I’m very proud to announce the official launch of the DAX Patterns website!
I and Alberto Ferrari worked on this idea for a really long time. Many business scenarios can be solved in Power Pivot using always the same models, with just a few minor changes. This is especially true for the DAX formulas required. Sometime, you adapt the data model to the requirements and to the DAX needs. But many many times, you end up copying an old project, or an existing blog post or article, and try to adapt the old formula to the new data model. Sometime, you might lose time adapting details that were specific to a certain solution and do not fit well in your model. We just tried to put some order, giving names to common templates and creating more generic versions that can be easily adapted to specific requirements.
Finding the name for this project has been the easiest part: DAX Patterns is simple, clear and direct. I don’t know if it is so intuitive for an Excel user as it is for a programmer, but we loved this name since the first moment and we never thought to anything else.
The hard (and long) part is doing all the material job. Defining a format for each pattern, creating a web site, thinking about how to make the patterns easy to find. We based the search on the notion of “use case”. This should simplify web search.
Every pattern has this format:
- Basic Pattern Example: a very short and simplified application of the pattern in an easy example. You can understand the idea reading this short part, so you quickly realize whether the pattern might be good for your needs or not.
- Use Cases: a list of practical examples in which you can apply the pattern. You can also search patterns by use cases in the website.
- Complete Pattern: a complete and more detailed description of the patterns, with consideration about possible different implementations, performance, maintainability.
- More Pattern Examples: other implementations of the pattern, sometimes required to show possible applications in a practical way (use cases are just descriptions).
We already prepared many patterns that we will publish in the next weeks and months. This is still a work in progress, we don’t have all the patterns ready, but we reached a point where we have enough material to schedule for publishing while we are completing the job. Well, in reality I think we will never “complete” this web site, but we have a list of patterns we want to complete before publishing a book that will contain all of them, so that you will be able to have them also offline. In any case, we will look for new patterns based on feedback we gather from customers, students, readers. If you think there is a scenario you would like to be covered, write us a comment. I already have a list, but prioritization depends also on the feedback we get.
You will find only a couple of patterns now, but you will see the list growing weekly, and I will mention new patterns on my blog when they will be available. If you find a pattern interesting, feel free to mention/link it from your blog, newsletter, forum posts, tweets, and so on. This will help other people finding the pattern when they look for a solution to a problem that the pattern can solve. And, of course, let us know if you have any feedback to improve DAX Patterns!