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Tag Archive: Power BI

  • Power BI Large Semantic Model Storage Format: Do You Need It?

    Power BI Large Semantic Model Storage Format: Do You Need It?June 15th, 2026 in Blog, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI

    If you’ve spent time in a Power BI semantic model’s settings, you’ve probably noticed the Large semantic model storage format toggle. Most people leave it off because they’re not entirely sure what it does or whether they actually need it. This blogpost breaks down what large semantic model storage format is, what it requires and the practical implications for your environment, so you can make an informed decision rather…

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  • There Is More Than One Way to Query Your Data: Have You Tried DAX?

    June 12th, 2026 in Blog, Data analytics, DAX

    Power BI is fantastic for building reports, but sometimes you just need to get data out of a semantic model quickly, without building a full report page to do it. However, what if you need to dig further into a specific snapshot of your data? For example: What if you wanted to pull a precise slice of data into Excel for a one-off analysis? Or maybe you’re building a bespoke report and want to make sure it’s using the same agreed…

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  • Supporting Future Talent Through Work Experience

    Supporting Future Talent Through Work ExperienceMay 6th, 2026 in News, school engagement

    We recently welcomed Christian to the Purple Frog team for a week of work experience, giving him a hands-on insight into life in a data and AI consultancy. During the week, Christian spent time across the business, joining meetings and working closely with team members to understand how different roles come together to deliver for clients. He also completed a Power BI project, presenting his work at the end of the week, and was introduced to the…

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  • Incremental Refresh in Power BI

    January 23rd, 2026 in Blog, Power BI

    The aim of an incremental refresh is to reduce refresh time by avoiding unnecessary reprocessing of historical data. Rather than reloading an entire table on every refresh, Power BI refreshes only the most recent period where new or corrected records are likely to appear, while retaining older data that is unchanged. Incremental refresh is based on two time windows: Retention (historical data): how far back data is kept in the model. Refresh…

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  • Using Synoptic Panel to Create Data-Driven Diagrams in Power BI

    January 20th, 2026 in Blog, PowerBI

    Introduction Power BI is fantastic for visualising geological data, with the latest Azure Map visual providing some further enhancements on top of previous map visuals (pathing, traffic layers etc.) However, what if there was a need to drill-down a little further into a location. For example: What if we wanted to understand how product positioning within a store might be affecting sales. Or maybe, we own a vehicle maintenance workshop and wanted…

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  • Is ETL now a Circular Process?

    December 24th, 2025 in Blog, Business Intelligence, Data analytics, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, PowerBI

    Traditionally, ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) has been a one-way journey. Data is extracted from operational systems, it’s transformed into a clean, structured format and then it’s loaded into a data store (typically a warehouse or lakehouse), rinse and repeat. But what’s after that? Business users build reports and dashboards and make a decisions from their insights, but the data itself never flows back into the systems where the work…

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  • How Power BI Totals are Calculated

    Tom wearing a black and purple Purple Frog Systems polo shirt, standing in front of a graphic background featuring hexagonal patterns and an image of hands using a calculator and laptop. Text on the image reads: “How Power BI Totals are Calculated.”October 1st, 2025 in Blog, Power BI

    When using Power BI visuals such as a table or matrix, they use a built in total column for your rows or columns. When using it, you may have noticed that the totals column sometimes doesn’t add up to a Grand Total as might be expected. It sometimes looks like the below screenshot:     From first glance, you can see that the “Total” column isn’t the sum of its row, as you might expect. So why is this the case? The “Total”…

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  • Fill Blank Rows With Previous Non-Blank Values – DAX

    Fill Blank Rows With Previous Non-Blank Values - DAXSeptember 5th, 2025 in Blog, Business Intelligence, Dashboarding and Reporting, DAX, Power BI, PowerBI

    Fill Blank Rows With Previous Non-Blank Values – DAX I want to see a value for everyday, whether a new value exists or not – lets call it tracking the members of a golf club. If there are no changes to the member numbers, I would have no movement figure on that day. If someone joined or left, the figure would be updated. Just because there are no changes, it doesn’t mean that there are no members on that date and therefore this day is…

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  • Narrate Your Data: Implementing Dynamic Alt-Text for Inclusive Reporting

    August 21st, 2025 in Blog, DAX, Power BI

    As Power BI Developers our aim is to make data insights accessible universally, so that everyone can make full use of their data and the insights it holds. Therefore it is critical to step out of our own shoes during the design process to ensure that what we build is inclusive to as many audiences as possible. In this blog I will explore how you can implement dynamic alt-text using DAX measures, which help people who are blind or have low…

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  • BLANK() Function Not Working As Expected

    May 1st, 2025 in Blog, DAX, Power BI

    Trying to handle blank values in Power BI… I needed a measure that would fill blank gaps across days where a value wasn’t present – I thought the BLANK() function would help me achieve this. My goal for the results of the measure is shown below: The logic is quite simple, if the value on that day is not blank, take that value. If it is blank then take the previous non-blank value. The first piece of logic is to get the date where…

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