DAX Patterns
Ready-made DAX patterns for totals, ranking, percent of total, running totals, and Earned Value Management metrics — the calculations almost every report needs.
DAX Patterns
A handful of calculation shapes show up in nearly every Power BI report — totals that ignore filters, rankings, percent-of-total breakdowns, and running totals. This section covers the standard pattern for each one, ready to adapt. For systems and program engineering reports specifically, it also covers the standard Earned Value Management (CPI, SPI, EAC) metric set, the latest-value-per-item plus disconnected-axis pattern behind a risk matrix heat map, the before/after RPN and severity-override pattern behind an FMEA register, the covered-vs-verified bridge-table pattern behind a requirements traceability matrix, and the per-asset uptime pattern behind MTBF/MTTR reliability metrics.
Start Here
Totals
Grand totals, and totals that intentionally ignore certain filters.
Ranking
Ranking rows with RANKX, including ties and ranking within groups.
Percent of Total
Percent of total, percent of parent, and percent of a specific category.
Running Total
Cumulative totals over any sorted column, not just dates.
Earned Value Management (EVM) Metrics
PV, EV, AC, CPI, SPI, and the standard EAC/VAC/TCPI forecasting measures.
Risk Score & Heat Map
Latest-value-per-item scoring and a disconnected-axis matrix turned into a heat map.
FMEA & RPN Scoring
Before/after RPN comparison and a severity override for a Severity x Occurrence x Detection score.
Coverage & Verification
Covered-vs-verified through a many-to-many bridge table, without double-counting.
Reliability Metrics (MTBF, MTTR & Availability)
Per-asset uptime, MTBF, MTTR, and Availability % from a raw failure/repair log.
Where to Go Next
- CALCULATE — the function every one of these patterns is built on.
- DAX CALCULATE Modifiers Cheat Sheet — a fast reference for
ALL,ALLEXCEPT, and the other filter modifiers these patterns use.