Object properties reference
Every object in a semantic model, such as a table, a column or a measure, is described by a set of properties. These properties come from the Tabular Object Model (TOM), the object model that Analysis Services, Power BI and Fabric use to define semantic models. Tabular Editor shows them in the Properties view, and C# scripts read and write them through the Scripting API.
This reference covers every property that the Properties view shows, what it does, and when you would change it. Where Tabular Editor has a feature that helps you work with a property, such as an editor, a Best Practice Analyzer rule or a C# script, the property links to it.
To change a property, select one or more objects in the TOM Explorer view and edit the value in the Properties view. When you select several objects, you can change a property for all of them at once. See Editing properties.
How this reference is organized
Properties that almost every object has, such as Name, Description and Annotations, are described once on Common properties. The other pages cover one family of related objects each:
| Page | Objects |
|---|---|
| Common properties | Properties shared by most objects |
| Model properties | Model |
| Table properties | Table, calculated table, calculation group table |
| Column properties | Data column, calculated column, calculated table column, alternate of, variation |
| Measure and KPI properties | Measure, KPI |
| Calculation group properties | Calculation group, calculation item |
| Hierarchy and level properties | Hierarchy, level |
| Relationship properties | Relationship |
| Partition properties | Partition, M partition, entity partition, policy range partition, refresh policy, data coverage definition |
| Data source and expression properties | Provider and structured data sources, shared expression, query group, data binding hint |
| Role and security properties | Role, table permission, role members |
| Perspective and culture properties | Perspective, culture |
| Calendar properties | Calendar, time-related column group, time unit column association |
| Function and set properties | User-defined function, set |
On each page, properties are grouped by the category they appear under in the Properties view when Categorized is selected:
- Basic: the properties you change most often, such as name, description and format string.
- Metadata: information about the object. Most of these are read-only, such as the object type or the error message.
- Options: properties that change how the object behaves, such as expressions, summarization or sort order.
- Translations, Perspectives, Security: per-culture translations, perspective membership and per-role security settings.
Each property lists its name as shown in the Properties view, its name in TOM (the name you use in a C# script), and its type:
Display name
TomName· type
When the display name and the TOM name are the same, only the TOM name is shown. The TOM name is the one Tabular Editor's scripting API uses. For a few properties, the underlying TOM object is nested differently, for example a measure's Format String Expression is saved as formatStringDefinition in TMDL.
Properties that depend on the model
The Properties view hides properties that don't apply to the current model. What you see depends on:
- Compatibility level. Many properties need a minimum compatibility level of the model, for example Lineage Tag needs 1540 or higher. This reference lists the minimum level where one applies. To see or change the compatibility level, select the model and look at Compatibility Level under the Database property.
- Compatibility mode. Some properties exist only for Power BI and Fabric models, or only for Analysis Services models.
- Object state. Some properties only appear when another property has a certain value. For example, the properties of a refresh policy only appear when the table has one.
Properties that Tabular Editor adds
Almost every property in the Properties view is a TOM property, saved in the model and visible to every tool that reads it. A few properties are added by Tabular Editor to make the model easier to work with. These properties are marked with:
| Marker | Meaning | Saved in the model? |
|---|---|---|
| computed | Tabular Editor works the value out for display, for example DAX identifier or Object Type. | No |
| shortcut to … | Shows or edits a TOM property that belongs to another object, so you don't have to select that object first. For example, Source Type on a table shows the source type of the table's first partition. | Yes, as the TOM property it points to |
| stored as an annotation | Tabular Editor saves the value in an annotation on the object, for example Table Group. | Yes, but only Tabular Editor uses it |