Power Pivot Principles: The A to Z of DAX Functions – INFO.VIEW.TABLES

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 INFO.VIEW.TABLES.

The INFO.VIEW.TABLES function

The INFO.VIEW.TABLES function is one of the information functions.  It returns a table with information about each table in the current model.  It operates using the following syntax:

The INFO.VIEW.TABLES function does not take any arguments.

Here are a few remarks about the INFO.VIEW.TABLES function:

• the INFO.VIEW functions can be run in calculated tables, columns, measures and DAX queries
• it can only be run by users with write permission on the semantic model and not when live connected to the semantic model in Power BI Desktop
• it can be used in calculated tables, columns and measures of a semantic model
• it will update when the model is refreshed
• in DAX Studio, the user can join different DMV tables to get the same table produced by INFO.VIEW.TABLES.

We can write this INFO.VIEW.TABLES function in the DAX query view to get the information of the table:

It will return an entire table with 13 columns:

The function of each column is as follow:

• ID: this is the unique ID for each column in this semantic model as an integer
• Name: this is the name of each column in this semantic model as a string
• Model: this is the relationship's semantic model ID, usually a GUID
• DataCategory: this is the data category of each table in this semantic model as a string
• Description: this is the description of each table in this semantic model as a string
• IsHidden: this is the hidden state of each table in this semantic model as True or False
• StorageMode: this is the storage mode of each table in this semantic model as a string
• TableStorage: this is the name and unique ID of each table in this semantic model as a string
• Expression: this is the DAX formula of each table in this semantic model as a string.  Only applies to calculated tables
• ShowAsVariationOnly:  this is the show as variation only state of each table in this semantic model as True or False
• IsPrivate: this is the private state of each table in this semantic model as True or False
• CalculationGroupPrecedence: this is the calculation group precedence of each table in this semantic model as an integer.  This only applies to calculation groups
• LineageTag: this is the lineage tag of each table in this semantic model as a string.

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.