Services

Technologies

Industries

About Us

Our Work - Case Studies

Calculated Columns and Measures in Power BI

Calculated Columns and Measures in Power BI

Introduction to Calculated Columns and Measures in Power BI

A guide to understanding the differences between calculated columns and measures in DAX for Power BI

What is a calculated column?

A calculated column is a static value added to a table, calculated row by row when you load the data.

What is a measure?

A measure is a dynamic value that changes based on what you’re looking at in a report, calculated dynamically within the filter context of a visual

If we use the example of calculating Gross Profit margins from a simple sales example.
We can use a calculated column to return a Gross Profit value.

Do this by subtracting the cost price from the sell price at a row level.

We could also do this to show the gross margin percentage of a transaction.

But, when we aggregate the data we need to calculate the gross profit margin percentage on the totals and sub totals of the data. We need to do this to get a true weighted calculation.

This article explains the difference between these items, you can follow along with the example by downloading this data

Excel Sample Sales Data

To follow along with the examples

You can download the spreadsheet above and import it into Power BI Desktop

It will look like this

Excel data initially loaded into Power BI

How to create a calculated column in Power BI

The first thing we will do is to calculate the Gross Profit for each row in this table

In the table view, select New Column from the Ribbon

Select a new column from the ribbon in Power BI

In the formula bar we type

Gross Profit = [Sales Value]-[Cost of Sales]

This adds a new column, which calculates the gross profit by subtracting the cost of sales from the sales value

When we press enter the column is added to the table, and it is calculated for each row of data in that table

Adding a calculated column to a Power BI data table

When the underlying data is refreshed and any new rows of data are added, this column is calculated after the data is loaded for every row

We can also add a calculated column for the gross profit margin

adding a calculated gross profit margin column to power BI

We also set the Format to be percentage and the number of decimal places to 2 decimal places

Benefits of Calculated Columns in Power BI

One of the most obvious benefits of creating a calculated column in a table is that is easily visible and can be quickly understood.

It is calculated once the data refreshes and is not affected by any other filters, effectively it is a static column. This means that it can be used as a filter. In our example we could use a slicer to only show products that have a margin lower than 60%

Limitations of Calculated Columns in Power BI

Potentially the biggest draw back of calculated columns is that they must be calculated in full before the data table can be used. This is usually not a problem if the data tables are small, but if you import a very large data table, then have complex calculations running down a number of columns you will see a performance impact. In that case it is often better to perform the calculation further back in the data transformation

See this article for some examples

When to transform data

Another limitation is that the calculation cannot be affected by what happens on the face of the report itself, so if a report wanted to see the overall margin percentage this cannot be done using a calculated column, but must be done using a measure

How to create a measure in Power BI

We want to create a measure that can calculate the overall gross profit margin, even if the report is filtered

To create the measure, go to the Table View, and click New Measure on the ribbon

Then copy and paste this DAX code

Gross Profit Margin (Measure) = sum(Sheet1[Gross Profit]) / sum(Sheet1[Sales Value])

When you press enter, the measure is created. But unlike the calculated column, it does not appear in the table view

Adding a measure in Power BI

But, it does show as a measure on the data panel

New measure showing on the data panel in Power BI

We also set this to percentage format and to 2 decimal places

Benefits of Measures in Power BI

Measures are only calculated where used and are only calculated in the context of the face value of the report, this way they respond to filters and slicers

Limitations of Measures in Power BI

Measures can be more difficult to debug as they are more difficult to understand than a calculated column. But it can be made simpler to understand by creating separate measures for elements of a complex calculation. For example in this example we could create a measure for the sum of gross profit (the numerator) and check that. And we could also create a measure for the sum of the Sales (the denominator) and check that. Out gross profit measure could then just be the Numerator divided by the Denominator allowing us to debug the components separately

Using calculated columns and measures in reports

On the report view, drag a table to the canvas

Then add product, Sales Value, Cost of Sales and the calculated column for Gross Profit to the table

add the calculated column to a report in Power BI

The default behaviour for summarisation is to sum the values, which is what we want

But, if we add the Gross profit percentage that we created as a calculated column to the table we get a problem, the default summarisation options cannot calculate the true gross profit

Adding a calculated column from gross profit percentage to the Power BI report

default summarisation options in Power BI

Do not use average to summarise gross profit percentages

We frequently see this solution applied, which uses the simple average of the values

Incorrect average summarisation of gross profit percentages

Although this initially looks correct, especially at the product row level, but the grand total is not correct

The correct answer should be 1290 divided by 2110, which equals 61.14%

Use the measure to show the gross profit margin

Adding the measure to the report in Power BI

The measure correctly calculates the Gross Profit percentage on the overall values and all rows in the report

Use the Calculated Column values if you need to filter

if we add the quantity to the table for extra clarity and set it to not summarise we can see 9 rows of data

We can then use the calculated column values to filter the data for rows with a lower margin, Please note you cannot use a measure value in a slicer because you need to see the individual rows

adding a slicer to filter calculated column data

Conclusion

This article explains the key differences between calculated columns and measures in Power BI, with examples of why you will need to use both and some of the common errors that we see

The key thing to remember is to keep it simple by having the numerator and denominator for your measure in the data, even if it is a calculated column. Then when you need to roll up for something such as gross margin you can create simple measures such as sum(gross profit) divided by sum(net sales)

Subscribe to our channel to see more tips and timesavers

Select Distinct YouTube Channel

Or find other useful SQL, Power BI or other business analytics timesavers in our Blog

Our Business Analytics Timesavers are selected from our day to day analytics consultancy work.  They are the everyday things we see that really help analysts, SQL developers, BI Developers and many more people.

Our blog has something for everyone, from tips for improving your SQL skills to posts about BI tools and techniques. We hope that you find these helpful!

Business Analytics Blog

By Simon Harrison

Simon Harrison Founder of Select Distinct Limited and a business intelligence expert