ALL vs ALLEXCEPT vs ALLSELECTED

Controls

Outer Slicer: Category

Outer Slicer: Year

Inner Visual Row Focus

How to read this page

Outer slicers simulate page/report selections.
Inner visual row focus simulates the row currently being evaluated in a matrix or chart.
ALLSELECTED keeps the outer slicer choices but ignores the current row grain.

Visible countries 0

Current row -

ALL

Grand-total denominator

ALLEXCEPT

Keep category, remove row grain

ALLSELECTED

Respect outer slicers, ignore row focus

Pick a country row to simulate a matrix row. Then compare how each function chooses a different denominator for the same sales value.

Visual Rows

Bright card = current matrix row

Percentage Denominators

Same numerator, different total universe

ALL

Removes the row-level country and the selected category/year filters in this demo, returning to the full grand total.

ALLEXCEPT

Keeps the category grouping, but removes year and country focus, so the denominator becomes total sales within the current category.

ALLSELECTED

Respects outer slicers like category and year, but removes the current row grain. This is often what you want for visual totals.

When to use which

Practical report patterns

Use ALL when

You need a true grand-total baseline.
You want to ignore some or all filters on a table/column.
Typical use: percent of grand total, benchmark against full universe.

% of Grand Total :=
DIVIDE(
    [Sales],
    CALCULATE([Sales], ALL(Market))
)

Use ALLEXCEPT when

You want totals within one grouping, but not within lower-grain filters.
You want to preserve one key like Category, Year, or Customer Segment.
Typical use: percent within category, percent within year.

% Within Category :=
DIVIDE(
    [Sales],
    CALCULATE([Sales], ALLEXCEPT(Market, Market[Category]))
)

Use ALLSELECTED when

You want the denominator to respect outer report/slicer selection.
You want matrix or chart rows to compare against the visible selected total.
Typical use: visual totals and percent of currently selected total.

% of Selected Total :=
DIVIDE(
    [Sales],
    CALCULATE([Sales], ALLSELECTED(Market[Country]))
)

Common confusion

ALL can blow away slicer intent if used too broadly.
ALLEXCEPT preserves listed columns only, so be precise about the grouping you keep.
ALLSELECTED depends on outer selection context, so it is especially useful in visuals but can surprise people if they expect a true grand total.

Rule of thumb: use ALL for grand total, ALLEXCEPT for subtotal within one grouping, and ALLSELECTED for “percent of what the user currently selected”.