PATHITEM DAX Function (Parent-child)
Returns the nth item in the delimited list produced by the Path function.
Syntax
| Parameter | Attributes | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Path |
A string which contains a delimited list of IDs. |
|
| Position |
An integer denoting the position from the left end of the path. |
|
| Type | Optional |
Optional. If missing or TEXT or 0 then this function returns a string. If INTEGER or 1 then this function returns an integer. |
Return values
The identifier returned by the PATH function at the specified position in the list of identifiers. Items returned by the PATH function are ordered by most distant to current.
Remarks
- This function can be used to return a specific level from a hierarchy returned by a PATH function. For example, you could return just the skip-level managers for all employees.
- If you specify a number for position that is less than one (1) or greater than the number of elements in path, the PATHITEM function returns BLANK.
- If type is not a valid enumeration element an error is returned.
» 4 related functions
Examples
-- PATHITEM returns the nth item of a path column, starting to count
-- from the beginning. It returns BLANK if no such element exists.
--
-- PATHITEMREVERSE starts to count from the tail.
--
-- The table should have enough column for the number of levels in the hierarchy
-- otherwise certain levels are not visible. In this example, only 4 levels
-- are visible.
DEFINE
COLUMN Account[AccountPath] =
PATH ( Account[AccountKey], Account[ParentAccountKey] )
COLUMN Account[Level1] = PATHITEM ( Account[AccountPath], 1, INTEGER )
COLUMN Account[Level2] = PATHITEM ( Account[AccountPath], 2, INTEGER )
COLUMN Account[Level3] = PATHITEM ( Account[AccountPath], 3, INTEGER )
COLUMN Account[Level4] = PATHITEM ( Account[AccountPath], 4, INTEGER )
COLUMN Account[Level1R] = PATHITEMREVERSE ( Account[AccountPath], 1, INTEGER )
COLUMN Account[Level2R] = PATHITEMREVERSE ( Account[AccountPath], 2, INTEGER )
COLUMN Account[Level3R] = PATHITEMREVERSE ( Account[AccountPath], 3, INTEGER )
COLUMN Account[Level4R] = PATHITEMREVERSE ( Account[AccountPath], 4, INTEGER )
EVALUATE
Account
| AccountKey | ParentAccountKey | AccountName | AccountPath | Level1 | Level2 | Level3 | Level4 | Level1R | Level2R | Level3R | Level4R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (Blank) | Profit and Loss after tax | 1 | 1 | (Blank) | (Blank) | (Blank) | 1 | (Blank) | (Blank) | (Blank) |
| 2 | 24 | Income | 1|24|2 | 1 | 24 | 2 | (Blank) | 2 | 24 | 1 | (Blank) |
| 3 | 24 | Expense | 1|24|3 | 1 | 24 | 3 | (Blank) | 3 | 24 | 1 | (Blank) |
| 4 | 2 | Sale Revenue | 1|24|2|4 | 1 | 24 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 24 | 1 |
| 5 | 3 | Cost of Goods Sold | 1|24|3|5 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 24 | 1 |
| 6 | 3 | Selling, General & Administrative Expenses | 1|24|3|6 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 24 | 1 |
| 7 | 6 | Administration Expense | 1|24|3|6|7 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 24 |
| 8 | 6 | IT Cost | 1|24|3|6|8 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 24 |
| 9 | 6 | Human Capital | 1|24|3|6|9 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 24 |
| 10 | 6 | Light, Heat, Communication Cost | 1|24|3|6|10 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 24 |
| 11 | 6 | Property Costs | 1|24|3|6|11 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 24 |
| 12 | 6 | Other Expenses | 1|24|3|6|12 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 24 |
| 13 | 6 | Marketing Cost | 1|24|3|6|13 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 24 |
| 14 | 13 | Holiday Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|14 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 14 | 13 | 6 | 3 |
| 15 | 13 | Spring Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|15 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 15 | 13 | 6 | 3 |
| 16 | 13 | Back-to-School Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|16 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 16 | 13 | 6 | 3 |
| 17 | 13 | Business Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|17 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 17 | 13 | 6 | 3 |
| 18 | 13 | Tax Time / Summer Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|18 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 13 | 6 | 3 |
| 19 | 1 | Taxation | 1|19 | 1 | 19 | (Blank) | (Blank) | 19 | 1 | (Blank) | (Blank) |
| 20 | 14 | Radio & TV | 1|24|3|6|13|14|20 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 20 | 14 | 13 | 6 |
| 21 | 14 | 1|24|3|6|13|14|21 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 21 | 14 | 13 | 6 | |
| 22 | 14 | Internet | 1|24|3|6|13|14|22 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 22 | 14 | 13 | 6 |
| 23 | 14 | Other | 1|24|3|6|13|14|23 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 23 | 14 | 13 | 6 |
| 24 | 1 | Profit and Loss before tax | 1|24 | 1 | 24 | (Blank) | (Blank) | 24 | 1 | (Blank) | (Blank) |
-- Covert a list of items in a string
-- into a table with one row for each item
--
-- PATHLENGTH determines the number of items
-- GENERATESERIES iterates the items
-- PATHITEM extract the Nth item
EVALUATE
VAR list = "123|456|789|764"
VAR _length =
PATHLENGTH ( list )
VAR Result =
SELECTCOLUMNS (
GENERATESERIES ( 1, _length ),
-- Use TEXT instead of INTEGER
-- to get a list of strings
"Item", PATHITEM ( list, [value], INTEGER )
)
RETURN
Result
| Item |
|---|
| 123 |
| 456 |
| 789 |
| 764 |
Related articles
Learn more about PATHITEM in the following articles:
-
Parent-Child Hierarchies
DAX does not directly support parent-child hierarchies. To obtain a browsable hierarchy in the data model, you have to naturalize a parent-child hierarchy. DAX provides specific functions to naturalize a parent-child hierarchy using calculated columns. The complete pattern also includes measures that improve the visualization of ragged hierarchies in Power Pivot. » Read more
-
Strings list to table in DAX
DAX is not like M when it comes to data manipulation, and it is not supposed to do that. However, if you need something in DAX similar to Table.FromList in M, this blog post is for you. If you have a list of values in a string in DAX and you want to obtain a table with one row for each item in the list, you can do the following: Use “|” as item separator in the string (instead of “,” or “;”) Determines the number of items in the string by using PATHLENGTH Iterates the string by using GENERATESERIES… » Read more
Related functions
Other related functions are:
Last update: Jul 1, 2025 » Contribute » Show contributors
Contributors: Alberto Ferrari, Marco Russo
Microsoft documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/pathitem-function-dax