Managing RLS in Service in Power BI - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

This table shows users and their assigned regions for Row-Level Security (RLS) in Power BI Service.

Cell	Value
A1	User
B1	Region
A2	Alice
B2	North
A3	Bob
B3	South
A4	Carol
B4	East
A5	Dave
B5	West

Formula Trace

USERNAME() = "Alice" && [Region] = "North"

Step 1: USERNAME()

Step 2: [Region]

Step 3: USERNAME() = "Alice"

Step 4: [Region] = "North"

Step 5: TRUE && TRUE

Cell Reference Map

    A       B
1 | User  | Region
2 | Alice | North  <-- USERNAME() matches 'Alice', Region is 'North'
3 | Bob   | South
4 | Carol | East
5 | Dave  | West

The formula uses USERNAME() to get the current user and compares it to 'Alice'. It also checks the Region column in the current row.

Result

    A       B
1 | User  | Region
2 | Alice | North  <-- Visible to Alice
3 | Bob   | South  <-- Not visible to Alice
4 | Carol | East   <-- Not visible to Alice
5 | Dave  | West   <-- Not visible to Alice

Because the RLS rule allows only rows where USERNAME() is 'Alice' and Region is 'North', Alice sees only her row.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does USERNAME() return in the formula?

A The region name

B The table name

C The current logged-in user name

D The current date

Key Result

RLS filters rows by checking if USERNAME() matches the user and the row's attribute matches the allowed value.