary and Oct, so it is not limited to Hex values only. The other benefit of the below code is that it is not case sensitive (note to the digits step on the code below).

Here is the fnHex2Dec function for Power Query:

(input as text, optional base as number) as number =>
let
        values = [
                0=0,
                1=1,
                2=2,
                3=3,
                4=4,
                5=5,
                6=6,
                7=7,
                8=8,
                9=9,
                A=10,
                B=11,
                C=12,
                D=13,
                E=14,
                F=15
        ],
        digits = Text.ToList(Text.Upper(input)),
        dim = List.Count(digits)-1,
        exp = if base=null then 16 else base,
        Result = List.Sum(
                        List.Transform(
                                {0..dim}
                                , each Record.Field(values, digits{_}) * Number.Power(exp, dim - _)
                                )
                        )
in
        Result

As you see in the code above, the base parameter is optional, so if not provided base 16 would be the default.

This is how we can invoke the above function:

fnHex2Dec("AbCdEf", null)
Invoking fnHex2Dec function to convert numbers of any base to decimal
Continue reading “Quick Tips: Converting Hexadecimal, Oct and Binary to Decimal in a Single Power Query Function”

Quick Tips: Line Chart and Area Chart Conditional Formatting in Power BI

Line Chart and Area Chart Conditional Formatting in Power BI

In this post I show you a very quick trick to format Line Chart and Area Chart conditionally in Power BI. As this is a “Quick Tip” I’m going to keep this post really short.

One of my customers asked me to show time series in line charts and area charts. But she want’s it to be conditionally formatted based on the average value over time. Let’s keep it simple, she wants to show “Sales by Year Month” in line chart, but, highlight the data points that are below “Average Sales per Year Month”. As you may know, we currently do not have the luxury of formatting line charts and area charts. But wait, this post is all about that. Let’s dig into it.

From the above scenario, you perhaps already guessed that we need to create a measure which defines the colour based on “Average Sales per Year Month” to be able to format the chart conditionally. If any data point is below the “Average Sales per Year Month” then we highlight it in Orange, if it is above the “Average Sales per Year Month” then we stick to the default colour.

Let’s do it.

Continue reading “Quick Tips: Line Chart and Area Chart Conditional Formatting in Power BI”

Quick Tips: Export Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service Model Data In One-Shot with DAX Studio

Exporting Model Data to CSV 
or SQL Server in One Shot

Update 2021 March:

You can now export the data direct from Power BI Desktop using my tool, Power BI Exporter. Read more here.

In some of my old posts, which are the most popular ones, I explained how to Export data Power BI Desktop or Power BI Service data to different destinations like CSV, Excel and SQL Server. In this quick tip I explain a very easy way to export the model data as a whole to either CSV or SQL Server with DAX Studio.

Daniil from XXL BI well explained this method, but I’d rather quickly explain how it works and add some more information.

After release 2.8 of DAX Studio, you can now quickly export the whole model to CSV and SQL Server in one shot.

Enabling Export All Data in DAX Studio

  • Open DAX Studio
  • Click “File”
  • Click “Options”
  • Click “Advanced”
  • Tick “Show Export All Data button”
DAX Studio Export Power BI Model Data Settings

Export Power BI Model Data to CSV

DAX Studio Export Power BI Model Data to CSV
Continue reading “Quick Tips: Export Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service Model Data In One-Shot with DAX Studio”

What Does XMLA Endpoints Mean for Power BI and How to Test it for Free?

Test Environment from Power BI XMLA Endpoint

XMLA endpoint connectivity for public preview has been announced late March 2019. As at today, it is only available for Power BI Premium capacity users. This sounds like a massive restriction to a lot of people who don’t have a Premium capacity, but they’d love to see how it works. In this article I show you an easy way to get your hands to Power BI XMLA endpoint as quick as possible. Before I start, I’d like to simply explain what XMLA endpoint is and what it really means for Power BI users.

Power BI is Like Onion! It has layers!

Generally speaking, Power BI has two different layers, presentation layer and data model layer. Presentation layer is the visual layer, the one you make all those compelling reports and visualisations. The data model as the name resembles, is the layer that you make your data model in. This layer is the one you can access it via XMLA connectivity.

In a Power BI Desktop file, you can see both layers:

Different layers of Power BI

How XMLA Relates to Different Layers in Power BI?

As you may have already guessed, XMLA is only related to the data model layer and it has nothing to do with the presentation layer. So you may connect to a data model, browse the data model, import data from the model to other platforms like Excel and so forth.

XMLA Is Not New!

Seriously? Yes, seriously. It is not new. It’s been around for many years and perhaps you’ve already used it zillions of times. Whenever you’re connecting to an instance of SQL Server Analysis Services, either Multidimensional or Tabular from any tools like SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Power BI Report Builder, Excel, Tableau, etc…, you’re using XMLA connectivity indeed.

Power BI is an Instance of SSAS Tabular

It is true. Power BI runs a local instance of SSAS Tabular model. So, whenever you open a Power BI Desktop file (PBIX), Power BI creates a local instance of SSAS Tabular model with a random local port number that can be accessed on your local machine only. When you close the file, the local instance of SSAS Tabular is shut down and its port number is released.

I first revealed the fact that you can connect to the underlying data model in Power BI Desktop from whole different range of tools like SSMS, SQL Server Profiler, Excel, etc… on Jun 2016. So, we indeed were using XMLA to connect to Power BI data models for a long time. We can even take a step further to import our Power BI data models into an instance of SSAS Tabular. In that sense, we are literally generating XMLA scripts from Power BI to create the same data model in SSAS Tabular. How cool is that?

Sooo… What is new then?

Continue reading “What Does XMLA Endpoints Mean for Power BI and How to Test it for Free?”