I am on a quest and have been for a long time. I want to be good at M (the language used in the Power Query Editor) and DAX (the language used in the Power BI Desktop). It turns out that this is a non-trivial task. Not because these languages are a challenge to master (doh!), but because I have to figure out a way to tackle the process of learning these languages. I read all the documentation and that is helpful. But then I need to try out the technique. I usually start with a problem that I want to solve, and do it the long, inelegant way. Then I realize that there has to a better way, and I reach out to my friends at #SML (the discussion group I run). And they always deliver with a better solution, which I then have to try to understand.
In my blog, I am going to aim to write up the challenge, the inelegant solution (mine), and then the much more elegant solution(s) provided by my fellow #SMLers. This approach owes much to Ruth Curbal’s “25 Days of DAX”, in which she poses a question and people then provide a multiplicity of answers using a variety of techniques.
The key to this blog series is that I am learning M and DAX. There are plenty of incredible blogs written by experts who are already good at these languages, and I use these resources all the time. But I am writing from the perspective of someone who is trying to absorb the capabilities of both M and DAX. So if you are also someone who is trying to learn these languages, you might find my approach interesting.
I am starting this process using a dataset that I am putting together involving books. I will only use publicly available data sources. I will be posting individual files into my Github repository which you can access here: https://github.com/JBJ2110/DataAboutBooks.
If you are seeing this post on LinkedIn, be sure to connect with me. If you are seeing this on my website, head on over to LinkedIn and connect with me. I would love to hear how you are approaching learning M and/or DAX.