BI glossary
Every term in plain English, with its Arabic equivalent.
- Measure / مقياس
- A DAX calculation evaluated at query time in the current filter context, such as total sales.
- Calculated column / عمود محسوب
- A DAX column computed row by row when the model refreshes and stored in the model.
- Filter context / سياق التصفية
- The set of filters in force when a measure is calculated, from slicers, visuals and CALCULATE.
- Row context / سياق الصف
- The "current row" inside a calculated column or an iterator function.
- Context transition / انتقال السياق
- Turning a row context into a filter context, which CALCULATE does.
- Iterator / دالة تكرارية
- A DAX function that evaluates an expression for each row of a table, such as SUMX.
- Star schema / مخطط نجمي
- A model with a central fact table linked to dimension tables. Fast and easy to understand.
- Fact table / جدول الحقائق
- A table of events or transactions that you measure, such as sales or flights.
- Dimension table / جدول الأبعاد
- A table that describes things you slice by, such as customers, products or dates.
- Relationship / علاقة
- A link between two tables on a key column that lets filters flow between them.
- Cardinality / الكاردينالية (نوع العلاقة)
- The type of relationship: one-to-many, one-to-one or many-to-many.
- Import mode / وضع الاستيراد
- Data is copied into the model and compressed in memory. Fastest for most reports.
- DirectQuery / الاستعلام المباشر
- Queries go to the source each time; no copy of the data is stored.
- Direct Lake / Direct Lake (الاتصال المباشر بالبحيرة)
- A Fabric mode that reads Delta tables in OneLake directly with import-like speed.
- Composite model / نموذج مركّب
- A model that mixes tables in different storage modes.
- Semantic model / النموذج الدلالي
- The tables, relationships and measures that reports connect to (formerly called a dataset).
- Power Query / Power Query (محرر الاستعلامات)
- The tool for connecting to data and cleaning it before it reaches the model.
- Query folding / طيّ الاستعلام
- Power Query steps being translated into the source system's own query language, so the source does the work.
- Dataflow / تدفق البيانات
- A reusable, cloud-based Power Query transformation shared across reports.
- Lakehouse / بحيرة البيانات (Lakehouse)
- A Fabric item that stores files and Delta tables together for analytics.
- Workspace / مساحة العمل
- A shared place in Power BI or Fabric where content is created, stored and secured.
- Row-level security (RLS) / الأمان على مستوى الصف
- Rules that decide which rows of data each user can see.
- Gateway / بوابة البيانات
- Software that lets the Power BI service reach data sources on your own network.
- Incremental refresh / التحديث التدريجي
- Refreshing only recent partitions of a large table instead of everything.
- Aggregation / التجميع المسبق
- A summarised table that answers common queries quickly instead of scanning detail rows.
- KPI / مؤشر الأداء الرئيسي
- A key performance indicator: a measure with a target that shows if you are on track.
- Slicer / أداة التقطيع
- A visual that lets users filter the report by clicking values.
- Drillthrough / التنقيب إلى صفحة التفاصيل
- Jumping from a summary to a detail page filtered to the item you selected.
- Bookmark / إشارة مرجعية
- A saved view of a report page (filters, visibility) used for navigation and storytelling.
- Calculation group / مجموعة العمليات الحسابية
- A set of reusable calculation items (for example YTD, last year) applied to many measures.
- Time intelligence / الذكاء الزمني
- DAX calculations that compare periods, such as year to date or same period last year.
- Date table / جدول التواريخ
- A table with one row per day, used for all date-based analysis.
- VertiPaq / محرك VertiPaq
- The in-memory columnar engine behind Import models. It compresses data by column.
- Deployment pipeline / خط النشر
- A way to move content between development, test and production workspaces.
- Certified dataset / مجموعة بيانات معتمدة
- A shared model officially approved as the trusted source for a topic.
- Data governance / حوكمة البيانات
- The rules, roles and processes that keep data accurate, secure and used properly.
- Single source of truth / مصدر موحَّد للحقيقة
- One agreed definition and source for each business number.
- Paginated report / تقرير مقسّم إلى صفحات
- A pixel-perfect, print-ready report layout, often used for invoices and statements.
- Performance Analyzer / محلل الأداء
- A Power BI Desktop pane that records how long each visual takes to load.
- Premium Per User (PPU) / Premium لكل مستخدم
- A licence that gives one user the premium features of Power BI.
- Fabric capacity / سعة Fabric
- The compute you buy to run Fabric and Power BI workloads, sized as F SKUs.
- ETL / الاستخراج والتحويل والتحميل
- Extract, transform, load: moving and shaping data from sources into a store.