A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Melissa Coates has an update for us:
An updated version of the Power BI End-to-End diagram is now available as of January 4, 2021.
This update is as of January 4th and includes things like Azure Purview. Melissa also shows how it has evolved over time, which is particularly interesting for Power BI given its rate of change.
Comments closedPaul Turley continues a series on relationship modeling in Power BI:
So far, you’ve seen that the essential components of a data model include tables related to each other. Filtering records in one table prorogates the filter to related tables(s), causing records in the related table to be filtered. This dimensional model schema is the foundation of the reporting solution. Once the fact and dimension tables are in-place, you can create more advanced solutions by working outside of this standard relationship pattern.
Read on for the full story.
Comments closedChris Webb answers a timeless question:
One question I get asked all the time is this:
Why don’t you add [insert feature idea here] to Power BI?
It’s sometimes followed up by one or more of the following comments:
It would be so easy for you to do
I can’t believe you haven’t done it already
Power BI is unusable without it
[insert competitor name here] has had this feature for years…and a real or virtual exasperated sigh.
Read on for the answer. This isn’t special to Power BI or even Microsoft—once you start to have customers with competing interests, these decisions get a lot harder.
Comments closedWolfgang Strasser explains the notion of chaining when working with Power BI datasets:
In my last blog post I introduced the new concept of DirectQuery for Power BI datasets. This feature allows you to extend and modify a (remote) published Power BI dataset with the help of a local model.
The local model does not contain a copy of the remote dataset but a reference to it. You, as Power BI developer, are able to extend the referenced model with new data sources (like the Excel file I used in my previous example) and/or extend the model with new measures, columns and so on. For a new data model, relationships between the two data islands can be created.
Read on for examples of how this can be useful and what the current limitations look like.
Comments closedWolfgang Strasser gives us a walkthrough of DirectQuery for Power BI datasets:
With the December 2020 release of Power BI Desktop, this approach changed. You are now able to change a live connection to a Power BI dataset (or an Azure Analysis Services connection) to DirectQuery mode. Which allows us, to enhance the remote model with new columns, tables, additional datasources and create relationships between the datasources.
Let’s dive deeper into this and look at the story together with a sample.
I’ve seen and linked to several posts talking about the idea, but Wolfgang has a demo going, which makes it easier to follow.
Comments closedJames Serra takes us through a new Power BI feature:
Announced last week is a major new feature for Power BI: you can now use DirectQuery to connect to Azure Analysis Services or Power BI Datasets and combine it with other DirectQuery datasets and/or imported datasets. This is a HUGE improvement that has the Power BI community buzzing! Think of it as the next generation of composite models. Note this requires the December version of Power BI Desktop, and you must go to Options -> Preview features and select “DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Analysis Services”.
Read on for more details.
Comments closedChris Webb shows you how you can include KQL query fragments in Power Query:
If the title wasn’t enough to warn you, this post is only going to be of interest to M ultra-geeks and people using Power BI with Azure Data Explorer – and I know there aren’t many people in either group. However I thought the feature I’m going to show you in this post is so cool I couldn’t resist blogging about it.
Limited in its utility, but still quite interesting.
Comments closedPaul Turley continues a series on doing Power BI the right way:
One of the most important lessons I have learned about data modeling over the past 20+ years is that there isn’t one model that fits all business needs. However, there are simple patterns we can follow to model data according to different business needs. Each pattern or schema has a different set of rules. At a very high level, we can think of these schemas in three different categories.
This is the 101 level course, but it’s good to get a refresher on the fundamentals before jumping into the complicated part.
Comments closedIn this guide, you will be integrating an already-existing Power BI workspace with Azure Synapse Analytics so that you can quickly access datasets, edit reports directly in the Synapse Studio, and automatically see updates to the report in the Power BI workspace. We will be using a Power BI report developed using the Movie Analytics dataset of the previous guide to show the functionalities of the Power BI integration in Azure Synapse.
Click through for the demo.
Comments closedStephanie Bruno embraces the healing power of AND:
When using slicers in Power BI reports, multiple selections filter data with OR logic. For example, if you have a slicer with products and your visuals are displaying total number of invoices, then when “bicycles” and “helmets” are selected in the products slicer your visual will show the number of invoices that include bicycles OR helmets. But what if you need to have it instead only show the number of invoices that include bicycles AND helmets? Read on to find out how you can do just that with DAX.
Read on for the solution.
Comments closed