I have joined the ranks of folks across the PBI modeling globe that have been bitten by the problem of - as of the Feb 2025 update - a " Measures" table in an import or composite model report cannot be opened in #PowerBI Desktop.
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Gina, it's so nice to see a Power BI post here! That's an interesting problem, what a pain! I'll include it my list of reasons to never, ever, use a space in a dataname. With attribution, of course 👍😁. Did you replace with underscore?
Yeah, the models already existed at my current gig with the Measures name, presumably _Measures will still be an OK way to force the table to the top. "Measure" singular would work too but that's less clear. Pattern chatter varies, just wish this wasn't a breaking change.
Yeah what a pain. I have some bias against measures tables anyway, I don't think they are semantic. I think the measure belongs with the fact table. I'm in a bit of a minority witth this 🤣
I can argue both side on that one but I know what you mean. Per the Mindtree ticket I opened in faint hope of good news, apparently this issue has been acknowledged as a bug by Microsoft so we may get a fix. I'm happy to change pattern in future models, hopefully can avoid scramble on existing.
And TIL - on a non-prod model of course - that renaming the table in the model via the Power BI service does NOT fix the original model report tied to it. Power BI Desktop table rename handles this, Power BI service table rename does not. So here's hoping for a fix.
I find I alternate depending on the project. Ig I'm likely to have a lot of measures I go with a measures table, sometimes even multiple measures tables. If there are only going to be a few I do it your way.
I realise that's probably the worst of both approaches, but it seems to make sense to me.
I thought there was some kind of magic that floated them to the top anyway (can't remember the mechanics of it right now)? Or is this a relatively new feature and these are older reports? Or is it just late and my brain is so tired it's started making things up?
I've seen such magic murmured about in forum posts but don't know how it shakes out when you have people accessing from Excel (calm down people, you know that's a necessary path). And frankly if "it depends" is your answer for measure tables, that's as legit an answer as you'll find anywhere.
I’ve always used MyMeasures and the idea of calling it anything else after 10+years is unsettling. I even tried TheMeasures the other day but I couldn’t deal 😂
:: don't know how it shakes out when you have people accessing from Excel
That's a good point. At my current org no-one really wants to take the stuff I produce and delve into deeper for themselves, so it's not something I've had to consider. I probably will need to in future though.
Astonishingly the Microsoft Store has an update for this and I've confirmed the fix. Check to see if it has flowed to you, version is 2.140.1205.0 64-bit (February 2025). If you open the Microsoft Store and search for / open the Power BI Desktop app, that seems to trigger the update sooner.
...renaming the table to _Measures or whatever and then fixing alllllll the thin client reports via a crash course in Semantic Link Labs. But gosh this seems a lot more like a bug than a purposeful #PowerBI feature. A head's up on this would have been ideal @powerbi.bsky.social
Astonishingly the Microsoft Store has an update for this and I've confirmed the fix. Check to see if it has flowed to you, version is 2.140.1205.0 64-bit (February 2025). If you open the Microsoft Store and search for / open the Power BI Desktop app, that seems to trigger the update sooner.
Yes definitely! Just FFR because i have encountered dozens and dozens of scenarios where renaming breaks reports. Ive seen junior consultants literally waste weeks on this task.
Oh yes, I'm going to test this in a smaller scale and *absolutely* leverage for some semantic model migrations in future. Because the horrific pain of changing in the past meant that you were doomed to keep the "oops, we should have named that better" attributes & measures FOREVER. ;)
Someone must have introduced a trim function to validate reserved words because Measures worked just fine for a long time. Can we rename the table? Sure, if we're willing to go through the pain of uninstalling, combing the internet for the Nov 2024 version and installing it...
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I realise that's probably the worst of both approaches, but it seems to make sense to me.
Only real downside is drill through in linked pivot tables is not possible if the measure is in a measures table
It is odd how wedded we are to calling the table Measures.
Hadn't realised that about "drill through in linked pivot tables", though. Thanks.
:: don't know how it shakes out when you have people accessing from Excel
That's a good point. At my current org no-one really wants to take the stuff I produce and delve into deeper for themselves, so it's not something I've had to consider. I probably will need to in future though.
From an F2 you can reach all workspaces including pro and ppu
Shouting for a decade now lol