Top “This vs That” DAX Function Comparisons

Topic	Function 1	Function 2	Key Difference
1. Standard Deviation	`STDEV.S`	`STDEV.P`	Sample vs Population (n-1 vs n)
2. SUM vs SUMX	`SUM()`	`SUMX()`	Simple aggregation vs row-by-row evaluation
3. AVERAGE vs AVERAGEX	`AVERAGE()`	`AVERAGEX()`	Aggregation vs iteration over rows
4. CALCULATE vs CALCULATETABLE	`CALCULATE()`	`CALCULATETABLE()`	Returns scalar vs table
5. FILTER vs ALL vs REMOVEFILTERS	`FILTER()`	`ALL()`	Filtering in vs removing filters
6. EARLIER vs SELECTEDVALUE	`EARLIER()`	`SELECTEDVALUE()`	Row context vs filter context
7. VALUES vs DISTINCT	`VALUES()`	`DISTINCT()`	`VALUES` returns blank if no value; `DISTINCT` never returns blank
8. ALL vs ALLEXCEPT vs ALLSELECTED	`ALL()`	`ALLEXCEPT()`	Clear all filters vs keep selected filters
9. RELATED vs RELATEDTABLE	`RELATED()`	`RELATEDTABLE()`	Returns single value vs a table of related rows
10. ISFILTERED vs HASONEVALUE	`ISFILTERED()`	`HASONEVALUE()`	Check if filtered vs check for exactly one value
11. CONTAINS vs LOOKUPVALUE	`CONTAINS()`	`LOOKUPVALUE()`	Boolean check vs value retrieval
12. DIVIDE vs `/` Operator	`DIVIDE()`	`/`	Handles divide-by-zero errors
13. NOW vs TODAY	`NOW()`	`TODAY()`	DateTime vs only Date
14. RANKX vs TOPN	`RANKX()`	`TOPN()`	Ranking vs filtering top N rows
15. MAX vs MAXX	`MAX()`	`MAXX()`	Aggregation vs iteration
16. IF vs SWITCH	`IF()`	`SWITCH()`	Simple condition vs multiple logical branches
17. GENERATE vs CROSSJOIN	`GENERATE()`	`CROSSJOIN()`	`GENERATE` can flatten results

✅ Example Use Case

Function	Example
`SUM(Sales[Revenue])`	Just adds values from the column
`SUMX(Sales, Sales[Quantity] * Sales[UnitPrice])`	Calculates line total per row, then sums Read Full Article SUM vs SUMX in DAX

Useful when you need row-wise logic before summing.