One of the most talked about features previewed during the Microsoft Data Insights Summit in the previous June was the What-If Analysis capabilities. Today, this capability was finally released as part of the August update to Power BI Desktop.

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The What If Parameter feature allows you to dynamically perform what-if type analysis by using a slider bar to visualize changes to a calculation. This becomes a very flexible way to perform all kinds of different “what if” type scenarios.

In this blog post, I’m going to walk through setting up a simple What-If type scenario to dynamically change a Revenue Target calculation.

I’ll start with a simple Power BI report that displays Revenue by Date.

I’d like to add a line to the line chart to show the Revenue Targets. In my example, the Revenue Target will be based on a percentage of the previous years sales. So the first thing I need to do is create a Calculated Measure to calculate the revenue for the previous year. Here’s the DAX for the calculated measure:

Revenue Last Year = CALCULATE([Sum of Revenue],DATEADD(‘bi_date'[Date],-12,MONTH))

And if I add this measure to the line graph, we can see Sum of Revenue and Revenue Last Year side by side.

Now lets create the What-If Analysis functionality. In the Modeling ribbon, click the New Parameter button.

This opens the What-if parameter dialogue window. Give the parameter a name and select the data type. Specify the Minimum, Maximum, and Increment values. You can also specify a Default value if you would like. The Add slicer to this page check box will automatically create a special kind of slicer that is used to select a single value for your what-if analysis.

Once you click OK, a calculated table will be created based on your input values. The table is created with no relationships to any other table.

Also, a calculated measure was created in the new calculated table. This is the measure we need to reference in order to make our what-if calculation dynamic.

Next, I’m going to create a calculated measure that multiples Revenue Last Year by Revenue Target % Value. Here’s the formula for the calculated measure:

Revenue Target = [Revenue Last Year] * [Revenue Target % Value]

Now I’m going to add this new measure, Revenue Target, to my line chart. And now when I use my slicer slider bar, I can dynamically change my Revenue Target line on the chart!

I can move the slider bar to adjust the Revenue Target line. Also, check out the dotted line! That’s also a new feature this month! Very cool stuff!

Resources

What new in Power BI Desktop for August 2017
Download my Power BI Desktop file I used in this blog post

Feedback

Let me know what you think! Leave a comment down below and let me know what you think of the new What If Parameter and the other new features released this month!