Comparison Matrix

This matrix maps analytical intent to four implementation surfaces used in this repository.

Pattern	Excel	Power Query	SQL Server	DAX
Conditional logic	IF, IFS	Conditional Column	CASE	IF, SWITCH
Lookup/join	XLOOKUP	Merge Queries	LEFT JOIN	Relationships, RELATED
Conditional aggregation	SUMIFS	Filter + Group	SUM + predicates	CALCULATE(SUM())
Conditional count	COUNTIF, COUNTIFS	Filter + row count	COUNT(*) + predicates	CALCULATE(COUNTROWS())
Distinct values	UNIQUE	Remove Duplicates	DISTINCT	DISTINCT, VALUES
Sorting/top-N	SORT, SORTBY, LARGE	Sort + Keep Top Rows	ORDER BY, TOP	TOPN, rank measures
Running totals	Expanding SUM	Index + cumulative logic	SUM(...) OVER(...)	Cumulative measure
Ranking	RANK.EQ	Grouped index	RANK, DENSE_RANK, ROW_NUMBER	RANKX
Missing values	blanks, IFERROR	null replacement	NULL, COALESCE	BLANK(), COALESCE
Duplicate detection	COUNTIF > 1	Group + count > 1	GROUP BY ... HAVING	duplicate count measure

Important Note

These mappings represent equivalent business intent, not guaranteed identical behavior for all edge cases.