Download or read book Basics of Power BI Modeling written by Reza Rad and published by RADACAD Systems Limited. This book was released on 2020-09-11 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I have been dealing with many Power BI challenges in my professional life as a Power BI consultant and a trainer. Challenges normally come as calculation or DAX questions, or sometimes as a performance question. However, after digging deeper into the problem, soon, it will be revealed that the problem is related to a more fundamental challenge; data modeling.If you have a Power BI implementation with many calculation-related or performance-related issues, I strongly suggest looking into your data model because that is where most of the problems start.A good data model is a great base, which upon that, you can build up many stories of calculations and analysis. A bad data model causes problems on every level that you add upon it, and might sometime cause the whole solution to collapse.Fortunately, data modeling is not rocket science. I explained the basic principles of the data modeling with examples in this book. Use this book as the learning path towards a better data model. Most of the tips mentioned in this book are product-agnostic (such as star-schema, dimension, and fact tables). However, this book is particularly designed and developed for a Power BI product user.This book is for you if you are building a Power BI solution. If your task is only visualizing the existing data, this book might not be needed for you. However, What I have seen in many cases, is that the requirement starts with just visualize the data, and then more data tables appear, and you get into the tunnel of data modeling without knowing the principles of it. This book is a guide for you through that tunnel.

Download or read book Basics of Power BI Modeling written by Reza Rad and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-11 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I have been dealing with many Power BI challenges in my professional life as a Power BI consultant and a trainer. Challenges normally come as calculation or DAX questions, or sometimes as a performance question. However, after digging deeper into the problem, soon, it will be revealed that the problem is related to a more fundamental challenge; data modeling.If you have a Power BI implementation with many calculation-related or performance-related issues, I strongly suggest looking into your data model because that is where most of the problems start.A good data model is a great base, which upon that, you can build up many stories of calculations and analysis. A bad data model causes problems on every level that you add upon it, and might sometime cause the whole solution to collapse.Fortunately, data modeling is not rocket science. I explained the basic principles of the data modeling with examples in this book. Use this book as the learning path towards a better data model. Most of the tips mentioned in this book are product-agnostic (such as star-schema, dimension, and fact tables). However, this book is particularly designed and developed for a Power BI product user.This book is for you if you are building a Power BI solution. If your task is only visualizing the existing data, this book might not be needed for you. However, What I have seen in many cases, is that the requirement starts with just visualize the data, and then more data tables appear, and you get into the tunnel of data modeling without knowing the principles of it. This book is a guide for you through that tunnel.

Download or read book Analyzing Data with Power BI and Power Pivot for Excel written by Alberto Ferrari and published by Microsoft Press. This book was released on 2017-04-28 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned DAX experts Alberto Ferrari and Marco Russo teach you how to design data models for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. How can you use Excel and Power BI to gain real insights into your information? As you examine your data, how do you write a formula that provides the numbers you need? The answers to both of these questions lie with the data model. This book introduces the basic techniques for shaping data models in Excel and Power BI. It’s meant for readers who are new to data modeling as well as for experienced data modelers looking for tips from the experts. If you want to use Power BI or Excel to analyze data, the many real-world examples in this book will help you look at your reports in a different way–like experienced data modelers do. As you’ll soon see, with the right data model, the correct answer is always a simple one! By reading this book, you will: • Gain an understanding of the basics of data modeling, including tables, relationships, and keys • Familiarize yourself with star schemas, snowflakes, and common modeling techniques • Learn the importance of granularity • Discover how to use multiple fact tables, like sales and purchases, in a complex data model • Manage calendar-related calculations by using date tables • Track historical attributes, like previous addresses of customers or manager assignments • Use snapshots to compute quantity on hand • Work with multiple currencies in the most efficient way • Analyze events that have durations, including overlapping durations • Learn what data model you need to answer your specific business questions About This Book • For Excel and Power BI users who want to exploit the full power of their favorite tools • For BI professionals seeking new ideas for modeling data

