Columns Aren't Being Summarized

Power BI
1

I have several columns in different tables that aren’t being summarized as SUM. The columns are formatted as decimal numbers and the Summarization is set as SUM but whenever I try bring these columns into the table, they automatically go to the Column field and are unable to be switched to the Value field–any ideas why this is happening? I imported the same table into a new PBI and it’s being summarized there…

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2

@Max,

I can’t tell you specifically why this is happening, but I have seen some strange, unpredictable behavior from implicit measures. I literally never use them - rather than setting summarization to SUM, I would strongly recommend creating a Total Value measure = SUM(‘Final Table Revenue’[Value]). I would be very surprised if that didn’t solve your problem.

  • Brian
1 Like
3

@Max,

Also, while it says “decimal number” it doesn’t have the Sigma sign next to the Value field name, indicating to me that is actually being pulled in his text which would explain why it only is working as a column header.

I would go into Power Query and confirm the field type for that field.

But also, definitely stop hanging out with implicit measures – they’re a bad crowd. :wink:

  • Brian

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1 Like
4

Did you create calculation groups in the model?

5

Thanks, @BrianJ. I ended up creating a measure for all the columns. What is the reason to not use implicit measures?

6

@Max,

@sam.mckay does an excellent job breaking down the problems with quick/implicit measures in this video, though he is slightly more charitable toward them that I would be:

Not as bad as the auto-detect relationships feature (IMO the absolute worst idea incorporated into Power BI) or the auto-time intelligence (@Heather’s vote for Power BI supervillain), but a strong bronze medalist.

If you watch the Guy In A Cube videos, Patrick LeBlanc dislikes quick measures so much that he actually wrote a custom tool to link into the new External Tools menu to turn off all the quick measure aggregations (and he works for Microsoft!).

  • Brian
3 Likes
7

@Max, @Archer and @Heather,

As an interesting coda to our recent discussion about Quick Measures, here’s what the world’s leading DAX expert says about Quick Measures - “It doesn’t work. It doesn’t scale. It doesn’t do anything. …And it suggests bad practice”. Doesn’t get much more definitive than that. :grinning:

  • Brian
8

Yep - I watched that video (not live, but caught it after the fact), and I almost cheered when I heard Marco’s response. I could see Adam getting a bit ‘squrimy’ during that, but I’m guessing that as a Microsoft employee he can’t specifically call out use of Quick Measures as a bad practice.

9

@Heather,

I knew you’d enjoy that. Not quite on the same level as Ferrari saying if you use bidirectional relationships you’ll go to hell, but pretty close…

  • Brian
1 Like