What AutoExist is, and what it does

In the previous section, we discussed how visuals are populated with data and calculated results. Typically, when using measures in a visual, more calculations are performed than what you get to see in the visual. Calculations are also needed to determine which data points should be presented.

This raises the question: how many calculations are being done? And is it possible to control that number? AutoExist is a Power BI feature that optimizes the number of calculations needed to populate a visual. In this section, you will learn how this is done.

Using multiple filters in a visual

To explain AutoExist, we create a table visual using two columns from the Customer table:

Figure 2.4.8: Table with Country and RetailType

As you can see from the table, there are some customers in Canada with the Limited retail type. In Australia, however, there are none. We know that when we add a measure to this table, we will not necessarily...