Download or read book Expert Data Modeling with Power BI written by Soheil Bakhshi and published by Packt Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2021-06-11 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Manage and work with business data effectively by learning data modeling techniques and leveraging the latest features of Power BI Key Features Understand data modeling techniques to get the best out of data using Power BI Define the relationships between data to extract valuable insights Solve a wide variety of business challenges by building optimal data models Book DescriptionThis book is a comprehensive guide to understanding the ins and outs of data modeling and how to create data models using Power BI confidently. You'll learn how to connect data from multiple sources, understand data, define and manage relationships between data, and shape data models to gain deep and detailed insights about your organization. In this book, you'll explore how to use data modeling and navigation techniques to define relationships and create a data model before defining new metrics and performing custom calculations using modeling features. As you advance through the chapters, the book will demonstrate how to create full-fledged data models, enabling you to create efficient data models and simpler DAX code with new data modeling features. With the help of examples, you'll discover how you can solve business challenges by building optimal data models and changing your existing data models to meet evolving business requirements. Finally, you'll learn how to use some new and advanced modeling features to enhance your data models to carry out a wide variety of complex tasks. By the end of this Power BI book, you'll have gained the skills you need to structure data coming from multiple sources in different ways to create optimized data models that support reporting and data analytics.What you will learn Implement virtual tables and time intelligence functionalities in DAX to build a powerful model Identify Dimension and Fact tables and implement them in Power Query Editor Deal with advanced data preparation scenarios while building Star Schema Explore best practices for data preparation and modeling Discover different hierarchies and their common pitfalls Understand complex data models and how to decrease the level of model complexity with different approaches Learn advanced data modeling techniques such as aggregations, incremental refresh, and RLS/OLS Who this book is for This MS Power BI book is for BI users, data analysts, and analysis developers who want to become well-versed with data modeling techniques to make the most of Power BI. You’ll need a solid grasp on basic use cases and functionalities of Power BI and Star Schema functionality before you can dive in.

Download or read book Introducing Microsoft Power BI written by Alberto Ferrari and published by Microsoft Press. This book was released on 2016-07-07 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. Introducing Microsoft Power BI enables you to evaluate when and how to use Power BI. Get inspired to improve business processes in your company by leveraging the available analytical and collaborative features of this environment. Be sure to watch for the publication of Alberto Ferrari and Marco Russo's upcoming retail book, Analyzing Data with Power BI and Power Pivot for Excel (ISBN 9781509302765). Go to the book's page at the Microsoft Press Store here for more details:http://aka.ms/analyzingdata/details. Learn more about Power BI at https://powerbi.microsoft.com/.

Download or read book Expert Data Modeling with Power BI written by Soheil Bakhshi and published by Packt Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 699 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take your Power BI reports to the next level by learning various data modeling techniques and leveraging the latest features of Power BI effectively Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free eBook in PDF format. Key Features Get an understanding of data modeling techniques using Power BI with this up-to-date guide Learn how to define the relationships between data sets to extract valuable insights Explore best practices for data preparation and modeling and build optimal data models to solve a wide variety of real-world business challenges Book Description This book is a comprehensive guide to understanding the ins and outs of data modeling and how to create full-fledged data models using Power BI confidently. In this new, fully updated edition, you'll learn how to connect data from multiple sources, understand data, define and manage relationships between data, and shape data models to gain deep and detailed insights about your organization. As you advance through the chapters, the book will demonstrate how to prepare efficient data models in the Power Query Editor and use simpler DAX code with new data modeling features. You'll explore how to use the various data modeling and navigation techniques and perform custom calculations using the modeling features with the help of real-world examples. Finally, you'll learn how to use some new and advanced modeling features to enhance your data models to carry out a wide variety of complex tasks. Additionally, you'll learn valuable best practices and explore common data modeling complications and the solutions to supercharge the process of creating a data model in Power BI and build better-performing data models. By the end of this Power BI book, you'll have gained the skills you need to structure data coming from multiple sources in different ways to create optimized data models that support high-performing reports and data analytics. What you will learn Implement virtual tables and time intelligence functionalities in DAX to build a powerful model Identify Dimension and Fact tables and implement them in Power Query Editor Deal with advanced data preparation scenarios while building Star Schema Discover different hierarchies and their common pitfalls Understand complex data models and how to decrease the level of model complexity with different approaches Learn advanced data modeling techniques such as calculation groups, aggregations, incremental refresh, RLS/OLS, and more Get well-versed with datamarts and dataflows in PowerBI Who this book is for This MS Power BI book is for BI users, data analysts, and analysis developers who want to become well-versed with data modeling techniques to make the most of Power BI. Basic working knowledge of Power BI and the Star Schema functionality are required to help you to understand the concepts covered in this book.

