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

Introduction


Excel is the most popular tool for people to use when reporting on data. It is widely adopted, very flexible, and loaded with features. Most users turn to Excel as their data analytic tool of choice to help them make better decisions. It is easy to get data from a variety of sources into Excel such as text files, relational databases, other Excel files, or Analysis Services. Once data is loaded in Excel, you can easily manipulate the data using the standard filtering, sorting, and data deduplication. From there you can enhance how the data is shown by creating different types of charts and visualizations. With the additions of Power View and Power Pivot, users can now go even further with their analysis by making interactive reports in Power View. Or they can create their own analytic models in Power Pivot by combining data from various sources into a single view. The recipes in this chapter provide an overview of connecting Excel to your Tabular model. You will then create...