With this Power BI Desktop option switched on, each date column in an Import table gets its own concealed date table, unless the column sits on a relationship's many side. That suits basic models, yet it inflates model size and prevents one shared date table from filtering several fact tables.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Auto date/time in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Power BI Desktop
A free Windows program where authors connect to sources, shape and model data, and design reports before publishing them to the Power BI service. Dashboards are not made here.
- Event
Table in Log Analytics where entries from Windows event logs are kept.
- Date table
Lets you slice and group facts by period. It lists every calendar day of the years it covers exactly once, with nothing skipped, and classic DAX time intelligence only works after it has been marked as a date table.
- Basic
Low-cost Log Analytics table plan where ingestion is cheap but each query is charged per GB and runs at workspace scope. Full KQL and simple log search alerts are supported; standard log search alerts are not.
Related terms
- Data reduction
Microsoft's recommendations for keeping Power BI Import models lean: get rid of unnecessary rows and columns, aggregate where you can, choose compact data types, do column calculations in Power Query rather than DAX, and switch off auto date/time.