Testing RLS in Desktop in Power BI - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

Sales data by user and region to test Row-Level Security (RLS) in Power BI Desktop.

Cell	Value
A1	User
B1	Region
C1	Sales
A2	Alice
B2	North
C2	1000
A3	Bob
B3	South
C3	1500
A4	Charlie
B4	East
C4	1200

Formula Trace

CALCULATE(SUM(Sales[Sales]), USERNAME() = Sales[User])

Step 1: USERNAME()

Step 2: Sales[User] = "Alice"

Step 3: SUM(Sales[Sales]) filtered by User = 'Alice'

Step 4: CALCULATE(SUM(Sales[Sales]), USERNAME() = Sales[User])

Cell Reference Map

     A       B       C
  +-------+-------+-------+
1 | User  | Region| Sales |
  +-------+-------+-------+
2 | Alice | North | 1000  |
  +-------+-------+-------+
3 | Bob   | South | 1500  |
  +-------+-------+-------+
4 | Charlie| East | 1200  |
  +-------+-------+-------+

Filter references Sales[User] column (A2:A4) and Sales[Sales] column (C2:C4). USERNAME() returns current user.

The formula uses the User column to filter rows matching the current user and sums the Sales column.

Result

     D
  +-------+
1 | Sales |
  +-------+
2 | 1000  |
  +-------+

The result shows total sales for the logged-in user 'Alice', which is 1000.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does USERNAME() return in this formula?

A The region name

B The total sales amount

C The current logged-in user name

D The sum of all users

Key Result

CALCULATE with USERNAME() filters rows to current user and sums sales.