Budget vs Actual: Zero Complexity Model in Power BI

When I explain the Star Schema and best practices of data modeling in Power BI, Often I get questions such as what if we want to have budget and actuals in the same data model? what if there are two tables with different granularity? We cannot solve it with simple data modeling and relationships, this Read more about Budget vs Actual: Zero Complexity Model in Power BI[…]

Create a Profiling Report in Power BI: Give the End User Information about the Data

Most of the time, you would like to know how the data quality looks like in your tables. Although, this is a process that you mainly check at the time of data preparation, having such report for end users, is also helpful, because sometimes they see an odd outcome, and wonder where this is coming Read more about Create a Profiling Report in Power BI: Give the End User Information about the Data[…]

Build Your First Star Schema Model in Action: Power BI Modeling Basics

Dimensions and Fact tables are the two essential parts of building a data model, and their relationship in the form of Star Schema is the best practice of doing the modeling. However, these are all theories until you really experience it in a real-world example. In this article, I want to put everything you learned Read more about Build Your First Star Schema Model in Action: Power BI Modeling Basics[…]

Power BI Basics of Modeling: Star Schema and How to Build it

Now that you know about the dimension and fact tables, it is time to talk about one of the most important concepts of modeling. You might have heard about dimensional modeling or star schema, but you may have vague ideas about what it is, or alternatively, you might have used it, but not sure if Read more about Power BI Basics of Modeling: Star Schema and How to Build it[…]

Basics of Modeling in Power BI: Fact Tables

Fact tables are the core of analysis in a data model. In the previous article, I explained what a dimension table is, and why we cannot have everything in one big table. In this article, you will learn about the fact table, and how it positioned in a data model, you will also learn how Read more about Basics of Modeling in Power BI: Fact Tables[…]

Import Email Attachments Directly Into a Power BI Report using Power Query

Power Query has more than 80 data sources supported, and Microsoft Exchange is one of those data sources. Although it is not a new data source, however, the power of this data source combined with the data transformation power of Power Query is not clear for everyone. Using this data source, you can get all Read more about Import Email Attachments Directly Into a Power BI Report using Power Query[…]

Export data from Power Query to Local Machine or SQL Server using R scripts

There is always a discussion on how to store back the data from Power BI to local computer or SQL Server Databases, in this short blog, I will show how to do it by writing R scripts inside Power Query.   First how to Store Files to PC To store data back to a file Read more about Export data from Power Query to Local Machine or SQL Server using R scripts[…]

Exception Reporting in Power Query and Power BI; Part 2 Catching Error Rows for All Columns in the Table Section 2

In the first part of this series, you learned how to create an exception reporting for a column in a table using Power Query in Power BI. In the second part, you learned how to initiate that process for all columns in a table. This article continues the section one of creating exception reporting for Read more about Exception Reporting in Power Query and Power BI; Part 2 Catching Error Rows for All Columns in the Table Section 2[…]

Exception Reporting in Power Query and Power BI; Part 2 Catching Error Rows for All Columns in the Table Section 1

Previously, I have written about using Power Query transformations and functions to create an Exception report for Power BI. However, the method I mentioned there, was only doing the exception handling based on one column. In this article, I’m explaining how to do exception reporting for all columns in the entire table. There are a Read more about Exception Reporting in Power Query and Power BI; Part 2 Catching Error Rows for All Columns in the Table Section 1[…]

Workaround for Computed Entity in Power BI Pro: Dataflow in Power BI

I have previously written about What dataflow is and scenarios of using it. I also wrote an article about Computed Entity and the important role of that for performance and data lineage. However, a Computed entity is a premium-only feature. There are sometimes that you don’t really need premium functions of Power BI, and only Read more about Workaround for Computed Entity in Power BI Pro: Dataflow in Power BI[…]