A DAX function that turns a value into text according to a format string, for instance "MMMM" to show a month's name. Since the output is text, numeric operations can't use it, and dynamic format strings were introduced to get around that.
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In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains FORMAT in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- DAX
Short for Data Analysis Expressions, the formula language you write measures, calculated columns and row-level security rules in, within tabular semantic models in Power BI, Excel Power Pivot or Analysis Services.
- MONTH
A DAX date function giving a date's month as a whole number, where 1 is January and 12 is December.
- Get
Key Vault permission on secrets that allows a single secret to be read; App Service Key Vault references need nothing beyond it.
Related terms
- AGENTS.md
A Markdown file format, recognised across different AI coding agents, for telling them how to behave. Copilot on GitHub looks for
AGENTS.mdfiles in a repo; SSMS looks for extended properties of that name on database objects and follows them. - Alt text
A short written description (250 characters at most) attached to a visual, image, shape or text box so that screen-reader users hear what it shows. You enter it under General in the Format pane, and conditional formatting can make it change with the data.
- Apache Avro
Compact binary data format organised by rows; Event Hubs Capture produces its files in this format natively.
- Apache Iceberg
An open table format. Besides Delta, it is one of the formats Unity Catalog offers for managed tables, and other engines can work with those managed Iceberg tables over Iceberg's REST catalog interface.
- APK
The package format used to install Android apps. Intune can push an APK as a line-of-business app, as a private app in Managed Google Play, or straight to fully managed and dedicated devices.
- Audio + human-labeled transcript data
Training material for custom speech: recordings in mono 16-bit PCM WAV (RIFF) format at 8 or 16 kHz, zipped up together with a plain-text file listing each recording's name alongside what was said.
- Avro
An Apache file format that stores rows: a JSON header describes the layout, followed by record blocks held as binary. It compresses well, cutting storage needs and bandwidth.
- Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus
Metrics in Prometheus format land in Azure Monitor workspaces rather than Log Analytics ones, with Microsoft running the whole service.