Eugene Meidinger explains the difference between M and DAX as languages using a cooking metaphor:
I like to think of M as this sous chef. It does all the grunt work that we’l like to automate. Let’s say that my boss asks for a utilization report for all of the technicians. What steps am I doing to do in M?
- Extract the data from the line of business system
- Remove extraneous
- Rename columns
- Enrich the services table with a Billable / NonBillable column
- Generate a date table
This is all important work, but I would have to do the same work for a variety of reports. Many of the steps tell me nothing about the final product. I would generate a date table for most of my reports, for example.
I think the metaphor holds.