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 FIRSTDATE function


This function returns the first date in the data column that you pass as an argument. You can use the FIRSTDATE function to find the first occurrence of a transaction or the first time an accident was reported that was associated to blowing sand.

How to do it...

  1. Open the Model.bim to the Calc_Date_T table.

  2. In the measure creation area, click on an empty cell to create a measure to return the first date found on the Calc_Date_T table:

            First_Accident:=FIRSTDATE(Calc_Date_T[CRASH_DATE]) 
    

  3. A more interesting date will be finding the first occurrence of an accident logged due to the weather condition of blowing sand. To do this you will use the CALCULATE function and FILTER to limit the results. Create a new measure under First_Accident:

            First_Accident_Blowing_Sand:=CALCULATE ( 
              FIRSTDATE(CRASH_DATA_T[CRASH_DATE], 
              FILTER(WEATHER_T,[WEATHER_CONDITION]="Blowing Sand")) 
    

Based on the date in the table, the first...