Querying Data in Microsoft Power BI

Power BI facilitates easy connection to data sources, customization and merging of data points, and data visualization tools. It provides many methods for querying, connecting, and shaping data. Direct Query or Import methods can be used, depending on the size of the dataset and how up-to-date the data is required to be.

Common data query tasks include:

• Connecting to data
• Shaping and combining data
• Grouping rows
• Creating pivot columns
• Creating custom columns
• Creating query formulas

Depending on the size of the data set and how up-to-date the data is required to be, users may employ either Direct Query or Import methods such as:

• Import: The most commonly-used method for acquiring data, especially useful for static data sets.
• Direct Query: A direct query method that queries remote data in real time, rather than querying a local copy. You can use this method when the data set is so large that it slows the FTP.