Dax Function: UPPER
Category: Text Functions
The UPPER function in Power BI is a DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) text function that converts all lowercase letters in a given text string to uppercase. It is case-conversion specific and does not alter non-alphabetic characters, digits, or symbols.
Purpose
Text Standardization: Uniformly format text strings by converting all letters to uppercase.
Case Consistency: Ensure consistent formatting in datasets for comparison and reporting.
Preprocessing for Analysis: Prepare text data for case-insensitive operations, such as comparisons or joins.
Type of Calculations
The function performs a string transformation, converting all alphabetic characters to their uppercase equivalent.
Practical Use Cases
Data Cleaning: Standardize case formats across a dataset.
Text Matching: Eliminate case sensitivity issues during string comparison or lookups.
Visual Enhancements: Format text data in reports for better readability or emphasis.
UPPER(<text>)
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| text | Text/Scalar | The text string or column containing text to convert to uppercase. |
How Does UPPER Dax Function Works
Input Text: The function accepts a single text string or column of text.
Conversion: For each character in the input string, the function checks if it is lowercase. If so, it converts it to uppercase.
Output Text: A new string is returned with all characters in uppercase.
For example:
Input:
"Power BI"Output:
"POWER BI"
What Does It Return?
The function returns a text string where all lowercase alphabetic characters are converted to uppercase. Non-alphabetic characters remain unchanged.
When Should We Use It?
Case Standardization: Apply when cleaning or formatting text data for consistent presentation.
Comparisons: Use in case-insensitive text matching or filtering.
Text Formatting: Format headers, labels, or report elements for uniform styling.
Examples
Basic Usage :
UPPER("data analysis")
Result: "DATA ANALYSIS"
Column Usage:
Apply the function to a column of text data:
UpperCaseText = UPPER(Table[ColumnName])
Input:
"hello","World","123abc"Output:
"HELLO","WORLD","123ABC"
Dynamic Usage with Filters:
Filter a dataset where the uppercase version of a text matches a condition:
FilteredTable = FILTER(Table, UPPER(Table[ColumnName]) = "TARGET VALUE")
Combine with Other Functions:
Combine with LEFT or RIGHT for string manipulation:
InitialUpperCase = UPPER(LEFT(Table[ColumnName], 1)) & RIGHT(Table[ColumnName], LEN(Table[ColumnName]) - 1)
Output: Converts only the first letter of a string to uppercase.
Tips and Tricks
Works with Multilingual Text: Converts lowercase letters to uppercase even for non-English alphabets (e.g., “ñ” to “Ñ”).
Preprocessing for Joins: Use to normalize case for text joins between tables.
Non-Alphabetic Handling: Non-alphabetic characters (e.g., numbers, punctuation) remain unaffected.
Performance Impact of UPPER DAX Function:
Efficient for Columns: The function is optimized for columnar operations and scales well for large datasets.
Avoid Redundancy: Apply the function only when necessary, as it recalculates for each cell.
Related Functions You Might Need
LOWER: Converts text to lowercase.
PROPER: Capitalizes the first letter of each word.
CONCATENATE: Combine strings, often after applying case conversion.
TRIM: Remove leading and trailing spaces before applying the UPPER function.
Want to Learn More?
For more information, check out the official Microsoft documentation for UPPER You can also experiment with this function in your Power BI reports to explore its capabilities.
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It converts all lowercase letters in a text string to uppercase.
No, numbers, symbols, and non-alphabetic characters remain unchanged.
Yes, it works with non-English alphabets, converting lowercase characters to uppercase.
UPPER converts all text to uppercase, while PROPER capitalizes the first letter of each word.
No, it specifically converts lowercase letters to uppercase but does not alter uppercase characters.
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