My Top 5 (Power BI) DAX Books 📚

[@jameszhou162]

Thanks Chandeep! I found learning DAX requiring continuous accumulation for DAX formula and rigorous practice. At this point, I learnt a lot from Marco thru KZbin videos and online learning courses to solve real life problems. I also think it is imperative to master DAX studio to analyze the efficiency of your DAX codes and comparing the SQL code as well to be an option expert in this domain. But again, it is nevertheless a laborious journey. 😊

[@brianjulius6401]

Chandeep - I have four of the five you recommended (all but the first Seamark book) and they are all great recommendations. I think the most recent edition of Matt's book (Supercharge Power BI) addresses all of your issues with his prior version, and I'd be very surprissd if that one didn't get a five star rating from you (it now even has a very cool cover....). Two others that I really like are DAX Cookbook by Greg Deckler and Extreme DAX by Henk Vlootman and Michiel Rozema. Both are intermediate level and above, and very focused on practical applications.

[@JavieRRcaRRi]

Hey Brian, would you recommend DAX Cookbook by Greg Deckler over Pro DAX with Power BI by Philip Seamark?? I follow you on LinkedIn haha i think your opinion is valuable for my next purchase. Algo Chandeep thank u so much for this book's guide.

[@brianjulius6401]

@@JavieRRcaRRi That a tough question, as both books are excellent but they attempt to do very different things. Phil's book deals with an assortment of conceptual topics that also have direct practical application. He does a great job in the beginning really delving into filter and row context, lineage and iterators. In the second part of the book he addresses some less common topics. I found the ones that Chandeep highlighted (What's Not There, and Query Plans) also particularly useful. Greg's book on the other hand is exactly what it says in terms of being a "cookbook" of over 120 different DAX "recipes" or patterns, ranging from time intelligence to transformations to financial calculations, KPIs, statistics and project performance. each one explains the approach and provides actual code snippets in both printed and electronic format that you can use and reuse. The book also includes probably the best chapter I've ever read on DAX debugging techniques. You really can't go wrong with either one, but I will tell you that other than the Definitive Guide, the DAX Cookbook is the one I use most frequently.

[@williamarthur4801]

Thank you for taking the time to reply, I'll take your advice, especially regarding the writing style , I thing their knowledge unequalled, but others, yourself included are often a better place to start on a giving aspect.

[@GoodlyChandeep]

All I am saying is embrace the difficulty while reading the book :) It is good book indeed.

[@udusegbe]

Great review! You demonstrated my exact reaction when I picked up my book ‘Definitive Guide to DAX’ in my early Power BI journey 😀. Wish this review had come to me about 6yrs ago 😜

[@GoodlyChandeep]

I'd still recommend to read the book even though it's difficult.

[@udusegbe]

@@GoodlyChandeep true - don't get me wrong. I'd recommend reading the book as a good resource but not as a (absolute) beginner as it gets intimidating. As someone steep in the DAX journey, the book is a great companion!

[@mohammedak8261]

Hi Chandeep, after watching your video i got the book by Matt Allington, and am loving it, thanks to you. 🙏Please recommend a book with a lot of practice exercises.

[@williamarthur4801]

I took your advice, having had M Allingtons book for a while , got the Italian's definitive guide , like it very much, I'm not sure I'll be reading it cover to cover, well not in a start to finish manner anyway, and not for a considerable time. you responded to my post about variables, it's things like this I've never quite understood, if I put (Change)=> I can then invoke from the table to be changed and select columns, but if (Change as table )=> then i can invoke directly from the function on to a selected table. Yes I can make them work , usually, but don't really understand.

[@blackberryyyyyy]

You should review books in terms of Beginner to Pro and number in chronology. Like 1,2,3,4,5 and so on. So that once can understand at their maturity level which book is good

[@joedi]

Phil lives in NZ (where I live). I have passed on your review to him via another person I know. I definitely enjoy your videos Chandeep and some of the finance ones have helped me too 😊

[@GoodlyChandeep]

That is awesome! Say Hi to Phil. Big Fan! And thanks for the kind words.

[@lionels839]

For me the best books for power BI beginners are: Supercharge Power BI and Power BI DAX simplified. The first one is perfect to know how. The second one is even easier to read and perfect to understand why. And a last one to get things done quickly is: The absolute guide to dashboarding and reporting with Power BI. I have created a nice dashboard in one week without even understanding everything in DAX. My next book will probably be Analyzing data with Power Bi and Power Pivot to optimize my data models. As for Power Query I believe Goodly channel is enough as it shows the very best of M for Data Monkey in an even smarter way.

