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From here on out, we will be using DACS to create new columns, measures and generally extend our power

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pivot capabilities.

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Now, before you get too scared and jump ship, because maybe you're not a programmer, while DACS may

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be a language if you've ever written and an Excel formula, then you've basically written DACS.

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Now that stands for data analysis expression's.

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Basically, it's really just a fancy name for formulas.

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It doesn't consist of big long text files with crazy object oriented stuff like you might have to do

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with C Sharp.

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And it's not a scripting language like VPA or Ruby.

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I mean, I guess technically there's something to it behind the scenes.

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But for what you and I will be doing, it's just formulas.

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Some of the formulas will be longer than others and the formulas can be written more nicely than Excel

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formulas with spacing in the dense and such so that they're more readable.

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But at the end of the day, we're just talking about Excel formulas with a few different rules involved.

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So to start, let's discuss some basic concepts here in Excel.

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DACs, just like Excel, supports common arithmetic formulas like plus minus times and so on.

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So on a formula we can write something like equals five times two to get the value ten.

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Now a large portion of DACs will involve using functions.

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Most of it, in fact, functions consist of the name of the function, such as if followed immediately

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by a parentheses with no space.

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This is called opening the function.

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Once you've opened the function, you can pass information in through parameters.

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Functions can have a fixed number of parameters, such as our function, which has three with the specific

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order and specific requirements for each.

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Some other functions will have optional or even an unending parameters list.

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A good example of this in Excel is the sum function we can at any number of inputs to the sum function

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to total them all together.

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We can add a list, sells individual cells, fixed numbers and on and on.

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Now, optional parameters are those parameters that can be included or excluded to modify the outcome

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of a function.

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These are typically denoted with square brackets around the parameter name.

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So, for example, if we look at the V look up function, there are three required inputs and then one

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optional input.

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At the end, optional inputs for functions will always occur at the end of the parameter list.

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Some functions will allow for the use of an unending pattern of inputs.

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The sothis function is a good example.

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The function takes one input that's required and then pairs of inputs together until you've provided

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enough inputs to solve your problem, so you'd have to put in three, five, seven, nine and on and

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on combinations of parameters to use the Sonmez function where each one is a pattern of a range, followed

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by a criteria.

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DACs functions will follow these same types of rules and details.

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For the most part, they use essentially the same syntax.

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Many of the function names will even match cells function names.

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Really, if you have any experience with Excel formulas, you should pick up DACs very quickly.

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But if not, we'll be working from the ground up within Daks and you'll learn along the way.