Download or read book Beginning Microsoft Power BI written by Dan Clark and published by Apress. This book was released on 2020-02-21 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyze company data quickly and easily using Microsoft’s powerful data tools. Learn to build scalable and robust data models, clean and combine different data sources effectively, and create compelling and professional visuals. Beginning Power BI is a hands-on, activity-based guide that takes you through the process of analyzing your data using the tools that that encompass the core of Microsoft’s self-service BI offering. Starting with Power Query, you will learn how to get data from a variety of sources, and see just how easy it is to clean and shape the data prior to importing it into a data model. Using Power BI tabular and the Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), you will learn to create robust scalable data models which will serve as the foundation of your data analysis. From there you will enter the world of compelling interactive visualizations to analyze and gain insight into your data. You will wrap up your Power BI journey by learning how to package and share your reports and dashboards with your colleagues. Author Dan Clark takes you through each topic using step-by-step activities and plenty of screen shots to help familiarize you with the tools. This third edition covers the new and evolving features in the Power BI platform and new chapters on data flows and composite models. This book is your hands-on guide to quick, reliable, and valuable data insight. What You Will Learn Simplify data discovery, association, and cleansingBuild solid analytical data models Create robust interactive data presentations Combine analytical and geographic data in map-based visualizations Publish and share dashboards and reports Who This Book Is For Business analysts, database administrators, developers, and other professionals looking to better understand and communicate with data

Download or read book The Definitive Guide to DAX written by Alberto Ferrari and published by Microsoft Press. This book was released on 2015-10-14 with total page 1647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive and authoritative guide will teach you the DAX language for business intelligence, data modeling, and analytics. Leading Microsoft BI consultants Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari help you master everything from table functions through advanced code and model optimization. You’ll learn exactly what happens under the hood when you run a DAX expression, how DAX behaves differently from other languages, and how to use this knowledge to write fast, robust code. If you want to leverage all of DAX’s remarkable power and flexibility, this no-compromise “deep dive” is exactly what you need. Perform powerful data analysis with DAX for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Excel, and Power BI Master core DAX concepts, including calculated columns, measures, and error handling Understand evaluation contexts and the CALCULATE and CALCULATETABLE functions Perform time-based calculations: YTD, MTD, previous year, working days, and more Work with expanded tables, complex functions, and elaborate DAX expressions Perform calculations over hierarchies, including parent/child hierarchies Use DAX to express diverse and unusual relationships Measure DAX query performance with SQL Server Profiler and DAX Studio

Download or read book Pro Power BI Theme Creation written by Adam Aspin and published by Apress. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Use JSON theme files to standardize the look of Power BI dashboards and reports. This book shows how you can create theme files using the Power BI Desktop application to define high-level formatting attributes for dashboards as well as how to tailor detailed formatting specifications for individual dashboard elements in JSON files. Standardize the look of your dashboards and apply formatting consistently over all your reports. The techniques in this book provide you with tight control over the presentation of all aspects of the Power BI dashboards and reports that you create. Power BI theme files use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) as their structure, so the book includes a brief introduction to JSON as well as how it applies to Power BI themes. The book further includes a complete reference to all the current formatting definitions and JSON structures that are at your disposal for creating JSON theme files. Finally, the book includes dozens of theme files, from the simple to the most complex, that you can adopt and adapt to suit your own requirements. What You Will Learn Produce designer output without manually formatting every individual visual in a Power BI dashboard Standardize presentation for families of dashboard types Switch presentation styles in a couple of clicks Save dozens, or hundreds, of hours laboriously formatting dashboards Define enterprise-wide presentation standards Retroactively apply standard styles to existing dashboards Who This Book Is For Power BI users who want to save time by defining standardized formatting for their dashboards and reports, IT professionals who want to create corporate standards of dashboard presentation, and marketing and communication specialists who want to set organizational standards for dashboard delivery