[@bluetaurean]

Thanks for the recommendations. Was a bit surprised though that Marco and Alberto’s books were rated lower. I consider them the best in class on DAX. Like your work as well. All the best.

[@Lotaristo]

I guess the problem that it's quite hard to read and understand, i'm struggling with it right now.

[@morninglory8988]

@@Lotaristo was it your first book on power bi/ dax? Im trying to find one thats suited for begginers

[@Lotaristo]

@@morninglory8988 yeah, ma first one. Now I delayed with it for some time, but still don't know the best book for beginners. Yet videos are going enough to learn Dax and powerbi.

[@shipluhoque3441]

@@Lotaristo Matt Allington's book is the best for beginners.

[@llank]

I've been with Power BI and DAX for just 2 months and the Ferrari and Russo´s book is intimidating if you are a beginner. But they have videos on KZbin that are very didactic. Anyway, thanks for recomendations. Greetings from 🇨🇱

[@dhiraj3933]

Currently on 180 ish page on Definitive Guide. My expression is exactly like you being a beginner.

[@GrainneDuggan_Excel]

Thanks Chandeep for these recommendations!

[@janwillemvanholst]

There can only be one 5 star book: The definitive guide. I have been using it for years now. Every time you learn something. The rest of the books might be nice for the first few day with Dax, they don’t come near the definitive guide.

[@wayneedmondson1065]

Thanks Chandeep. Great advice! Like others, I would add Matt's latest Supercharge Power BI. Appreciate your recommendations and guidance. Thumbs up!!

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Right on!

[@martyc5674]

Great review- I have the first 3 and totally agree with you, I particularly Like Matt Allington's book, I wanted it to continue!! It is in such a great format and working through the problems gave huge confidence.. come on Matt, we need the next level book in the same format!! :)

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Totally agree!

[@cherianiype]

Great video and post Chandeep. I'll surely be checking out the books, especially the 2nd one. I've read the first one and concur w/ your feedback. Best wishes man! Cherian from AUH

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Thanks Cherian!

[@jkumar8590]

Highly enlightening work

[@zahoorsarbandi2982]

"Learn to write Dax" by Matt Allington is always getting 5 stars. I believe that every DAX learner must start from this book.

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Agree 100%

[@JavedAli-rt5xv]

Hi Chandeep- That was a great video for a person to start with Dax & surely I'll be adding all of them into my cart. Would really appreciate if you can suggest any books on Data Modelling / M.

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Sure!

[@sachin.tandon]

Hilariously edited video! Loved it!

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Thank you! 💚

[@lokeshsairam8300]

Hi Chandeep could you share about 3 step DAX evaluation process in a video

[@AnbarasuAnnamalai]

Chandeep, I have this book "Learn to write Dax" by Matt Allington.

[@mauricsdj]

Great video!!! Can you do a similar one with 5 books for power query/M language?

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Great suggestion!

[@brianjulius6401]

Unfortunately, I don't think there are five good books written on Power Query and M. I can only currently think of three. Chandeep - can you get to five?

[@martyc5674]

@@brianjulius6401 hey Brian- do you mind sharing the 3 you can think of?- I have Ken Puls book, would like to get one that focuses on M.

[@brianjulius6401]

@@martyc5674 Just did an extensive post about this on LinkedIn. KZbin won't let me post the URL, but if you just search my name you'll find it. Got all the book information, plus an exhaustive list of M resources on KZbin.

[@martyc5674]

@@brianjulius6401 thanks Brian!! -I’ll look it up - pretty sure I follow you there.

[@matthewmoore5923]

I am confused but is dax used in power query in excel ? I am not sure because everyone says dax and then uses power bi. If not do you have any good advice for power query books or classes ? I am looking at your class too

[@Roshini-h3u]

Amazing, Thank you so much :)

[@BhaveshKumar-dz8hq]

thanx brother u saved my time

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Pleasure!

[@BhaveshKumar-dz8hq]

@@GoodlyChandeep Btw after loosing confidence due to introduction to DAX by Russo, u helped me regain it quickly through ur suggestion of Supercharge BI by Matt, i m really indebted to u (btw i m from iitk)

[@srikanthc1246]

Hi Chandeep I am trying to buy the second book Matt Allington, but it is not available

[@vickydevtale4523]

For a beginner which book is good????

