Date Table in Power BI

[riazahmedshaik]

Hi, I'm very new to Power BI. I have a basic question on date table. Why do we need a date table to use time intelligence functions in Power BI? Why can't we use the existing date in the table (Eg: order date in this example) ?

Thanks,

[amitchandak · Accepted solution]

@riazahmedshaik , if it has a continuous date you can. Date should be unique.

Refer I used a date table from the database. Right-click on table and marked that as a date table.

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/Decoding-Direct-Query-in-Power-BI-Part-1-Time-Intell...

You want to create new

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/Creating-Financial-Calendar-Decoding-Date-and-Calend...

[v-rzhou-msft]

Hi @riazahmedshaik 

Could you tell me if your problem has been solved? If it is, kindly Accept it as the solution. More people will benefit from it. Or you are still confused about it, please provide me with more details about your table and your problem or share me with your pbix file from your Onedrive for Business.

Best Regards,

Rico Zhou

[v-rzhou-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @riazahmedshaik 

In addition to  amitchandak's reply, due to the date in your fact table, many times are not unique or continuous.

So when you need to use a continuous date table to build time intelligence functions in power bi like YTD, you need to build a continuous date table which has unique date in it by dax:

Calendar([Start date],[End date]) OR Calendarauto() Function.

Click link for more info: Calendar() OR Calendarauto()

More info of calendar function: CALENDAR and CALENDARAUTO in Power BI

                                                   Calculating MTD, QTD, YTD, Running and Cumulative Total in Power BI 

                                                   Secret of Time Intelligence Functions in Power BI 

Best Regards,

Rico Zhou

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. 

[amitchandak · Accepted solution]

@riazahmedshaik , if it has a continuous date you can. Date should be unique.

Refer I used a date table from the database. Right-click on table and marked that as a date table.

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/Decoding-Direct-Query-in-Power-BI-Part-1-Time-Intell...

You want to create new

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/Creating-Financial-Calendar-Decoding-Date-and-Calend...