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Syntax highlighting for DAX evaluation contexts

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Imke Feldmann's profile image

Imke Feldmann on 28 Nov 2017 22:58:27

Evaluation context and its transition is one of the hardest concepts in DAX and I would find it extremely helpful, if syntax highlighting would assist us here: Let the colour of the table name show whether the expression will be evaluated:
in a row context (so the table name represents the record/current row and a scalar value will be returned, Color: purple).
In a filter context (so the table name represents the (eventually filtered) table and a list of its column values is returned instead, Color: gold.
Ideally, it would also indicate if a filter is active or not (or can become active once the measure is used in a pivot table). So with an empty filter, there would be no syntax highlighting.

I've described this idea in my blogpost here: http://wp.me/p6lgsG-KI

Comments (2)
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Carlos Kynäslahti on 05 Jul 2020 23:16:47

RE: Syntax highlighting for DAX evaluation contexts

This is one of the most frustrating parts of using Power BI, the lack of a proper editor & syntax highlighting. Nesting functions gets very ugly very fast without this feature.

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Renaud on 05 Jul 2020 23:16:21

RE: Syntax highlighting for DAX evaluation contexts

I agree, remembering what each DAX function does, even after 1.5 year using power BI, is just not possible. Excel offers in-line help when typing a function, power BI should be able to do the same