SUMMARIZECOLUMNS

Applies to: Calculated column Calculated table Measure Visual calculation

Returns a summary table over a set of groups.

Syntax

SUMMARIZECOLUMNS( <groupBy_columnName> [, < groupBy_columnName >]…, [<filterTable>]…[, <name>, <expression>]…)  

Parameters

Term	Definition
groupBy_columnName	A fully qualified column reference (Table[Column]) to a base table for which the distinct values are included in the returned table. Each groupBy_columnName column is cross-joined (different tables) or auto-existed (same table) with the subsequent specified columns.
filterTable	A table expression which is added to the filter context of all columns specified as groupBy_columnName arguments. The values present in the filter table are used to filter before cross-join/auto-exist is performed.
name	A string representing the column name to use for the subsequent expression specified.
expression	Any DAX expression that returns a single value (not a table).

Return value

A table which includes combinations of values from the supplied columns based on the grouping specified. Only rows for which at least one of the supplied expressions return a non-blank value are included in the table returned. If all expressions evaluate to BLANK/NULL for a row, that row is not included in the table returned.

Remarks

• This function does not guarantee any sort order for the results.

• A column cannot be specified more than once in the groupBy_columnName parameter. For example, the following formula is invalid.

  SUMMARIZECOLUMNS( Sales[StoreId], Sales[StoreId] )

• This function is not supported for use in DirectQuery mode when used in calculated columns or row-level security (RLS) rules.

Filter context

Consider the following query:

SUMMARIZECOLUMNS ( 
    'Sales Territory'[Category], 
    FILTER('Customer', 'Customer' [First Name] = "Alicia") 
)

In this query, without a measure the groupBy columns do not contain any columns from the FILTER expression (for example, from Customer table). The filter is not applied to the groupBy columns. The Sales Territory and Customer tables may be indirectly related through the Reseller sales fact table. Since they're not directly related, the filter expression is a no-op and the groupBy columns are not impacted.

However, with this query:

SUMMARIZECOLUMNS ( 
    'Sales Territory'[Category], 'Customer' [Education], 
    FILTER('Customer', 'Customer'[First Name] = "Alicia") 
)

The groupBy columns contain a column which is impacted by the filter and that filter is applied to the groupBy results.

With IGNORE

The IGNORE syntax can be used to modify the behavior of the SUMMARIZECOLUMNS function by omitting specific expressions from the BLANK/NULL evaluation. Rows for which all expressions not using IGNORE return BLANK/NULL will be excluded independent of whether the expressions which do use IGNORE evaluate to BLANK/NULL or not. IGNORE can only be used within a SUMMARIZECOLUMNS expression.

Example

SUMMARIZECOLUMNS( 
    Sales[CustomerId], "Total Qty", 
    IGNORE( SUM( Sales[Qty] ) ), 
    "BlankIfTotalQtyIsNot3", IF( SUM( Sales[Qty] )=3, 3 ) 
)

This rolls up the Sales[CustomerId] column, creating a subtotal for all customers in the given grouping. Without IGNORE, the result is:

CustomerId	Total Qty	BlankIfTotalQtyIsNot3
A	5
B	3	3
C	3	3

With IGNORE,

CustomerId	Total Qty	BlankIfTotalQtyIsNot3
B	3	3
C	3	3

All expression ignored,

SUMMARIZECOLUMNS( 
    Sales[CustomerId], "Blank", 
    IGNORE( BLANK() ), "BlankIfTotalQtyIsNot5", 
    IGNORE( IF( SUM( Sales[Qty] )=5, 5 ) ) 
)

Even though both expressions return blank for some rows, they're included since there are no unignored expressions which return blank.

CustomerId	Blank	BlankIfTotalQtyIsNot5
A		5
B
C

With NONVISUAL

The NONVISUAL function marks a value filter in SUMMARIZECOLUMNS function as not affecting measure values, but only applying to groupBy columns. NONVISUAL can only be used within a SUMMARIZECOLUMNS expression.

Example

DEFINE
MEASURE FactInternetSales[Sales] = SUM(FactInternetSales[Sales Amount])
EVALUATE
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS
(
    DimDate[CalendarYear],
    NONVISUAL(TREATAS({2007, 2008}, DimDate[CalendarYear])),
    "Sales", [Sales],
    "Visual Total Sales", CALCULATE([Sales], ALLSELECTED(DimDate[CalendarYear]))
)
ORDER BY [CalendarYear]

Returns the result where [Visual Total Sales] is the total across all years:

DimDate[CalendarYear]	[Sales]	[Visual Total Sales]
2007	9,791,060.30	29,358,677.22
2008	9,770,899.74	29,358,677.22

In contrast, the same query without the NONVISUAL function:

DEFINE
MEASURE FactInternetSales[Sales] = SUM(FactInternetSales[Sales Amount])
EVALUATE
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS
(
    DimDate[CalendarYear],
    TREATAS({2007, 2008}, DimDate[CalendarYear]),
    "Sales", [Sales],
    "Visual Total Sales", CALCULATE([Sales], ALLSELECTED(DimDate[CalendarYear]))
)
ORDER BY [CalendarYear]

