EARLIER for row context in Power BI - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

Sales data for employees with their departments and sales amounts.

Cell	Value
A1	Employee
B1	Department
C1	Sales
A2	John
B2	Electronics
C2	1000
A3	Jane
B3	Electronics
C3	1500
A4	Bill
B4	Clothing
C4	800
A5	Mary
B5	Clothing
C5	1200

Formula Trace

TotalDeptSales = CALCULATE(SUM(Sales[Sales]), FILTER(Sales, Sales[Department] = EARLIER(Sales[Department])))

Step 1: EARLIER(Sales[Department]) for row 2 (John)

Step 2: FILTER(Sales, Sales[Department] = "Electronics")

Step 3: SUM(Sales[Sales]) over filtered rows

Step 4: TotalDeptSales for John = 2500

Step 5: Repeat for row 4 (Bill)

Step 6: FILTER(Sales, Sales[Department] = "Clothing")

Step 7: SUM(Sales[Sales]) over filtered rows

Step 8: TotalDeptSales for Bill = 2000

Cell Reference Map

   A          B            C
1 Employee  Department   Sales
2 John      Electronics  1000
3 Jane      Electronics  1500
4 Bill      Clothing     800
5 Mary      Clothing     1200

Arrows:
- EARLIER references current row's Department in column B
- FILTER uses Department column B to filter rows
- SUM uses Sales column C to sum filtered rows

The formula uses the Department column (B) for EARLIER and FILTER, and Sales column (C) for summing.

Result

   A          B            C       D
1 Employee  Department   Sales  TotalDeptSales
2 John      Electronics  1000   2500
3 Jane      Electronics  1500   2500
4 Bill      Clothing     800    2000
5 Mary      Clothing     1200   2000

The TotalDeptSales column shows the sum of sales for each employee's department, calculated using EARLIER to keep row context.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does EARLIER(Sales[Department]) return when evaluating row 3 (Jane)?

A "Clothing"

B "Electronics"

C 1500

D Row number 3

Key Result

EARLIER returns the current row's column value to use inside a FILTER for row context comparison.