PREVIOUS

In a visual calculation, a column's value at the previous row along an axis, or a number of rows back.

A visual calculation works on the table behind a visual: a row for each group on the visual's axes and one for each of their totals. To try one in the OAX view, give a table that shape with DEFINE TABLE ... WITH VISUAL SHAPE: its axes, their groups, the TRUE/FALSE column that marks each group's totals and the order, and with DENSIFY a name for the column that marks rows the shape fills in. Then write the calculation as a COLUMN of that table, as Power BI's own queries do. The examples below are queries of that kind, small enough to check by hand.

Group: Window and visual calculations. Compatible with DAX.

Syntax

PREVIOUS ( <column> [, <steps>] [, <axis>] [, <orderBy>] [, <blanks>] [, <reset>] )

Returns

Same type as the column. The column's value that many rows before the current one.

Remarks

• On the first rows, where there is nothing that far back, the result is BLANK; so it is just after a reset.
• [Liters] - PREVIOUS ( [Liters] ) is the change from the row before.
• Each level of the visual is walked on its own: the quarters' rows among the quarters, the years' subtotals among the years, the grand total by itself. Without a reset, the first quarter of 2026 looks back to the last quarter of 2025.
• With years on the columns, PREVIOUS ( [Liters], COLUMNS ) is the same row's year before.
• It is the visual calculation's counterpart of OFFSET ( -1 ) along an axis.
• It works only in a visual calculation; in a measure, a calculated column or a plain query it is an error.

Examples

Change from the month before

DEFINE
    TABLE Visual =
        DATATABLE (
            "Month", INTEGER, "Liters", INTEGER,
            { { 1, 100 }, { 2, 150 }, { 3, 120 }, { 4, 90 } }
        )
        WITH VISUAL SHAPE
            AXIS ROWS GROUP [Month] ORDER BY [Month]
            DENSIFY "Added"
    COLUMN Visual[Previous] = PREVIOUS ( [Liters] )
    COLUMN Visual[Two back] = PREVIOUS ( [Liters], 2 )
    COLUMN Visual[Change] = [Liters] - PREVIOUS ( [Liters] )
EVALUATE
SELECTCOLUMNS (
    Visual,
    "Month", [Month], "Liters", [Liters],
    "Previous", [Previous],
    "Two back", [Two back],
    "Change", [Change]
)
ORDER BY [Month]

Along the columns

Products on the rows, years on the columns: each product's year before.

DEFINE
    TABLE Visual =
        DATATABLE (
            "Product", STRING, "Year", INTEGER, "Liters", INTEGER, "All products", BOOLEAN, "All years", BOOLEAN,
            {
                { "IPA", 2025, 60, FALSE, FALSE }, { "IPA", 2026, 80, FALSE, FALSE }, { "IPA", BLANK (), 140, FALSE, TRUE },
                { "Pils", 2025, 100, FALSE, FALSE }, { "Pils", 2026, 120, FALSE, FALSE }, { "Pils", BLANK (), 220, FALSE, TRUE },
                { BLANK (), 2025, 160, TRUE, FALSE }, { BLANK (), 2026, 200, TRUE, FALSE }, { BLANK (), BLANK (), 360, TRUE, TRUE }
            }
        )
        WITH VISUAL SHAPE
            AXIS ROWS GROUP [Product] TOTAL [All products] ORDER BY [Product]
            AXIS COLUMNS GROUP [Year] TOTAL [All years] ORDER BY [Year]
            DENSIFY "Added"
    COLUMN Visual[Year before] = PREVIOUS ( [Liters], COLUMNS )
EVALUATE
SELECTCOLUMNS (
    Visual,
    "Product", [Product], "Year", [Year], "Liters", [Liters],
    "Year before", [Year before]
)
ORDER BY ISBLANK ( [Product] ), [Product], ISBLANK ( [Year] ), [Year]

Not across the years

DEFINE
    TABLE Visual =
        DATATABLE (
            "Year", INTEGER, "Quarter", INTEGER, "Liters", INTEGER, "All years", BOOLEAN, "All quarters", BOOLEAN,
            {
                { 2025, 1, 100, FALSE, FALSE }, { 2025, 2, 120, FALSE, FALSE }, { 2025, BLANK (), 220, FALSE, TRUE },
                { 2026, 1, 130, FALSE, FALSE }, { 2026, 2, 150, FALSE, FALSE }, { 2026, BLANK (), 280, FALSE, TRUE },
                { BLANK (), BLANK (), 500, TRUE, TRUE }
            }
        )
        WITH VISUAL SHAPE
            AXIS ROWS
                GROUP [Year] TOTAL [All years]
                GROUP [Quarter] TOTAL [All quarters]
                ORDER BY [Year], [Quarter]
            DENSIFY "Added"
    COLUMN Visual[Previous] = PREVIOUS ( [Liters] )
    COLUMN Visual[In the same year] = PREVIOUS ( [Liters], HIGHESTPARENT )
EVALUATE
SELECTCOLUMNS (
    Visual,
    "Year", [Year], "Quarter", [Quarter], "Liters", [Liters],
    "Previous", [Previous],
    "In the same year", [In the same year]
)
ORDER BY ISBLANK ( [Year] ), [Year], ISBLANK ( [Quarter] ), [Quarter]

Related functions

NEXT, FIRST, OFFSET, RUNNINGSUM.

Last updated 3 November 2026 · OpenBI Studio 0.3.74