Returns the result where [Visual Total Sales] is the total across the two selected years:

DimDate[CalendarYear]	[Sales]	[Visual Total Sales]
2007	9,791,060.30	19,561,960.04
2008	9,770,899.74	19,561,960.04

With ROLLUPADDISSUBTOTAL

The addition of the ROLLUPADDISSUBTOTAL syntax modifies the behavior of the SUMMARIZECOLUMNS function by adding rollup/subtotal rows to the result based on the groupBy_columnName columns. ROLLUPADDISSUBTOTAL can only be used within a SUMMARIZECOLUMNS expression.

Example with single subtotal

DEFINE
VAR vCategoryFilter =
  TREATAS({"Accessories", "Clothing"}, Product[Category])
VAR vSubcategoryFilter = 
  TREATAS({"Bike Racks", "Mountain Bikes"}, Product[Subcategory])
EVALUATE
  SUMMARIZECOLUMNS
  (
    ROLLUPADDISSUBTOTAL
    (
      Product[Category], "IsCategorySubtotal", vCategoryFilter,
      Product[Subcategory], "IsSubcategorySubtotal", vSubcategoryFilter
    ),
    "Total Qty", SUM(Sales[Qty])
  )
  ORDER BY
  [IsCategorySubtotal] DESC, [Category],
  [IsSubcategorySubtotal] DESC, [Subcategory]

Returns the following table,

Category	Subcategory	IsCategorySubtotal	IsSubcategorySubtotal	Total Qty
		True	True	60398
Accessories		False	True	36092
Accessories	Bike Racks	False	False	328
Bikes	Mountain Bikes	False	False	4970
Clothing		False	True	9101

Example with multiple subtotals

SUMMARIZECOLUMNS ( 
    Regions[State], ROLLUPADDISSUBTOTAL ( Sales[CustomerId], "IsCustomerSubtotal" ), 
    ROLLUPADDISSUBTOTAL ( Sales[Date], "IsDateSubtotal"), "Total Qty", SUM( Sales[Qty] ) 
)

Sales is grouped by state, by customer, by date, with subtotals for 1. Sales by state, by date 2. Sales by State, by Customer 3. Rolled up on both customer and date leading to sales by state.

Returns the following table,

CustomerID	IsCustomerSubtotal	State	Total Qty	Date	IsDateSubtotal
A	FALSE	WA	5	7/10/2014
B	FALSE	WA	1	7/10/2014
B	FALSE	WA	2	7/11/2014
C	FALSE	OR	2	7/10/2014
C	FALSE	OR	1	7/11/2014
	TRUE	WA	6	7/10/2014
	TRUE	WA	2	7/11/2014
	TRUE	OR	2	7/10/2014
	TRUE	OR	1	7/11/2014
A	FALSE	WA	5		TRUE
B	FALSE	WA	3		TRUE
C	FALSE	OR	3		TRUE
	TRUE	WA	8		TRUE
	TRUE	OR	3		TRUE

With ROLLUPGROUP

Like with the SUMMARIZE function, ROLLUPGROUP can be used together with ROLLUPADDISSUBTOTAL to specify which summary groups/granularities (subtotals) to include, reducing the number of subtotal rows returned. ROLLUPGROUP can only be used within a SUMMARIZECOLUMNS or SUMMARIZE expression.

Example with multiple subtotals

SUMMARIZECOLUMNS( 
    ROLLUPADDISSUBTOTAL( Sales[CustomerId], "IsCustomerSubtotal" ), 
    ROLLUPADDISSUBTOTAL(ROLLUPGROUP(Regions[City], Regions[State]), "IsCityStateSubtotal"),"Total Qty", SUM( Sales[Qty] ) 
)

Still grouped by City and State, but rolled together when reporting a subtotal returns the following table,

State	CustomerId	IsCustomerSubtotal	Total Qty	City	IsCityStateSubtotal
WA	A	FALSE	2	Bellevue	FALSE
WA	B	FALSE	2	Bellevue	FALSE
WA	A	FALSE	3	Redmond	FALSE
WA	B	FALSE	1	Redmond	FALSE
OR	C	FALSE	3	Portland	FALSE
WA		TRUE	4	Bellevue	FALSE
WA		TRUE	4	Redmond	FALSE
OR		TRUE	3	Portland	FALSE
	A	FALSE	5		FALSE
	B	FALSE	3		TRUE
	C	FALSE	3		TRUE
		TRUE	11		TRUE

Contextual SummarizeColumns

Background

Until February 2023, SUMMARIZECOLUMNS did not support evaluation within a context transition at all. In products released before that month, this limitation made SUMMARIZECOLUMNS not useful in most of the measures – it was not possible to call a measure SUMMARIZECOLUMNS in any case of context transition, including other SUMMARIZECOLUMNS statements.

