? Top 10 DAX Functions Every Analyst Must Know

? Quick Overview

This page covers the Top 10 DAX functions used in almost every real-world Power BI project, explained from a trainer + industry perspective.

? Key Concepts

DAX calculations are mainly written as Measures
Measures respond dynamically to slicers and filters
One strong base measure simplifies the entire model

? Sample Practice Data

? Sales Dataset

// Sales dataset used in all DAX examples
Date,City,Product,Category,Sales,Quantity
2024-01-01,Pune,Mobile,Electronics,15000,2
2024-01-02,Mumbai,Laptop,Electronics,45000,1
2024-01-03,Delhi,Mouse,Accessories,5000,5
2024-01-04,Pune,Keyboard,Accessories,3000,4
2024-01-05,Mumbai,Camera,Electronics,35000,2

? Where to Write DAX

Open Power BI Desktop
Load Data
Go to Report View
Right Click Table → New Measure

1️⃣ SUM

? View Code

// Total company sales
Total Sales = SUM(Sales[Sales])

2️⃣ COUNT

? View Code

// Count numeric rows
Sales Count = COUNT(Sales[Sales])

3️⃣ DISTINCTCOUNT

? View Code

// Count unique cities
Unique Cities = DISTINCTCOUNT(Sales[City])

4️⃣ CALCULATE

? View Code

// Pune Sales only
Pune Sales =
CALCULATE(
SUM(Sales[Sales]),
Sales[City] = "Pune"
)

5️⃣ FILTER

? View Code

// Sales above 10000
High Sales =
CALCULATE(
SUM(Sales[Sales]),
FILTER(Sales,Sales[Sales] > 10000)
)

6️⃣ IF

? View Code

// High vs Low sales classification
Sales Category =
IF([Total Sales] > 20000,"High","Low")

7️⃣ SWITCH

? View Code

// Category code mapping
Category Code =
SWITCH(
Sales[Category],
"Electronics","E",
"Accessories","A",
"O"
)

8️⃣ AVERAGE

? View Code

// Average sales
Avg Sales = AVERAGE(Sales[Sales])

9️⃣ MAX

? View Code

// Highest sale
Max Sales = MAX(Sales[Sales])

? MIN

? View Code

// Lowest sale
Min Sales = MIN(Sales[Sales])

? Use Cases (REAL INDUSTRY SCENARIOS)

SUM / COUNT → KPI cards (Total Sales, Total Orders)
DISTINCTCOUNT → Unique customers, cities, products
CALCULATE → Region-wise, category-wise KPIs
FILTER → Threshold-based KPIs (High Sales, Loss Orders)
IF → Pass/Fail, Profit/Loss, Status flags
SWITCH → Grading, rating, banding logic
AVERAGE → Performance benchmarking
MAX / MIN → Best & worst case analysis

⚡ DAX Live Logic Playground

Select a function to see how it calculates results from the Sample Practice Data (Pune, Mumbai, Delhi).

Resulting Value 103,000

Logic: Adds all values in the Sales column (15k+45k+5k+3k+35k).

? Best Practices (VERY IMPORTANT)

Always create a Base Measure (e.g., Total Sales)
Reuse base measures inside CALCULATE
Prefer Measures over Calculated Columns
Use FILTER only when simple filters fail
Keep one business logic per measure
Use business-friendly measure names
Validate results using slicers

? Try It Yourself

Create Total Sales
Create City-wise Sales
Create High vs Low Sales
Create Category-wise KPIs