The Antares Alien

Power BI | DAX

Blarg! Here, I write about Power BI stuff in a fun and unique way. I also occasionally write about video game development. Thanks for checking out my blog!

4 Easy Steps to Building Your First Power BI Dashboard

Have you decided to use Power BI for your business's reporting needs? Or are you just exploring what Power BI can do? In this article, I'll

Brent Jones

Jan 23, 2021

What Skills Do You Need To Be A Power BI Developer?

In this article, I'll go over some of the main skills I think you will need as a Power BI developer.

Brent Jones

Aug 15, 2020

Power BI: How to Improve Refresh Speed

When working with Power BI, sometimes the refresh speed is excruciatingly slow.

Brent Jones

Jun 27, 2020

2 Easy Steps to Loop with Power Query! List.Accumulate()

Here's the situation: I have a list of values (text/string). I want to create one single concatenated string based on that list.

Brent Jones

Sep 23, 2019

Exploring "Overtourism" with Power BI (Part 1)

The alien walks us through a comparison of increases in tourism per country per year. Also go over some Power Query and DAX tips including A

Brent Jones

Jun 8, 2019

Power BI's "Automagical" Column From Example Feature (for any web page!)

Power BI has a somewhat hidden feature you may not have know existed - or maybe you knew about it but haven't given it a thought to try

Brent Jones

Apr 26, 2019

Power Query: Merged Tables, Aggregate and Non-Aggregate Values

Why Power Query doesn't give you the option to expand a merged table with both non-aggregate values AND aggregate values. Let's take

Brent Jones

Apr 8, 2019

Improbably Unhelpful Power Query / M Custom Functions that You Might Not Never Use.

This is a collection of Power Query / M functions that I've used in the past. I'm using this article as an open collection so that y

Brent Jones

Nov 24, 2018

Ease Your Mind With a Free Power BI Reference Guide!

Do you feel lost sometimes in Power BI? Don't worry! I compiled together some of the major areas of Power BI, Dax, and Power Query into

Brent Jones

Nov 17, 2018

Power BI: Top 10 Companies in GA - Plus Nested Queries

How do the top 10 companies in GA and their respective tax payment in 2018 line up? Plus, a look at nesting queries within queries.

Brent Jones

Nov 12, 2018

Power BI: Ultimate Guide to Joining Tables

There are three approaches to joining tables in Power BI. One is on the relationships page, another is with Power Query, and another with DA

Brent Jones

Nov 5, 2018

Power BI: Ultimate Solution to Parameters and Changing Data Sources

Changing a data source is done on the Power Query side of Power BI. This can be a bit of a hassle as you need to open up the Power Query edi

Brent Jones

Oct 31, 2018

Analyzing the "All Time Best" Video Games with Power BI

Are there any trends among top selling video games? I decided to tackle that question with some help from our good friend Power BI.

Brent Jones

Oct 12, 2018

Get Worksheet Data In the Current Workbook With Power Query

You may already be familiar with the "Get Data" function in Excel. You can use this feature to send data from your worksheet to Po

Brent Jones

Sep 21, 2018

Power BI: Creating a Function with Python

Read about how to create a Python function in Power Query!

Brent Jones

Aug 22, 2018

Power BI: Building a Digital Nomad Dashboard

Read about how to make a Power BI dashboard to help you make a decision on the best countries to visit for a Digital Nomad Excursion!

Brent Jones

Aug 20, 2018

Data Management: Power BI Data Types with M or Report Design UI?

Having the correct data types in your Power BI model is essential for a fast performing dashboard. For the most part, Power BI does this...

Brent Jones

Aug 15, 2018

Power Query: Preventing "The column of the table wasn't found" error

Read about how to prevent errors resulting from column name changing.

Brent Jones

Aug 13, 2018

How to Make a Cells Value a Power Query Parameter

Create easily editable parameters in Excel for Power Query to help your users. Use a named range in Excel for the query source. You can then

Brent Jones

Aug 9, 2018