Build DAX Measures for Power BI Analysis

Course description

This course walks learners from the foundations of DAX to the core engines and functions that drive real‑world Power BI analytics. It begins by explaining that DAX is how Power BI “thinks,” and clarifies the critical difference between implicit measures (auto‑generated, not reusable) and explicit measures (written, governed, reusable). Learners see why explicit measures are essential for a scalable semantic model. Next, the course introduces the two calculation engines: the aggregator engine (SUM, AVERAGE) and the iterator engine (SUMX, AVERAGEX, FILTER). Through scenarios, it shows when simple aggregators fail and why iterators like SUMX and AVERAGEX are required for row‑level logic such as profit margin calculations. The lessons then cover DISTINCTCOUNT for unique customer, product, and order analytics. Finally, the course introduces conditional logic with the IF function and demonstrates building multiple targeted measures using IF + SUMX to filter sales by product. Overall, the series builds a practical, business‑focused understanding of DAX—moving from basic measures to iterators, unique counts, and conditional logic—preparing learners to create reusable, analytical Power BI models. The course has an accompanying set of Power BI files that can be downloaded by the user. One titled Starter, that can be used in the exercises throughout the course, and another titled Completed which is a working example of the dashboards after they have been built and edited visually.

Course outline