Download or read book Mastering Power Query in Power BI and Excel written by Reza Rad and published by RADACAD Systems Limited. This book was released on 2021-08-27 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Any data analytics solution requires data population and preparation. With the rise of data analytics solutions these years, the need for this data preparation becomes even more essential. Power BI is a helpful data analytics tool that is used worldwide by many users. As a Power BI (or Microsoft BI) developer, it is essential to learn how to prepare the data in the right shape and format needed. You need to learn how to clean the data and build it in a structure that can be modeled easily and used high performant for visualization. Data preparation and transformation is the backend work. If you consider building a BI system as going to a restaurant and ordering food. The visualization is the food you see on the table nicely presented. The quality, the taste, and everything else come from the hard work in the kitchen. The part that you don’t see or the backend in the world of Power BI is Power Query. You may already be familiar with other data preparation and transformation technologies, such as T-SQL, SSIS, Azure Data Factory, Informatica, etc. Power Query is a data transformation engine capable of preparing the data in the format you need. The good news is that to learn Power Query; you don’t need to know programming. Power Query is for citizen data engineers. However, this doesn’t mean that Power Query is not capable of performing advanced transformation. Power Query exists in many Microsoft tools and services such as Power BI, Excel, Dataflows, Power Automate, Azure Data Factory, etc. Through the years, this engine became more powerful. These days, we can say this is essential learning for anyone who wants to do data analysis with Microsoft technology to learn Power Query and master it. We have been working with Power Query since the very early release of that in 2013, named Data Explorer, and wrote blog articles and published videos about it. The number of articles we published under this subject easily exceeds hundreds. Through those articles, some of the fundamentals and key learnings of Power Query are explained. We thought it is good to compile some of them in a book series. A good analytics solution combines a good data model, good data preparation, and good analytics and calculations. Reza has written another book about the Basics of modeling in Power BI and a book on Power BI DAX Simplified. This book is covering the data preparation and transformations aspects of it. This book series is for you if you are building a Power BI solution. Even if you are just visualizing the data, preparation and transformations are an essential part of analytics. You do need to have the cleaned and prepared data ready before visualizing it. This book is compiled into a series of two books, which will be followed by a third book later; Getting started with Power Query in Power BI and Excel (already available to be purchased separately) Mastering Power Query in Power BI and Excel (This book) Power Query dataflows (will be published later) This book deeps dive into real-world challenges of data transformation. It starts with combining data sources and continues with aggregations and fuzzy operations. The book covers advanced usage of Power Query in scenarios such as error handling and exception reports, custom functions and parameters, advanced analytics, and some helpful table and list functions. The book continues with some performance tuning tips and it also explains the Power Query formula language (M) and the structure of it and how to use it in practical solutions. Although this book is written for Power BI and all the examples are presented using the Power BI. However, the examples can be easily applied to Excel, Dataflows, and other tools and services using Power Query.

Download or read book Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide written by Devin Knight and published by Packt Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2018-07-30 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bring your data to life with Power BI Key Features Get to grips with the fundamentals of Microsoft Power BI and its Business Intelligence capabilities Build accurate analytical models, reports and dashboards Get faster and more intuitive insights from your data using Microsoft Power BI Book DescriptionMicrosoft Power BI is a cloud-based service that helps you easily visualize and share insights using your organization's data.This book will get you started with business intelligence using the Power BI toolset, covering essential concepts such as installation,designing effective data models, as well as building basic dashboards and visualizations to make your data come to life You will learn how to get your data the way you want – connecting to data sources sources and how to clean your data with the Power BI Query Editor. You will next learn how to properly design your data model to make your data easier to work with.. You will next learn how to properly design your data model to navigate table relationships and build DAX formulas to make your data easier to work with. Visualizing your data is another key element of this book, and you will learn how to follow proper data visualization styles and enhanced digital storytelling techniques. By the end of this book, you will understand how to administer your organization's Power BI environment so deployment can be made seamless, data refreshes can run properly, and security can be fully implementedWhat you will learn Connect to data sources using both import and DirectQuery options Use the Query Editor to apply data transformations and data cleansing processes, including learning how to write M and R scripts Design optimized data models by designing relationships and DAX calculations Leverage built-in and custom visuals to design effective reports Use the Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service to implement Row Level Security on your model Administer a Power BI cloud tenant for your organization Deploy your Power BI Desktop files into the Power BI Report Server Who this book is for This book is for aspiring Business Intelligence professionals who want to get up and running with Microsoft Power BI. If you have a basic understanding of BI concepts and want to learn how to apply them using Microsoft Power BI, this book is for you.

