Using Inactive Relationship to Fill Gaps in Data

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone,

I am trying to use an inactive relationship to fill gaps in my data. I have a fact table and a dimension table. There are two relationships, 1 active and 1 inactive, pictured below:

In my data table (Data), there are 2 columns: Contract # and Contract Collective #. My Dimension table (Contract Header) is joined to the Contract # so I can pull in the customer and vendor information associated with the Contract #. The combined data looks like the left table below (right table is my dimension table):

Note how on the bottom row, the Contract # and Contract Collective # don't match. What I want to do is that when the Contract # and Contract Collective # don't match and a null is returned for the vendor, I want to use the inactive relationship (which is based on Contract Collective #) to return the vendor for the Contract Collective # (which would be Samm's Club in this case). Can anyone help with this? 

[parry2k]

@Anonymous good to hear, I would recommend pasting the solution so that others I can get help from it.s

[parry2k]

@Anonymous share using one drive/google drive

[Anonymous]

It's all good, I found a solution!

[parry2k]

@Anonymous add a new column like this as an example for a vendor. 

In my example, the Customer represents your Contract Header table and the Table represents your data table.

Vendor 1 = 
VAR __vendor = RELATED ( Customer[Vendor] )
VAR __vendorIfBlank = 
IF ( COALESCE( __vendor, "" ) = "", 
    MAXX ( 
        Customer, 
        CALCULATE ( 
            MAX ( Customer[Vendor] ), 
            USERELATIONSHIP ( Customer[Column1], 'Table'[Col2]  ) 
        ) 
    ),
    __vendor 
)
RETURN __vendorIfBlank 

I would ❤ Kudos if my solution helped. 👉 If you can spend time posting the question, you can also make efforts to give Kudos to whoever helped to solve your problem. It is a token of appreciation!

[Anonymous]

I tried it, and I was unable to use COALESCE so I just used ISBLANK instead. This is what happened when I tried it: 

[Anonymous]

I changed my data table titles to match your use of them 

[v-shex-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

For your scenario, I think it may cause the 'circular dependency' reference issue due to the two relationships(activated and inactivated) mapping conflict.

In my opinion, I'd like to suggest you use all functions to ignore the filter and manually apply the filter to your expressions, it may avoid the 'circular dependency' issue.

Managing “all” functions in DAX: ALL, ALLSELECTED, ALLNOBLANKROW, ALLEXCEPT 
Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[Anonymous]

how so?

[v-shex-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

Can please share a pbix file with some dummy data with a similar data structure as the raw table structures? It should help us clarify your scenario and test to coding formula.

How to Get Your Question Answered Quickly 

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[Anonymous]

How do I add a file? I have a pbix, but I don't see an option to share it?

[v-shex-msft]

HI @Anonymous,

You can upload your file to onedrive for business and share the link here.

Notice: do not attach sensitive in the sample file.

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng