PATHLENGTH DAX Function (Parent-child)
Returns returns the number of items in a particular path string. This function returns 1 for the path generated for an ID at the top/root of a hierarchy.
Syntax
| Parameter | Attributes | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Path |
A string which contains a delimited list of IDs. |
Return values
The number of items that are parents to the specified item in a given PATH result, including the specified item.
» 4 related functions
Examples
-- PATH generates a column containing the path of each node in a
-- parent/child hierarchy
--
-- PATHLENGTH returns the length of a path column
-- PATHCONTAINS checks if a path column contains a value
DEFINE
COLUMN Account[AccountPath] = PATH ( Account[AccountKey], Account[ParentAccountKey] )
COLUMN Account[PathLength] = PATHLENGTH ( Account[AccountPath] )
COLUMN Account[PathContains2] = PATHCONTAINS ( Account[AccountPath], 2 )
EVALUATE
Account
ORDER BY [AccountPath]
| AccountKey | ParentAccountKey | AccountName | AccountPath | PathLength | PathContains2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (Blank) | Profit and Loss after tax | 1 | 1 | false |
| 19 | 1 | Taxation | 1|19 | 2 | false |
| 24 | 1 | Profit and Loss before tax | 1|24 | 2 | false |
| 2 | 24 | Income | 1|24|2 | 3 | true |
| 4 | 2 | Sale Revenue | 1|24|2|4 | 4 | true |
| 3 | 24 | Expense | 1|24|3 | 3 | false |
| 5 | 3 | Cost of Goods Sold | 1|24|3|5 | 4 | false |
| 6 | 3 | Selling, General & Administrative Expenses | 1|24|3|6 | 4 | false |
| 10 | 6 | Light, Heat, Communication Cost | 1|24|3|6|10 | 5 | false |
| 11 | 6 | Property Costs | 1|24|3|6|11 | 5 | false |
| 12 | 6 | Other Expenses | 1|24|3|6|12 | 5 | false |
| 13 | 6 | Marketing Cost | 1|24|3|6|13 | 5 | false |
| 14 | 13 | Holiday Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|14 | 6 | false |
| 20 | 14 | Radio & TV | 1|24|3|6|13|14|20 | 7 | false |
| 21 | 14 | 1|24|3|6|13|14|21 | 7 | false | |
| 22 | 14 | Internet | 1|24|3|6|13|14|22 | 7 | false |
| 23 | 14 | Other | 1|24|3|6|13|14|23 | 7 | false |
| 15 | 13 | Spring Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|15 | 6 | false |
| 16 | 13 | Back-to-School Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|16 | 6 | false |
| 17 | 13 | Business Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|17 | 6 | false |
| 18 | 13 | Tax Time / Summer Ad Cost | 1|24|3|6|13|18 | 6 | false |
| 7 | 6 | Administration Expense | 1|24|3|6|7 | 5 | false |
| 8 | 6 | IT Cost | 1|24|3|6|8 | 5 | false |
| 9 | 6 | Human Capital | 1|24|3|6|9 | 5 | false |
-- 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 PATHLENGTH 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/pathlength-function-dax