Book Image

Tabular Modeling with SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services Cookbook

By : Derek Wilson
Book Image

Tabular Modeling with SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services Cookbook

By: Derek Wilson

Overview of this book

SQL Server Analysis Service (SSAS) has been widely used across multiple businesses to build smart online analytical reporting solutions. It includes two different types of modeling for analysis services: Tabular and Multi Dimensional. This book covers Tabular modeling, which uses tables and relationships with a fast in-memory engine to provide state of the art compression algorithms and query performance. The book begins by quickly taking you through the concepts required to model tabular data and set up the necessary tools and services. As you learn to create tabular models using tools such as Excel and Power View, you’ll be shown various strategies to deploy your model on the server and choose a query mode (In-memory or DirectQuery) that best suits your reporting needs. You’ll also learn how to implement key and newly introduced DAX functions to create calculated columns and measures for your model data. Last but not least, you’ll be shown techniques that will help you administer and secure your BI implementation along with some widely used tips and tricks to optimize your reporting solution. By the end of this book, you’ll have gained hands-on experience with the powerful new features that have been added to Tabular models in SSAS 2016 and you’ll be able to improve user satisfaction with faster reports and analytical queries.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Tabular Modeling with SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Using the CALENDAR function


You can also create a date table using the CALENDAR function in DAX. This function uses a begin date and end date in the arguments to create a table for all dates between the range given. If you need a complete table with all dates represented, using this method is quick and effective.

To demonstrate how this works, you will create a date table with 10 consecutive dates.

How to do it...

  1. In Visual Studio, open the Table menu and then select New Calculated Table.

  2. This creates a new table in the project that requires a DAX expression to populate the table.

  3. To create a row for each row between 1/1/2006 and 1/10/2006, use the CALENDAR function:

            =CALENDAR("1/1/2006","1/10/2006")

  4. Now mark this table as the date table in the model. Select the Table menu and then Date and Mark As Date Table:

  5. Create the relationship from the Calc_Date_T table to the CRASH_DATA_T on the CRASH_DATE table:

How it works...

The CALENDAR function is the best method to create a new calendar...