USERELATIONSHIP measures over inactive relationships support all three date roles

PL-300 By islever Editorial Last updated Sep 25, 2026

Short answer

A Yes, measures calling USERELATIONSHIP activate the inactive date relationships for each time analysis.

Question

Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same scenario. Each question in the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some question sets might have more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution. After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to it. As a result, these questions will not appear in the review screen. You have a Power BI report that imports a date table and a sales table from an Azure SQL database data source. The sales table has the following date foreign keys: • Due Date • Order Date • Delivery Date You need to support the analysis of sales over time based on all the date foreign keys. Solution: You create measures that use the USERELATIONSHIP DAX function to filter sales on the inactive relationship between the sales table and the date table. Does this meet the goal?

Yes Correct Answer
No

Key Takeaways

USERELATIONSHIP temporarily activates a specific inactive relationship inside a CALCULATE, so one date table with three relationships (one active, two inactive) supports time analysis by every date role.

In the three-date-foreign-key scenario (Due Date, Order Date, Delivery Date), the proposed solution creates measures that use the USERELATIONSHIP function to filter sales through inactive relationships to the date table.

Common mistake: Believing inactive relationships make data unreachable — they are simply not applied by default, and each measure opts into exactly the role it needs at calculation time.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

Microsoft's recommended alternative to multiple date tables is a single date table with only one active relationship and measures that invoke USERELATIONSHIP to engage the others. Measures using USERELATIONSHIP(sales[Due Date], date[Date]) and the analogous pairs filter sales through each inactive relationship on demand, so analysis of sales over time by all three date foreign keys is fully supported. The solution meets the goal.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Answering No would presume inactive relationships cannot serve analysis, but that is their designed purpose: they exist precisely so individual measures can choose which role to activate. The only constraint Power BI enforces is at most one active relationship per table pair, and keeping just the Order Date relationship active leaves room for the two inactive ones that USERELATIONSHIP consumes.

Community Comment Notes

Commenters unanimously answer Yes, with one explaining that only one relationship between the two tables can be active and the measures involving the other date fields must use USERELATIONSHIP to engage their inactive counterparts. Another notes USERELATIONSHIP activates a disabled relationship, pairing exactly with the scenario's design.

Official Reference

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/userelationship-function-dax

This link opens the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Community Votes

100%

100% of anonymous learners picked answer A. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 5 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 5

jaume 👍 2 Answered A

you need to link the tables using the three Date fields require in the analysis. Only one relationship between two tables can be active. In the measures involving the Dates fields linked with the inactive relationships, the RELATIONSHIP() function is required to turn (within that measure) that relation to Active
LuluSkyy 👍 2

The correct answer is A. you use USERELATIONSHIP
f07fa5c 👍 1 Answered A

Yes, USERELATIONSHIP() activates a disables relationship, and therefore pairs well with an inactive relationship, like in the question.
Endeetheanalyst 👍 2

Yes, is the correct answer
Jayaruwan 👍 2 Answered A

Yes is the correct answer

Reader comments & corrections

No reader corrections yet — spotted an error or have a note? Share it below.

Practice All PL-300 Questions

Access 116 questions with complete answers and detailed explanations.

View Full PL-300 Practice Test →

← Back to PL-300 Study Guide