Startup Parameters
This page documents the command line parameters accepted by daxstudio.exe itself when you launch
it.
There are two other sets of command line options documented elsewhere on this site:
- dscmd.exe - the separate DAX Studio command line utility
- the installer - options for scripted or automated installs
Syntax
daxstudio.exe [options]
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -h, --help | Displays the available options |
| -f, --file <FILE> | The name of a file to open on startup |
| -s, --server <SERVER> | The server to connect to on startup |
| -d, --database <DATABASE> | The database to connect to on startup |
| -p, --port <PORT> | The port number to connect to. Used when launching against a local Power BI Desktop or SSDT instance |
| -l, --log | Enables debug logging |
| -r, --reset | Resets the user preferences back to the default settings |
| --nopreview | Hides the version information |
| -u, --uri <URI> | Used by the daxstudio:// uri handler |
Examples
Open a file on startup:
daxstudio.exe --file "c:\temp\myquery.dax"
Connect to a server and database on startup:
daxstudio.exe --server localhost\tabular --database "Adventure Works"
Reset the user preferences back to their defaults:
daxstudio.exe --reset
Argument parsing
The command line parsing for both daxstudio.exe and dscmd.exe was rebuilt in version 3.6.0,
which makes the two consistent with each other and more forgiving about how options are written.
The following are all accepted and mean the same thing:
| Style | Example |
|---|---|
| Long option | --file "c:\temp\myquery.dax" |
| Long option with equals | --file="c:\temp\myquery.dax" |
| Short option | -f "c:\temp\myquery.dax" |
| Legacy single dash | -file "c:\temp\myquery.dax" |
| DOS style | /file "c:\temp\myquery.dax" |
Option names are case-insensitive, so --file, --File and --FILE are equivalent.
While the option names are case-insensitive, the values you pass are not - the casing of file paths, uri values and base64 payloads is always preserved exactly as you typed it.
The legacy single dash and DOS style forms are supported so that existing shortcuts and scripts
keep working. New scripts should prefer the --file / --uri long forms, which is what the
installer and the Start menu shortcuts now use.