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Day: July 16, 2025

Tips and Tricks with ALLSELECTED in DAX

Published 2025-07-16 by Kevin Feasel

Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari take us through a complicated function:

ALLSELECTED is among the most complex functions in the whole DAX language. ALLSELECTED is the only DAX function that leverages shadow filter contexts. Moreover, ALLSELECTED has a slightly different behavior when used in SUMMARIZECOLUMNS or inside an iterator. Using ALLSELECTED with SUMMARIZECOLUMNS mostly produces the expected result, whereas using ALLSELECTED inside an iterator can produce weird results. Mixing the two techniques is the perfect recipe for a problematic report!

In this article, we briefly describe ALLSELECTED features in both scenarios (SUMMARIZECOLUMNS and iterators), and then we provide the best practices about the function, showing an example where mixing the two behaviors produces an unexpected result.

Read on to learn more.

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Comparing Storage Options in PostgreSQL

Published 2025-07-16 by Kevin Feasel

Hans-Jürgen Schönig compares data sizes:

In this case study, we’ll delve into each of PostgreSQL’s main storage options, their characteristics, and the factors that influence their choice, enabling you to make informed decisions about your database’s storage strategy. You will also learn how you can archive data in a hybrid environment for long term storage. 

Click through for a comparison of two common file formats, plus two PostgreSQL-specific mechanisms for data storage. The comparison here is mostly one of final file size, though common query performance would be interesting to include as well, especially because the columnar data file types (Parquet and Citus-based columnstore) have a very different performance profile versus row-store data.

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Error Handling in Microsoft Fabric Translytical Task Flows

Published 2025-07-16 by Kevin Feasel

Jon Vöge continues a series on write-back in Microsoft Fabric:

In my pursuit of testing out Translytical Task Flows and User Data Functions as a write-back alternative to Power Apps, I’ve come to spent a good amount of time trying to debug those features as well. Especially since they have a tendency to throw pretty non-descriptive error messages your way.

For this week’s blog post, I’ve made a small write-up of tips and tricks for troubleshooting and debugging translytical task flows, as this was something I struggled a little with myself.

Read on for several tips around better testing and error handling within these functions.

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Ways to Debug T-SQL Scripts

Published 2025-07-16 by Kevin Feasel

Simon Frazer shares some tips:

At some point, every SQL developer or DBA will need to debug T-SQL scripts, either to verify that they behave as expected or to track down the root cause of a problem. Whether you’re building something new or investigating a production issue, debugging is an essential part of the process.

There are several techniques available for troubleshooting, and it’s important to approach this differently depending on whether you’re working in a production or non-production environment. Each environment has its own risks and constraints.

Click through for Simon’s process. I also echo Simon’s sentiments at the end regarding the SSMS debugger—I know people who are passionate about it and mourn its passing, but I was never one of those people. It was far too easy to get in trouble with it, especially in shared environments.

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Access Limits in Microsoft Fabric Workspaces

Published 2025-07-16 by Kevin Feasel

Brian Kernan announces a change:

In August 2025, Microsoft Fabric will introduce workspace access limits to improve service quality, reliability, and to encourage workspace access control hygiene. This limit will be permanent once it is rolled out – each Fabric & Power BI workspace will be limited to a maximum of 1,000 users or groups in workspaces roles (Admin, Member, Contributor, Viewer). A workspace with a group over 1,000 individuals will not be impacted by this change, the number of users within a group is not impacted. Additionally, workspaces that are overlimit at the time of access limit enforcement will remain overlimit, but no additional users or groups can be added until the workspace is under-limit.

I read this and I say “Hmm…” I’m not in a position where I could say that 1000+ users in a workspace is a bad idea that they’re protecting us from, or if it’s an implicit acknowledgement of failure to scale.

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