Download or read book Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide written by Devin Knight and published by Packt Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2020-10-30 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible fast paced introduction to all aspects of Power BI for new or aspiring BI professionals, data analysts, and data visualizers. Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free eBook in the PDF format. Key Features Updated with the latest features in Power BI including Dataflow, AI insights, visuals and row level security Get faster and more intuitive data insights using Microsoft Power BI and its business intelligence capabilities Build accurate analytical models, reports, and dashboards Book Description This revised edition has been fully updated to reflect the latest enhancements to Power BI. It includes a new chapter dedicated to dataflow, and covers all the essential concepts such as installation, designing effective data models, as well as building basic dashboards and visualizations to help you and your organization make better business decisions. You'll learn how to obtain data from a variety of sources and clean it using Power BI Query Editor. You'll then find out how you can design your data model to navigate and explore relationships within it and build DAX formulas to make your data easier to work with. Visualizing your data is a key element in this book, and you'll get to grips rapidly with data visualization styles and enhanced digital storytelling techniques. In addition, you will acquire the skills to build your own dataflows, understand the Common Data Model, and automate data flow refreshes to eradicate data cleansing inefficiency. This guide will help you understand how to administer your organization's Power BI environment so that deployment can be made seamless, data refreshes can run properly, and security can be fully implemented. By the end of this Power BI book, you'll have a better understanding of how to get the most out of Power BI to perform effective business intelligence. What you will learn Connect to data sources using import and DirectQuery options Use Query Editor for data transformation and data cleansing processes, including writing M and R scripts and dataflows to do the same in the cloud Design optimized data models by designing relationships and DAX calculations Design effective reports with built-in and custom visuals Adopt Power BI Desktop and Service to implement row-level security Administer a Power BI cloud tenant for your organization Use built-in AI capabilities to enhance Power BI data transformation techniques Deploy your Power BI desktop files into the Power BI Report Server Who this book is for Aspiring business intelligence professionals who want to learn Power BI will find this book useful. If you have a basic understanding of BI concepts and want to learn how to apply them using Microsoft Power BI, this book is for you.

Download or read book Mastering Microsoft Power BI written by Brett Powell and published by Packt Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2018-03-29 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Design, create and manage robust Power BI solutions to gain meaningful business insights Key Features Master all the dashboarding and reporting features of Microsoft Power BI Combine data from multiple sources, create stunning visualizations and publish your reports across multiple platforms A comprehensive guide with real-world use cases and examples demonstrating how you can get the best out of Microsoft Power BI Book DescriptionThis book is intended for business intelligence professionals responsible for the design and development of Power BI content as well as managers, architects and administrators who oversee Power BI projects and deployments. The chapters flow from the planning of a Power BI project through the development and distribution of content to the administration of Power BI for an organization. BI developers will learn how to create sustainable and impactful Power BI datasets, reports, and dashboards. This includes connecting to data sources, shaping and enhancing source data, and developing an analytical data model. Additionally, top report and dashboard design practices are described using features such as Bookmarks and the Power KPI visual. BI managers will learn how Power BI’s tools work together such as with the On-premises data gateway and how content can be staged and securely distributed via Apps. Additionally, both the Power BI Report Server and Power BI Premium are reviewed. By the end of this book, you will be confident in creating effective charts, tables, reports or dashboards for any kind of data using the tools and techniques in Microsoft Power BI.What you will learn Build efficient data retrieval and transformation processes with the Power Query M Language Design scalable, user-friendly DirectQuery and Import Data Models Develop visually rich, immersive, and interactive reports and dashboards Maintain version control and stage deployments across development, test, and production environments Manage and monitor the Power BI Service and the On-premises data gateway Develop a fully on-premise solution with the Power BI Report Server Scale up a Power BI solution via Power BI Premium capacity and migration to Azure Analysis Services or SQL Server Analysis Services Who this book is for Business Intelligence professionals and existing Power BI users looking to master Power BI for all their data visualization and dashboarding needs will find this book to be useful. While understanding of the basic BI concepts is required, some exposure to Microsoft Power BI will be helpful.

