Best Introduction to DAX Book?

[tyleharris]

Hello all,

I'm trying to use DAX more and more in my job and I've been struggling to grasp it, so I feel a good introduction book is in order. I've done some reading around and narrowed it down to the following books:

Learn to Write DAX: A pratical guide
Supercharge Power BI
Supercharge Excel
Power Pivot and Power BI: The Excel User's Guide to DAX, Power Query, Power BI & Power Pivot in Exce...

I'd eventually like to get a copy of the  Definitive Guide to DAX as it seems like a no brainer for more advanced DAX learning.

However, my question is - which of the books listed is best for an update-to-date introduction on DAX? Learn to Write DAX I assume might be more dated as compared to the Supercharge books? If so, which of the Supercharge books would be more useful? I currently use Excel and Power BI about 50/50. Lastly, where does Power Pivot and Power BI fall into the ranking? Or are they all pretty good and it's just a matter of just choosing one?

Thanks all!

[Anonymous]

@tyleharris, 

The Definitive Guide to Dax is the best book for learning DAX. The other books only go through examples of how to use DAX, but this book goes into more details how DAX works and the underlying concepts, you might have to reread a chapter several time to grasp a concept. Learning DAX through theory and concepts is more important than learning it through examples. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

While I will full agree that the Definitive Guide to DAX is, well, the definitive guide to DAX I would be extremely hesitant to say it falls into the Introduction category. For that I would recommend Rob Collie's book:

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Pivot-BI-Excel-2010-2016/dp/1615470395

He presents some complex topics in an easy to read and dare I say fun manner. After you get through that I would then pick up the Definitive Guide. Though there is a new version in the works, so I'd wait to pick that up if that was me.