Common Functions in Excel & Power BI – Complete Comparison

Introduction

For professionals transitioning from Excel to Power BI, one of the biggest advantages is that many functions are shared across both platforms. This means your Excel skills transfer directly into Power BI DAX, reducing the learning curve.

In this blog, we’ll cover 71 functions that are either identical or very similar in Excel and Power BI, organized in a comparison matrix.

Why This Matters?

✅ Smooth transition from Excel to Power BI
✅ Familiar syntax for quick adoption
✅ Boosts productivity in analytics & reporting
✅ Builds confidence when moving to DAX

Function Comparison Matrix (Excel vs Power BI DAX)

Function	Excel	Power BI DAX	Notes
ABS	Yes	Yes	Absolute value
ROUND	Yes	Yes	Round to specified digits
ROUNDUP	Yes	Yes	Round up regardless of sign
ROUNDDOWN	Yes	Yes	Round down regardless of sign
INT	Yes	Yes	Integer part
MOD	Yes	Yes	Remainder after division
POWER	Yes	Yes	Raise to a power
SQRT	Yes	Yes	Square root
EXP	Yes	Yes	e to the power of number
LN	Yes	Yes	Natural log
LOG	Yes	Yes	Logarithm with optional base
PI	Yes	Yes	Returns π
TRUNC	Yes	Yes	Truncate without rounding
SIGN	Yes	Yes	Sign of number (-1, 0, 1)
SUM	Yes	Yes	Sum of values
AVERAGE	Yes	Yes	Mean
MEDIAN	Yes	Yes	Median
MIN	Yes	Yes	Minimum
MAX	Yes	Yes	Maximum
COUNT	Yes	Yes	Count of numbers
COUNTA	Yes	Yes	Count of non-empty
DISTINCTCOUNT	Pivot Table	Yes	Count distinct values
VAR	Yes	Yes	Variance
STDEV	Yes	Yes	Standard deviation
LEFT	Yes	Yes	Leftmost characters
RIGHT	Yes	Yes	Rightmost characters
MID	Yes	Yes	Extract from middle
LEN	Yes	Yes	Length of text
TRIM	Yes	Yes	Remove extra spaces
UPPER	Yes	Yes	Uppercase
LOWER	Yes	Yes	Lowercase
PROPER	Yes	Yes	Capitalize each word
REPLACE	Yes	Yes	Replace by position
SUBSTITUTE	Yes	Yes	Replace all occurrences
CONCATENATE/&	Yes	Yes	Join text
TEXT	Yes	Yes	Format number/date as text
SEARCH	Yes	Yes	Find position (case-insensitive)
FIND	Yes	Yes	Find position (case-sensitive)
REPT	Yes	Yes	Repeat text
UNICHAR	Yes	Yes	Unicode character
UNICODE	Yes	Yes	Unicode number
TODAY	Yes	Yes	Current date
NOW	Yes	Yes	Current date/time
YEAR	Yes	Yes	Extract year
MONTH	Yes	Yes	Extract month
DAY	Yes	Yes	Extract day
WEEKDAY	Yes	Yes	Day of week number
WEEKNUM	Yes	Yes	Week number
HOUR	Yes	Yes	Hour
MINUTE	Yes	Yes	Minute
SECOND	Yes	Yes	Second
DATE	Yes	Yes	Create date from Y,M,D
DATEDIF / DATEDIFF	Yes	Yes	Date difference
EDATE	Yes	Yes	Shift by months
EOMONTH	Yes	Yes	End of month
TIME	Yes	Yes	Create time from H,M,S
IF	Yes	Yes	Conditional
IFERROR	Yes	Yes	Handle error
AND	Yes	Yes	Logical AND
OR	Yes	Yes	Logical OR
NOT	Yes	Yes	Logical NOT
SWITCH	No	Yes	Multiple condition branching
LOOKUP	Yes	Yes	Lookup value
VLOOKUP	Yes	No (LOOKUPVALUE)	Vertical lookup
HLOOKUP	Yes	No (LOOKUPVALUE)	Horizontal lookup
INDEX	Yes	Limited	Get value by index
MATCH	Yes	Limited	Position of value
ISBLANK	Yes	Yes	Check blank
ISNUMBER	Yes	Yes	Check number
ISTEXT	Yes	Yes	Check text
NA	Yes	Yes	Return NA

Key Insights

???? Almost all Math, Text, Date, Logical, and Information functions are the same in Excel & Power BI.
???? Lookup functions differ the most: Power BI relies on LOOKUPVALUE instead of VLOOKUP/HLOOKUP.
???? SWITCH is unique to Power BI, while Excel uses nested IF statements.

Conclusion

???? If you know Excel formulas, you already know Power BI DAX to a large extent.
This comparison matrix of 71 functions is your go-to cheat sheet for smooth migration from spreadsheets to dashboards.

???? Pro Tip: Keep this matrix handy when building Power BI reports — it will save you time and frustration.