Power BI Basics Cheat Sheet
Covers Power BI's data model, DAX measures, star schema design, and common visuals for building interactive business intelligence reports.
2 PagesBeginnerMar 18, 2026
Core Concepts
The building blocks of a Power BI report.
- Power Query- ETL editor (M language) used to import, clean, and shape data before it loads into the model
- Data model- Collection of tables and relationships that Power BI queries visuals against
- DAX- Data Analysis Expressions; formula language for measures and calculated columns
- Measure vs. calculated column- Measures compute at query time based on filter context; columns compute once at refresh and are stored per row
- Report vs. Dashboard- A report is a set of interactive pages built from one dataset; a dashboard pins tiles from one or more reports
- Filter context- The combination of slicers, filters, and row/column context that determines what a DAX measure calculates
DAX Measures
Common measure patterns using CALCULATE and time intelligence.
dax
// Basic measure: total salesTotal Sales = SUM(Sales[Amount])// Measure with filter contextUS Sales = CALCULATE(SUM(Sales[Amount]), Sales[Region] = "US")// Year-over-year growthYoY Growth =DIVIDE( [Total Sales] - CALCULATE([Total Sales], SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR('Date'[Date])), CALCULATE([Total Sales], SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR('Date'[Date])))// Running totalRunning Total =CALCULATE( [Total Sales], FILTER(ALLSELECTED('Date'), 'Date'[Date] <= MAX('Date'[Date])))// Calculated column (stored per row, not a measure)Full Name = Customers[First Name] & " " & Customers[Last Name]
Common Visuals
Frequently used chart types in Power BI reports.
- Card- Displays a single aggregated value (e.g. Total Sales)
- Slicer- Interactive filter control on the report canvas
- Matrix- Pivot-table-like visual supporting row/column grouping and drill-down
- Clustered column chart- Compares values across categories, grouped side by side
- Line chart- Shows trends over a continuous axis, typically time
Pro Tip
Build a proper star schema with a dedicated Date dimension table marked as a date table - time intelligence DAX functions like SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR and TOTALYTD require a continuous marked date table to work correctly.
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