Concat(DISTINCT Product, ', ')

Concat (string aggregation) in Power BI

Concat() joins values into one string. DAX has CONCATENATEX and Power Query has Text.Combine. The sort order and the duplicate handling are different from Qlik's defaults.

Direct equivalent DAX Power Query

Short answer: Concat(DISTINCT Product, ', ') becomes CONCATENATEX(VALUES(Product[Name]), Product[Name], ", ", Product[Name], ASC). Always pass the order-by argument.

What it does in Qlik

Concat([DISTINCT] string [, delimiter [, sort_weight]]) concatenates values over the records in scope. Without DISTINCT, duplicates are kept. When sort_weight is omitted, Qlik sorts the values alphanumerically.

Qlik example

Qlik chart and script

// chart
Concat(DISTINCT Product, ', ')
Concat(DISTINCT Product, ', ', -Sales)   // ordered by sales, high to low (sort_weight)

// script
LOAD OrderID, Concat(DISTINCT Product, ', ') AS Products
RESIDENT OrderLines GROUP BY OrderID;

Power BI equivalent

DAX measure

DAX

Product list =
CONCATENATEX ( VALUES ( Product[Name] ), Product[Name], ", ", Product[Name], ASC )

Products by sales =
CONCATENATEX ( VALUES ( Product[Name] ), Product[Name], ", ", [Sales], DESC )

Power Query (script equivalent)

Power Query M

= Table.Group(
    OrderLines, {"OrderID"},
    {{"Products", each Text.Combine(List.Sort(List.Distinct([Product])), ", "), type text}}
  )

Gotchas and behaviour differences

CONCATENATEX without an order-by argument has no guaranteed order. Qlik sorts alphanumerically by default.
VALUES(...) already removes duplicates (the DISTINCT part). To keep duplicates as Qlik does without DISTINCT, iterate the fact table: CONCATENATEX(Sales, RELATED(Product[Name]), ", ").
Qlik's alphanumeric sort and DAX's text sort can order mixed numbers and text, or accented characters, differently.
Nulls: Qlik's Concat ignores null values. Text.Combine also skips nulls (Text.Combine({"Seattle", null, "WA"}, ", ") returns "Seattle, WA"), but an empty string "" is kept and gives a doubled separator. CONCATENATEX includes BLANK rows as empty text, so filter them out (FILTER(VALUES(...), NOT ISBLANK(...))) to match Qlik.

Official documentation

Concat - chart function (Qlik Help)
CONCATENATEX function (DAX) (Microsoft Learn)
Text.Combine (Power Query M) (Microsoft Learn)
CONCATENATEX (dax.guide)

Only(Region) Only Only() returns a value when exactly one value is possible and null otherwise. In DAX that is SELECTEDVALUE, which also accepts an alternate result. Direct equivalent GetFieldSelections(Region) GetFieldSelections and GetSelectedCount GetFieldSelections returns the selected values of a field as text, often for dynamic titles. In DAX you combine ISFILTERED, VALUES and CONCATENATEX. Partial / different approach LOAD ..., Sum(x) RESIDENT t GROUP BY ... Group By in the load script GROUP BY in a Qlik load pre-aggregates a table. Power Query's Group by (Table.Group) is the direct equivalent. In Power BI you often don't need it at all, because measures aggregate at query time. Direct equivalent

Spotted an error or a better pattern? QlikToDax is maintained by a working BI consultant; corrections are welcome via the About page. Last reviewed 2026-10-25.