Understanding fields

Fields in Power BI include columns and measures. We generally refer to both columns and measures when we talk about fields. For instance, when we talk about fields’ data types, we refer to the data types for both columns and measures. The Fields term is used within Power BI Desktop in different views, so there is a Fields pane in the Report view, the Data view, and the Model view.

Data types

When we import data into the model, the model converts that data, in columns, into one of the Tabular Model data types. When we then use the model data in our calculations, the data is converted into a DAX data type for the duration of the calculation. The model data types are different from Power Query data types. For instance, in Power Query, we have DateTimeZone. However, the DateTimeZone data type does not exist in the data model, so it converts into DateTime when it loads into the model. The following table shows the different data types supported in the...