From February 2023, the context transition was supported in a few scenarios, but not in all the conditions. The supported and restricted cases are as follows:

SummarizeColumns Type	External Filter with single column	External Filter with more than one column	External GroupBy Columns
SummarizeColumns with GroupBy only	OK	OK	OK
SummarizeColumns with Filters/Measures	OK	ERROR	ERROR

From June 2024, we are enabling contextual SummarizeColumns which allows SummarizeColumns to be evaluated in any context transition, SummarizeColumns in measure is now fully supported:

SummarizeColumns Type	External Filter with single column	External Filter with more than one column	External GroupBy Columns
SummarizeColumns with GroupBy only	OK	OK	OK
SummarizeColumns with Filters/Measures	OK	OK	OK

However, this update also includes changes to the behavior of SummarizeColumns, which may alter the results of existing expressions:

SelfValue semantics for external filters

We are introducing a semantic concept named SelfValue, which alters how filters from external tables interact with GroupBy columns in SummarizeColumns. This change disallows filters from a different table to affect the GroupBy columns, even if the tables are related through a filter-by relationship. An example illustrating the impact of this change involves the following expression:

CalculateTable(
  SummarizeColumns(
      'Reseller Sales'[ResellerKey], 
      'Reseller Sales'[ProductKey]
  ), 
  Treatas({(229)}, 'Product'[Product Key])
)

Before this update, the TreatAs filter would apply to the GroupBy operation within SummarizeColumns, leveraging the relationship between 'Product'[Product Key] and 'Reseller Sales'[ProductKey]. Consequently, the query results would only include rows where 'Reseller Sales'[ProductKey] equals 229. However, after the update, GroupBy columns within SummarizeColumns will no longer be filtered by columns from external tables, even if a relationship exists between them. Therefore, in the example above, the GroupBy column 'Reseller Sales'[ProductKey] will not be filtered by the 'Product'[ProductKey] column. As a result, the query will include rows where 'Reseller Sales'[ProductKey] is not equal to 229.

If you prefer to retain the previous behavior, you can rewrite the expression using AddColumns or SelectColumns instead of SummarizeColumns, as shown below:

CalculateTable(
    Filter(
        SelectColumns(
            'Reseller Sales',
            "ResellerKey", 
            [ResellerKey],
            "ProductKey",
            [ProductKey]
        ),
        And(Not IsBlank([ResellerKey]),  Not IsBlank([ProductKey]))
    ),
    Treatas({(229)}, 'Product'[Product Key])
)

This rewritten expression preserves the original semantics where the GroupBy operation is not affected by the SelfValue restriction introduced by the update.

Row validation for groupby columns fully covered by Treatas

Prior to this update, within a SummarizeColumns function, if all GroupBy columns from a specific table were fully covered by a single Treatas filter from that same table, as shown below:

SummarizeColumns(
  Geography[Country], 
  Geography[State], 
  Treatas(
      {("United States", "Alberta")}, 
      Geography[Country], 
      Geography[State]
  )
)

The result of the above query would include whatever rows were specified in the Treatas filter, regardless of whether they were valid or not. For instance, the result would be a single-row table ("United States", "Alberta"), even if no such row with [Country] = "United States" and [State] = "Alberta" existed in the 'Geography' table.

This issue was known and has been addressed by the update. After the update, such invalid rows will be filtered out, and only valid rows from the GroupBy table will be returned. Therefore, the result for the query above would be empty, as there are no valid rows matching the specified [Country] and [State] values in the 'Geography' table.

Disallow mixed Keepfilters/overriddefilters on same table/cluster

The recent update has introduced a temporary restriction that triggers an error message stating:

"SummarizeColumns filters with keepfilters behavior and overridefilters behavior are mixed within one cluster, which is not allowed. Consider adding keepfilters() to all filters of summarizecolumns." 

This error occurs when both normal filters (which override existing filters) and filters with KeepFilters specified are present within the same table/cluster. For example:

Evaluate CalculateTable(
  SummarizeColumns(
      Product[Color],
      KeepFilters(
          TreatAs(
              {( "Washington")}
              , Geography[State]
          )
      ),
      TreatAs(
          {("United States"), ("Canada")}
          , Geography[Country]
      )
  )
  ,TreatAs({("Alberta")}, Geography[State])
  ,TreatAs({("Canada")}, Geography[Country])
)

In the above expression, there are two filters on the 'Geography' table: one with KeepFilters specified and one without. These filters overlap with external filters on different columns. Currently, this configuration is not allowed because internally, the two filters are clustered into one, and the system cannot determine the correct filter overriding behavior for the clustered filter overall in such cases.

Please note that this restriction is temporary. We are actively developing solutions to remove this limitation in future updates. If you encounter this error, we advise adjusting the filters within SummarizeColumns by adding or removing KeepFilters as necessary to ensure consistent overriding behavior on each table.

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