Why intermediate DAX solves business questions in Power BI - Formula Trace Breakdown

Sample Data

Sales and cost data for three products

Cell	Value
A1	Product
B1	Sales
C1	Cost
A2	Apples
B2	100
C2	60
A3	Bananas
B3	150
C3	90
A4	Cherries
B4	200
C4	120

Formula Trace

Profit = SUM(Sales) - SUM(Cost)

Step 1: SUM(Sales)

Step 2: SUM(Cost)

Step 3: SUM(Sales) - SUM(Cost)

Cell Reference Map

    A       B       C
1 Product  Sales   Cost
2 Apples    100     60
3 Bananas   150     90
4 Cherries  200    120

Sales values in B2:B4 and Cost values in C2:C4 are used in the formula.

The formula uses the Sales column (B2:B4) and Cost column (C2:C4) to calculate profit.

Result

    A       B       C       D
1 Product  Sales   Cost   Profit
2 Apples    100     60     
3 Bananas   150     90     
4 Cherries  200    120     
5                      180

Profit is shown as the total of sales minus total of cost in cell D5.

The final profit value 180 is displayed below the data, showing total profit from all products.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What is the total sales value used in the formula?

A 450

B 270

C 180

D 100

Key Result

SUM(Column1) - SUM(Column2) calculates total difference between two columns.