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

Interacting with SQL Server Data Tools


After the installation of Visual Studio and SSDT you will need to set up your environment settings. These setting are chosen the first time you start Visual Studio. However, they can be changed later in the Options section of the Tools menu. Once set, each new project will use the options selected.

Getting ready

Now that Visual Studio and SSDT have been installed, this section will review how to access SSDT and use it to create a tabular model project.

How to do it...

  1. Open Visual Studio 2015.

  2. On the next screen, sign in if you have an account or select Not now, maybe later if you do not, and then select the color scheme you want to use.

  3. You are now at the base screen for Visual Studio projects. Select New Project...

  4. You will now be presented with the New Project window. From here expand Business Intelligence. Here you will see the choices for the features you installed. To create a new Tabular Mode project, select Analysis Services. Type Chapter2_model...