DAX Formulas for PowerPivot: A Simple Guide to the Excel Revolution

I've known Rob Collie (blog | @powerpivotpro) for over two years now, ever since he accosted me at TechEd in 2010. Since then we've met up at some SQL Saturdays, the 2010 PASS Summit, and we even collaborated on the computing power and hard dollar costs adjusted for inflation. And by "collaborated" I mean "I emailed Rob and asked him to show me what to do". And then he did. True story.When I read that post on Moore's Law again it made more sense to me this time. The reason why is because I just got done reading his most amazing book: DAX Formulas for PowerPivot: The Excel Pro's Guide to Mastering DAXWhen I opened the book to flip through the pages I will admit I was slightly disappointed in what I first saw: a bunch of formulas like CALCULATE(), DATEADD(), and COUNT(X). I thought "Oh, no, Rob has gone and written a book like all the other tech books out there, full of formulas and a desire to be like a textbook that it is likely never going to be." Knowing Rob this surprised me a bit and since I had already spent my money I figured I might as well start reading it anyway.I started reading his while sipping on my coffee this past Sunday morning. I was done with the book before lunch. Not because it was a short read, but because I just could not put it down.Rob walks you through what is essentially the training program he uses with clients that want to know how to use PowerPivot. He gives you step by step examples and ties everything back to clearly defined use cases. He mixes in some anecdotal stories along the way, too. Rob worked at Microsoft for many years and as a result he has many, many stories to share. I think the one about Steve Ballmer was my favorite.Not only does Rob walk you through formulas he also provides specific use cases and shows you the pitfalls that he has stumbled upon through the years. In short you get years of data analysis experience at your disposal in just a few hours of learning. Rob even has an "intermission" in his book where he tells you to "take stock of your new powers", and that you could close the book now and still be four to five times better than you were when you started. I believe him.Rob did something that I know other authors dream about: he wrote a technical book and made it seem human. He has an uncanny ability to communicate his thoughts and explanations in terms that others can understand. This is how technical books should be written.I can't recommend this book enough. It represents the future for data professionals. The future isn't about racking servers. It's about getting people access to the data they want, in a meaningful way, and quickly. As a DBA you are already very familiar with data: how it moves, how it's stored, how it should look. Take those skills and start learning how to apply them in a different manner.Soon you will find your skills in demand in a similar manner to Rob. There is a reason he is so busy these days.I've added a new shelf to my library named "Data Analytics and Insights" and placed Rob's book there along with a few others that I think you will find useful.Go have a look at your future.

First let me say that I read several technical books a month, and have reviewed them for Manning Publications on several occasions. So I have some pretty high standards that must be met before I give a book five stars.I am teaching myself PowerPivot for work, and have Microsoft® PowerPivot for Excel® 2010: Give Your Data Meaning which is very thorough, but this book is more helpful. It focuses most on what I know least about--Data Analysis eXpressions, or DAX. It begins with the assumption that the reader is an Excel power user, or "Excel Pro" as the author calls us. It therefore gets right into the material related to PowerPivot, without wasting time or space on things everyone who uses Excel professionally already knows.The author's writing style is entertaining, turning what could be a very dry topic into something you want to celebrate along with the writer. I love his side remarks, such as: "You will not see me create another implicit measure in this book. They are dead to me."My only complaint is a formatting one. Much of the text is in a green font that shows as a much lighter gray on the regular Kindle, making it hard to read. Even on the Fire I would have preferred a choice with more contrast.Despite that little annoyance, the book is a fast, enjoyable read with the information presented effectively and in an order that makes perfect sense to an Excel Pro. I am tempted to go ahead and buy a print copy just to have as a reference for my team, it is that good.

My use of Excel will never be the same. PowerPivot makes it possible to analyse data and create dashboards faster and better than I ever did. Rob Collie's book helped me tremendously in finding my way and I actually read the book almost from beginning to end.Alas, that's the only way you *can* use it on Kindle, it turns out: the Kindle version does not have a table of contents, so there's no way to immediately jump to a specific location. This fact renders the book useless as a reference book.(Dear publisher, please create an updated version with a proper ToC!)

I don't usually reference Monty Python in a book review, but this one is pretty darn close to the holy grail.I had been playing around with PowerPivot for a few months before I stumbled upon Rob's awesome blog ([...]) and considered myself ahead of the curve since no one else in my company had even heard of PowerPivot. I enjoyed his writing style, so I thought his book would be interesting and might help me fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge. Boy, was I wrong.As it turns out, I knew NOTHING about PowerPivot and what it could do. Rob truly has a gift for explaining things in such a way that makes it easy to understand without feeling talked down to. He walks you through all of the cool features and usually gives multiple examples of how to use each of them. I never thought I could be entertained by reading a book about an Excel add-in (although it's baked into Excel 2013), but this one managed to do just that. He also lets you know that it's okay to get excited about data and what can be done with PowerPivot.So, I would highly recommend buying this book if you have any reason at all to use Excel for your job. Rob can show you how to get noticed and become a data Rockstar. (that's a real thing...)