Power Pivot Principles: The A to Z of DAX Functions – INFO.OBJECTTRANSLATIONS

In our long-established Power Pivot Principles articles, we continue our series on the A to Z of Data Analysis eXpression (DAX) functions.  This week, we look at INFO.OBJECTTRANSLATIONS.

The INFO.OBJECTTRANSLATIONS function

Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) are specialised queries provided by SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), Azure Analysis Services (AAS), and Power BI that offer an administrative view into the internal state of these systems.  DMVs are used to retrieve metadata, monitor health and performance, and diagnose problems within the database or data model.  They serve as a powerful tool for administrators and developers to gain insights into the workings of the database engine and the tabular data model, covering aspects like performance metrics, configuration settings and the structure of database objects.

The $System schema DMVs in SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), Azure Analysis Services (AAS), and Power BI are categorised into four [4] types, each serving specific purposes:

• DISCOVER: requires admin privileges and provides information about the model, including details on connected sessions and environment configuration
• DMSCHEMA: focused on data mining, offering insights for predictive analytics and pattern recognition, mainly used in SSAS/AAS
• MDSCHEMA: targets multidimensional models, delivering metadata and structure from an MDX perspective, relevant for OLAP cubes and dimensions
• TMSCHEMA: designed for tabular models, it provides detailed metadata about tables, columns, measures, etc., using Tabular Model Scripting Language (TMSL) information, crucial for Power BI and tabular SSAS/AAS models.

In the past, if we wanted to query those $System schema DMVs we used external tools like Tabular Editors or DAX Studio to query them:

The INFO.OBJECTTRANSLATIONS function is one of the system functions.  It employs the following syntax:

This function has no parameters.

Based upon the ‘[MS-SSAS-T]: SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular Protocol’ from Microsoft (which you may access here), the ObjectTranslation object represents the translations of metadata properties for the Culture parent object.  Properties such as the name and description of a metadata object can be translated.  If they are not translated, the properties specified on the main object are used.  The ObjectTranslation object has a weakly typed reference to the object that it is translating.  For information on the distinction between strongly typed and weakly typed

We can write this INFO.OBJECTTRANSLATIONS function on DAX query view to get the same information on the TMSCHEMA_OBJECT_TRANSLATIONS:

It will query the $SYSTEM.TMSCHEMA_OBJECT_TRANSLATIONS and return an entire table with seven [7] columns:

• ID: this is a reference to the object
• CultureID: this is an ID-based reference to a Culture object
• ObjectID: this is an ID-based reference to the object
• ObjectType: this is the data type of the object specified by ObjectID.  The possible values are as follows:
  • TM_TYPEID_Model (1)
  • TM_TYPEID_Table (3)
  • TM_TYPEID_Column (4)
  • TM_TYPEID_Measure (8)
  • TM_TYPEID_Hierarchy (9)
  • TM_TYPEID_Level (10)
  • TM_TYPEID_KPI (12)
  • TM_TYPEID_Perspective (29)
  • TM_TYPEID_Role (34)
  • TM_TYPEID_Variation (37) Requires compatibility level 1400 or higher
  • TM_TYPEID_Expression (41) Requires compatibility level 1400 or higher
• Property: this specifies which property of the object is being translated.  The possible values are as follows:
  • Invalid (-1) – the property is invalid.  This is the default value
  • Caption (1) – the caption for the object is shown instead of the name of the object, if a caption is available
  • Description (2) – this value is the description of the object
  • DisplayFolder (3) – this value is the DisplayFolder property
• Value: this represents the value of the translation
• ModifiedTime: this is the time that the object was last modified.

It should be noted that:

• it is used for querying the DMV (Dynamic Management Views) from the $System schema called TMSCHEMA where TM stands for ‘Tabular model’ and TMSCHEMA provides information from the tabular model
• sometimes querying DMVs may fail if we do not have the appropriate permission.

Come back next week for our next post on Power Pivot in the Blog section.  In the meantime, please remember we have training in Power Pivot which you can find out more about here.  If you wish to catch up on past articles in the meantime, you can find all of our Past Power Pivot blogs here.