Chapter 12: Differences Between DAX and M
M is the mash-up functional language of Power Query. Its formal name is Mashup or Power Query Formula Language, and it is used to query many data sources, while Data Analysis Expression (DAX) allows functions, much like Excel, to work on data stored in tables.
In this chapter, you will learn the differences between the two languages as we will look at the properties of both DAX and M. We will discuss the DAX syntax to understand how formulas are constructed, as well as look at how to add a DAX formula in Excel. Toward the end of the chapter, you will learn how to create a calculated column to display the result of a formula in a new column, and create a measure to calculate aggregates.
We will cover the following main topics in this chapter:
- Learning about the DAX and M functionality
- Constructing DAX syntax
- Creating a calculated column
- Creating calculated measures