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Matt allington

[@shivasai25]

a beginner can start directly with "beginning dax with power bi" (Book 4)

[@ajeyarjun8718]

Hi Chandeep, Which level of basics we need to know to understand the beginning with dax the SQL pro guide to better business intelligence book by philip seamark

[@anilgondi1008]

Top 5 books for Power Bi pls

[@vinod71234]

Sir please explain Outlier & z-score in power bi

[@gauravguliani358]

Hi Chandeep, can you recommend your top 5 books as of now It's been a year, so confirming- thanks

[@williamarthur4801]

My DAX understanding seems to go three steps forward two steps back. Only the other day I found that ALL ( Table) , with a 2 column table returned all values not distinct , but when I added a third column it ; All ( table) in dax studo, returned the distinct values I would have expected ?

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Being able to investigate the underlying working is a big part of learning DAX. That's just the journey my friend. PS: 3 forward and 2 backward is a positive outcome. Keep going!

[@prashwanthreddy7416]

Where can I buy hard copy of this books I don't need soft?

[@Ychhenghak]

What books will you recommend for power query?

[@wildecorrea6477]

Awesome!!! 👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻🇧🇷

[@williamarthur4801]

Hello Chandeep, do you know if there is much difference between the The Definitive Guide to DAX, 2015 and 2019?

[@GoodlyChandeep]

I think a lot has been upgraded in the 2019 version, including the writing style has been made easier to understand. I'd recommend to go for 2019!

[@Robay146]

So, that's why you're so good 😏 Thanks for the recommendations!

[@williamarthur4801]

Thank you, i've been looking at books for a few weeks, and frakly it's confusing, I'm not a cmplete beginner but don't want to bite off more than I can chew. Do you have any knowledge of Matt Allingtons 'Super charge' bi and p pivot? As I wonder what the difference is, apart from the environment you're working.

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Buy Matt's book, you won't regret it.

[@martyc5674]

Hi William, this confused me aswell when i bought my first DAX book, the Supercharge version IIRC is the newer version of the same book. I got the older version and although it is excellent it was published in a time when measures were called calculated fields which just confused me further. (I can't remember exactly but measures were called measures i think when first released , then they were renamed "calculated fields" for a few years then back to measures again!

[@williamarthur4801]

@@martyc5674 Thanks, I'd pretty much made up my mind to get Super charge power pivot rather than the bi book as i'ts really measure syntax that I find confusing especially regarding the usd of CALCULATE and FILTER.

[@Bangloreblogs]

Chnadeep are there any channel you would recommend for dax from scatch. ❤️

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Pragmatic works has some really good beginner videos out there!

[@Bangloreblogs]

@@GoodlyChandeep much appreciated ❤️

[@mahmoudghazal2251]

could you please suggest books for power query and M

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Sure.. I'll make a video on that soon

[@777tmack]

I give this video ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@gurupradeep9648]

How many "particulars"

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Give me a "Particular" count 😂

[@gurupradeep9648]

@@GoodlyChandeep i cannot forget the "particular"comment 😂

[@ram-it.damn-it]

Good video to push one for subscribing the channel. Well, am a beginner in Power BI and I recently got a book by Ken Plus and Miguel Escobar-Master your data with power query in Excel and power BI. Would you like to review it?

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Master your data is a very good book. My Power Query learning has been mostly through blogs. I'll still make a video on my favorite resources on Power Query (M Language).

[@ram-it.damn-it]

@@GoodlyChandeep much appreciated. I can see lot of application of Power BI (Query, Pivot, BI) in my current role.

[@shafa7668]

Read Phil's book a little bit. Reading his explanation of context transition made to think that whether he himself understands this concept. No disrespect to the guy. It is me just being dump I suppose.

[@GoodlyChandeep]

See these 2 videos on context transition. It might help kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJy8qKqYbK5meLs kzbin.info/www/bejne/poWsY3SJnMqWfaM

[@deepsharma78912]

For me dax is so hard i have tried many times not able to learn properly dax

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Where are you getting stuck. Concepts or Application of Concepts?

[@chandramohan1418]

I downloaded the first three books(ebook) freely.Whereas yu brought all by paying heavy amount! Who is smarter?.thumps Down!

[@nareshkumarmani1284]

Where did u get

[@Wzxxx]

I wish you do a video about auto-exist in DAX and what to do with this problem (bug called a feature). After I read about this I think that most models procude wrong calculations. To prevent it you need to kill many good practices in modeling. Could You provide some videos about it?

[@Wzxxx]

Thx

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Any time