ok,
I have had a quick google but dont see an obvious solution. I have a band of report writers who have access to a data set for their data. They want to be able to create custom groups of products.
As an example
Category Prod Desc Product Id
Bicycle Grifter 1
Bicycle Chopper 2
Accessory Saddle 3
Bicycle Swift 4
Accesory Bars 5
For some bizare reason one report writer will want to create a group of Product 1 andf Product 3
Another will want to create a group of 1 and 2
I dont want to add these to the underlying data set as that will keep me in a full time job forever. I want the report authors to be able to do this. When I open the report in desktop I cant see a way to do this.
See if Data Groups are an option, I would recommend to always include an “Other” group and the illustrated type of binning is only possible on text types, numeric values for example allow ranges.
@Melissa looked at that but in the report I cant see any tables as the source is a data set in the power bi service. I only see the report and relationship views
This is still possible, if you can turn on the preview feature “DirectQuery for Power Bi datasets and Analysis Services” (which allows you to mash up an existing dataset and a new table, or even two existing datasets)
You will have to restart PowerBi for the change to take affect.
Load your report (or connect to the dataset if this is a new report)
To activate the new mode, you also need to add a new table (even a blank table using the Enter Data button will trigger this) - at that point, you will see this message:
I recommend clicking the “Learn More” button for more information of what this means to your model, as there are some quirks.
Once the local model is created (there will be another warning about security), you will be able to create a new column in the Products table. (I called mine “Products copied”
Once you have that done, you can create a grouped column (using the same method @Melissa shows above), using the new column you created.
BIG WARNING time…
I don’t personally use the DirectQuery setting at this time, because I’m in the habit of adding a few measures to my reports that are not in my dataset (because I only need the measure in that report).
I’ve discovered that if I have the DirectQuerry setting turned on, when I re-open a report with a measure that is custom to that report - the measures error out. (Turning off the DirectQuery option fixed this)
The local model you are creating is specific to that report - so if you need this grouping in more than one report, you’ll have to keep recreating it.
Hi @ells, did the response provided by @Heather help you solve your query? If not, how far did you get and what kind of help you need further? If yes, kindly mark as solution the answer that solved your query. Thanks!
Hi @ells, we’ve noticed that no response has been received from you since the 27th of March. We just want to check if you still need further help with this post? In case there won’t be any activity on it in the next few days, we’ll be tagging this post as Solved.
