Power Pivot Principles: The A to Z of DAX Functions – COT

In our long-established Power Pivot Principles articles, we continue our series on the A to Z of Data Analysis eXpression (DAX) functions.  This week, we look at COT.

The COT function

Here’s one to crib for.  This function returns the cotangent of the given angle.  For those of you who don’t find trigonometry riveting you really shouldn’t be so obtuse, but the cotangent is the inverse of the tangent function, i.e. it calculates the ratio of the adjacent side of a triangle divided by the opposite side (subject to sign considerations), viz.

The COT function employs the following syntax to operate:

The COT function has the following arguments:

• number: this is required and represents the angle in radians for which you want the cotangent.

It should be further noted that if the angle is in degrees, you should multiply the angle by PI()/180 or else use the RADIANS function to convert the angle to radians.  Furthermore:

• The absolute value of number must be less than 2^27 and cannot be zero [0]
• If number is outside its constraints, an error is returned
• If number is a non-numeric value, an error is returned.

Please see my example below: 

You might want to sleep on this function…

Come back next week for our next post on Power Pivot in the Blog section.  In the meantime, please remember we have training in Power Pivot which you can find out more about here.  If you wish to catch up on past articles in the meantime, you can find all of our Past Power Pivot blogs here.