About the Book
Supercharge Power BI: Power BI is Better When you Learn to Write DAX is the third edition of my book using Power BI Desktop and teaches readers how to get the most out of Power BI by learning the DAX language.
Power BI Desktop
Power BI Desktop is the self-service BI tool from Microsoft. Power BI Desktop became generally available in July 2015 and is following a rapid monthly development cycle – the pace of change is quite astonishing. There is no doubt that Excel users will increasingly want to leverage the sharing and modern visualisation capabilities of PowerBI Desktop, and learning to write DAX is the foundation of that journey.
What is DAX?
Data analysis expressions (DAX) is the data modelling language of Power BI and Excel Power Pivot.
Simply reading a regular book is normally not enough to help users to learn DAX skills – you need to complete the exercises and get plenty of practice to master the data modelling capabilities in Power BI Desktop. This book is written to give you exactly that – hands-on practice. Inside you will find explanation of the concepts, sample exercises and then practice questions and answers to maximise learning retention and experience.
Once you have read this book and completed the exercises there will be no stopping you on your path to DAX and Power BI super stardom. And, you will become a data modeller to get the most of self-service BI.
DAX language and DAX functions are the same in both Power BI and Excel Power Pivot and hence the knowledge is transferable between the two. The only difference is getting familiarised with the corresponding interfaces. In my other book Supercharge Excel, you will have the same learning experience as covered in the book Supercharge Power BI and hence it can be considered a sister book. These two books use the same content, teaching, and practice format but with different software versions, as indicated in the titles. You should choose the best book for you given which software product you want to use.
About the Author (me, Matt Allington)
I have taken my 30+ years experience in using data to deliver business value and also my experience in teaching live Power BI classes and distilled this knowledge into a book that will help any user get started with Power BI and DAX. The challenge with Power BI and DAX is that it requires in-depth understanding of the complex concepts and how it works under the hood. As a result, you can’t just ‘incrementally learn’ this stuff off the base of your existing skills – you really need to do some formal learning to get started. This book is exactly what you need to get that start.
Want a more guided Power BI Learning?
Some of the complex concepts of Power BI and DAX are difficult to comprehend by mere self-study. You can enroll to my Supercharge Power BI Online training wherein you get
- a free copy of both my eBooks Supercharge Power BI and Supercharge Excel.
- online video lessons to understand the concepts that you can view again and again.
- access to discussion forum wherein you can participate and ask questions as well.