DAX’s back – Create DAX Measures in Excel 2013 without PowerPivot Add-in

I mentioned in my last post that it was possible to create DAX measures (and indeed Calculated Columns, KPIs etc.) without using the PowerPivot add-in but instead using AMO to do so. The facility has always existed in HAMMER but only as a hidden option that I often used to iterate quickly through a set of measure variations (or load standard sets) during model development; but I wasn’t 100% convinced it was worth the effort to make it more production quality in order to add it to HAMMER’s public interface. But, with the extraordinary removal of PowerPivot add-in as an option for all retail versions and all O365 SME versions of Office 2013, I decided to revisit the code and make it available as a new HAMMER command “PPMAKEMEASURES”.

This zip file contains an example of an Excel 2013 workbook (drawing data from a Northwind oData public feed) with DAX measures created by HAMMER rather than via the PP add-in.

The HAMMER formula and associated “list-of-measures” table can be found within.To use the formula on this, or another workbook, you need to activate HAMMER.xll (or HAMMER-64.xll, if using Excel 64bit) by either opening like a normal workbook (will not be installed as a permanent add-in) or put it in your add-ins folder and register as per a normal XLL (you can also use VBA’s registerDll functionality for automatic only-this-instance registering).

The first time you apply this method of DAX measure creation to a workbook, you should save, close & re-open the workbook; otherwise, you run the risk of the created measures being overwritten if you subsequently create an implicit measure (by moving a field to the Values section of a pivot table). If saved, this will no longer be a problem. If you use this in Excel 2010 you’ll always need to save,close & reopen in order to see the new measures. (Also, in 2010 you’ll need to precede any PP commands with the PPCONNECTION command e.g. =HAMMER(“PPCONNECTION”,Table2[#All],”PPMAKEMEASURES”) UPDATE: It appears you also need the PPCONNECTION in 2013 although I don’t appear to need it in my O365 version!).

To get a list of DAX Measures within a workbook use the PPLISTMEASURES command (e.g. =HAMMERToRange(“PPCONNECTION”,”PPLISTMEASURES,”Sheet2!A1″) will paste a table to Sheet2 starting at cell A1). The table will be in the format required by the PPMAKEMEASURES command and is intended as a quick way of transferring measures from one workbook (even if 2010) to another. (Note: this will list both implicit and explicit measures, best avoid creating implicit measures using this method!)

The table is position based (i.e. heading values not important, just as long as there is a heading line); columns represent – Table Name, Measure Name, DAX, Format and Visible. If the 3rd column, i.e. the DAX expression, is blank, the measure will be deleted, otherwise, any existing measures will be deleted and replaced with the new definitions.

This has only been tested against  O365 versiond of Excel 2013, retail versions may be different. I needed to hard-code the location of the AMO & ADOMD dlls (unlike 2010 they’re no longer in GAC and are not on a PATH – well, likely they are, but only in the virtual file system now used by Office).

The location for the AMO library for 32bit O365 Home Premium is  “C:/Program Files/Microsoft Office 15/root/vfs/ProgramFilesCommonX86/Microsoft Shared/OFFICE15/DataModel/Microsoft.Excel.AMO.dll” let me know if your setup is different. (UPDATE: As Marco discovered, enterprise and most likely retail versions do not use VFS, I‘ll post a fix to this tomorrow). UPDATE: PATH issues with none O365 versions should now be fixed.

If you’re a SME or sole-trader and you intend to use PowerPivot extensively you really need to purchase (as I have) the O365 Professional Pro subscription for your “datasmiths”. The rest of your crew can use Retail or O365 offerings (as they can still “consume” DAX powered models). But if, for some reason, you can’t or won’t purchase ProPlus, or you just want to take advantage of the fast build-redesign-build cycle offered by PPMAKEMEASURES, then hopefully, this will be of use.

Oh, and Happy St. Patrick’s day!