Year to date with CALCULATE and DATESYTD
DATESYTD(Date[Date]) returns a table: the dates from 1 January to the last date in the cell. Used as a CALCULATE filter it replaces the date filters of the cell, because Date is the marked date table.
That form works for any expression, here units sold. A running total over all time looks similar, FILTER(ALL(Date[Date]), Date[Date] <= MAX(Date[Date])), but it doesn’t restart in January.
Your task
Complete Units YTD so that it returns the units sold from the start of the year to the end of the cell’s period.
About this exercise
You practise time filters as table filters with CALCULATE and DATESYTD. The exercise runs on a small bike-shop model with a Sales fact table and Product, Customer and Date dimensions, the same star schema in every lesson.
Your measure, Units YTD, fills a Power BI-style matrix grouped by Date[Year] and Date[Quarter]. As in a real report, each cell evaluates the measure in its own filter context, and the subtotals and the grand total are evaluated again in theirs rather than added up. When you check your answer, every cell is compared with the expected value, wrong cells are marked, and the hint is about the mistake you made.
Measures that already exist in the model: Sales Amount. Reference them in square brackets, for example [Sales Amount].
Where you start
Units YTD = CALCULATE(SUM(Sales[Quantity]), )The result to build
| Year › Quarter | Units YTD |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 713 |
| Q1 | 186 |
| Q2 | 347 |
| Q3 | 515 |
| Q4 | 713 |
| 2025 | 718 |
| Q1 | 162 |
| Q2 | 317 |
| Q3 | 522 |
| Q4 | 718 |
| Total | 718 |
Last updated 10 November 2026
Opening the exercise…