CALCULATE is by far the most important, useful, and complex function of the DAX language. In reality, the function itself is an easy one. It only performs a few tasks, but the number of scenarios where CALCULATE is necessary, along with the complexity of the formulas that can be written with CALCULATE, make a full chapter absolutely necessary.

By using CALCULATE, you can modify the filter context that evaluates a DAX expression. You can modify filters at the column granularity level, and you can replace or combine existing filters with new ones.

CALCULATE also generates a context transition when called in a row context. You will see some practical examples of using CALCULATE to calculate ratios and percentages. You will also find out that variables are not affected by CALCULATE.

You will be able to apply the same concepts to CALCULATETABLE, which is similar to CALCULATE but returns a table instead of a single value.

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