Download or read book Exam Ref 70 778 Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Microsoft Power BI written by Daniil Maslyuk and published by Microsoft Press. This book was released on 2018-06-07 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prepare for Microsoft Exam 70-778–and help demonstrate your real-world mastery of Power BI data analysis and visualization. Designed for experienced BI professionals and data analysts ready to advance their status, Exam Ref focuses on the critical thinking and decision-making acumen needed for success at the MCSA level. Focus on the expertise measured by these objectives: Consume and transform data by using Power BI Desktop Model and visualize data Configure dashboards, reports, and apps in the Power BI Service This Microsoft Exam Ref: Organizes its coverage by exam objectives Features strategic, what-if scenarios to challenge you Assumes you have experience consuming and transforming data, modeling and visualizing data, and configuring dashboards using Excel and Power BI

Download or read book M Is for Data Monkey written by Ken Puls and published by Tickling Keys, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Power Query is one component of the Power BI (Business Intelligence) product from Microsoft, and "M" is the name of the programming language created by it. As more business intelligence pros begin using Power Pivot, they find that they do not have the Excel skills to clean the data in Excel; Power Query solves this problem. This book shows how to use the Power Query tool to get difficult data sets into both Excel and Power Pivot, and is solely devoted to Power Query dashboarding and reporting.

Download or read book Microsoft Power BI For Dummies written by Jack A. Hyman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveal the insights behind your company’s data with Microsoft Power BI Microsoft Power BI allows intuitive access to data that can power intelligent business decisions and insightful strategies. The question is, do you have the Power BI skills to make your organization’s numbers spill their secrets? In Microsoft Power BI For Dummies, expert lecturer, consultant, and author Jack Hyman delivers a start-to-finish guide to applying the Power BI platform to your own firm’s data. You’ll discover how to start exploring your data sources, build data models, visualize your results, and create compelling reports that motivate decisive action. Tackle the basics of Microsoft Power BI and, when you’re done with that, move on to advanced functions like accessing data with DAX and app integrations Guide your organization’s direction and decisions with rock-solid conclusions based on real-world data Impress your bosses and confidently lead your direct reports with exciting insights drawn from Power BI’s useful visualization tools It’s one thing for your company to have data at its disposal. It’s another thing entirely to know what to do with it. Microsoft Power BI For Dummies is the straightforward blueprint you need to apply one of the most powerful business intelligence tools on the market to your firm’s existing data.

Download or read book Getting started with Power Query in Power BI and Excel written by Reza Rad and published by RADACAD Systems Limited. This book was released on 2021-08-27 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Any data analytics solution requires data population and preparation. With the rise of data analytics solutions these years, the need for this data preparation becomes even more essential. Power BI is a helpful data analytics tool that is used worldwide by many users. As a Power BI (or Microsoft BI) developer, it is essential to learn how to prepare the data in the right shape and format needed. You need to learn how to clean the data and build it in the structure that can be modeled easily and used high performant for visualization. Data preparation and transformation is the backend work. If you consider building a BI system as going to a restaurant and ordering food. The visualization is the food you see on the table nicely presented. The quality, the taste, and everything else comes from the hard work in the kitchen. The part that you don’t see or the backend in the world of Power BI is Power Query. You may be already familiar with some other data preparation and data transformation technologies, such as T-SQL, SSIS, Azure Data Factory, Informatica, etc. Power Query is a data transformation engine capable of preparing the data in the format you need. The good news is that to learn Power Query; you don’t need to know programming. Power Query is for citizen data engineers. However, this doesn’t mean that Power Query is not capable of performing advanced transformation. Unfortunately, because Power Query and data preparation is the kitchen work of the BI system, many Power BI users skip the learning of it and become aware of it somewhere along their BI project. Once they get familiar with it, they realize there are tons of things they could have implemented easier, faster, and in a much more maintainable way using Power Query. In other words, they learn mastering Power Query is the key skill toward mastering Power BI. We have been working with Power Query since the very early release of that in 2013, named Data Explorer, and wrote blog articles and published videos about it. The number of articles we published under this subject easily exceeds hundreds. Through those articles, some of the fundamentals and key learnings of Power Query are explained. We thought it is good to compile some of them in a book. A good analytics solution combines a good data model, good data preparation, and good analytics and calculations. Reza has written another book about the Basics of modeling in Power BI and a book on Power BI DAX Simplified. This book is covering the data preparation and transformations aspects of it. This book is for you if you are building a Power BI solution. Even if you are just visualizing the data, preparation and transformations are an essential part of analytics. You do need to have the cleaned and prepared data ready before visualizing it. This book is complied into a series of two books, which will be followed by a third book later; Getting started with Power Query in Power BI and Excel (this book) Mastering Power Query in Power BI and Excel (already available to be purchased separately) Power Query dataflows (will be published later) Although this book is written for Power BI and all the examples are presented using the Power BI. However, the examples can be easily applied to Excel, Dataflows, and other tools and services using Power Query.