Power BI for the Excel Analyst © 2022 Tickling Keys, Inc. and Exponenal BI All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmied in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informaon or storage retrieval system without permission from the publisher. Every ejort has been made tomake this book as complete and accurate as possible, but no warranty or mtness is implied.
Power BI for the Excel Analyst © 2022 Tickling Keys, Inc and Exponen al BI All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmi ed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informa on or storage retrieval system without permission from the publisher Every e ort has been made to make this book as complete and accurate as possible, but no warranty or tness is implied The informa on is provided on an “as is” basis The authors and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or en ty with respect to any loss or damages arising from the informa on contained in this book Author: Wyn Hopkins Layout: Bronkella Publishing Copyedi ng: Deanna Puls Tech Edit: Ken Puls Proofreader: Bill Jelen Cover Design: Shannon Travise Indexing: Nellie Jay Published by: Holy Macro! Books, PO Box 541731, Merri Island FL 32953, USA Distributed by: Independent Publishers Group, Chicago, IL Printed by Sheridan South, Brim eld Ohio First Prin ng: August 2022 E-Book version 20220719c ePub version 20221030c ISBN: 978-1-61547-076-1 Print, 978-1-61547-164-5 e-Book Library of Congress Control Number: 2022934210 Foreword I’m assuming that due to the tle of this book you might be a bit like me, you’re that person from department XYZ who’s good with Excel and interested in learning Power BI Welcome to the book I’m a massive fan of Power BI and Excel and I’ve been building solu ons for clients using both products for many years I’ve also trained a few thousand people in Excel and Power BI so I know the common hurdles and challenges that people face My rst taste of data was as a fresh-faced intern with Hewle Packard back in 1995 I was quickly hooked on Lotus123, one of the earliest spreadsheet packages, and within months I had automated away most of my monthend tasks I clearly had a knack for this stu Over the following years, I moved through my career learning more tricks and techniques from colleagues and the occasional training course I always enjoyed the data part of my job I liked the puzzles work presented and the workarounds and hacks were challenges that I enjoyed In 2007 I moved to Perth, Western Australia, and joined a dedicated Excel consul ng and training company, I’m s ll there now My ming was perfect as Excel was suddenly on a rapid path of improvement Excel 2007 and 2010 with a new Ribbon and Tables and then… then came the big one… the func onality known as Power Pivot, closely followed by Power Query If you haven’t heard of these things, then you’re not alone A silent revolu on happened to Excel In plain sight but under cover of add-ins and understated menus Power Pivot and Power Query – the Parents of Power BI Have you heard of the concept of a “sleeper car”? It’s when someone takes a boring-looking beaten-up old car and puts fuel injec on and souped-up suspension in it Power Pivot and Power Query brought that super-power to Excel Suddenly you could build highly exible reports that could be updated with a click of a bu on No longer were you limited to million rows of data or chained to the laborious tasks of copy-paste then ltering and wri ng thousands of VLOOKUPS that you must remember to drag down when new rows of data get added I think more people have now heard of Power BI than have heard of Power Pivot or Power Query, but the core concept was born out of making analysis easier for Excel users The Power BI of today started by taking Power Query, Power Pivot, and a visualisa on layer called Power View and wrapping them together into a single package Have no doubt that Excel and Power BI are s ll strongly related with a core set of genes that are infused into both ☕ If you’d like to hear more about the history of the product then I’d recommend this interview between Amir Netz (CTO of Microso Analy cs) and Kasper de Jonge (Principal Program Manager Power BI) url.pbi.guide/kasper At the 20-minute mark, Amir discusses how he came up with the algorithm for the magic behind the scenes of the Power Pivot / Power BI “engine” while si ng naked in his kitchen! Why I Wrote this Book I love helping people and I feel there is space for a book that gives an overall instruc onal guide on how to get started in Power BI aimed at the Excel Analysts of the world There are millions of us and Power BI’s popularity is nuing to grow There are many great books out there that I have learned from, and they tend to have a focus on single elements such as Power Query or DAX or come at Power BI from an IT user perspec ve I wanted to be able to recommend a book to people that covers the whole Power BI process aimed at Excel users transi oning to Power BI This has been my story and I think I have learned from enough mistakes over the last years and seen enough people struggle with certain elements that I’m well posi oned to write a book that helps Excel users make a successful start with Power BI The challenge with wri ng a book on Power BI is how quickly it changes and what to leave out Since its launch in May 2015 Power BI has developed at an astonishing pace Every month there are mul ple updates, and it has now grown into a fully- edged Business Intelligence ecosystem It pulls together the two worlds of the Excel Analysts and the corporate IT departments with a shared product and language This book aims to help you learn the core essen als of Power BI from the viewpoint of an Excel user Excel is the world’s most popular programming pla orm That’s right, if you’re wri ng Excel formulas you ARE a programmer Put “Func onal Language Programmer” on your résumé right now! Many of us push Excel to its limits, crea ng and copying hundreds of thousands of formulas, VLOOKUPS, and XLOOKUPS everywhere, throwing in some Macros where required But there is now a new way to build robust refreshable reports without any of that Chapter 10 of this book is an “Intermission for Excel fans” This goes a li le into the history of Power Pivot and Power Query and shows you how to apply the things you have learned in the book to Excel One of the main reasons I’m such a fan of Power BI is that it doesn’t force you to choose Power BI or Excel, it’s about using both with a shared set of techniques I hope the book gives you a kick-start on your learning journey ☕ It’s virtually guaranteed that the names or posi ons of certain bu ons, labels and other elements will have changed by the me you read this book However, the core principles you learn here will remain relevant for many years, so I hope you can forgive any user interface discrepancies It’s simply impossible to have a book that is in exact step with a product that is evolving so rapidly Acknowledgements I owe a debt of gra tude to all the Power BI content creators out there I have learned so much from their books, videos, blogs and presenta ons that this book simply wouldn’t exist without them Throughout the book I have added links to various addi onal resources created by many of the people I have learned from There are also those who have inspired me to push myself past the point of procras na on and into the world of ac on O en these people don’t realise that they lead by example, that they inspire others, and that they make all our lives that li le bit be er each day I’d also like to thank everyone that’s given me posi ve feedback a er a training course, a thumbs up on a social media, or le a kind comment on my YouTube channel All those moments acknowledging that I have something useful to share, encouraged me to write this book Thanks to Microso for building an awesome product and for listening to my feedback so willingly A massive thanks to Ken and Deanna Puls for helping to make the book far be er than I would have managed on my own And of course, a grateful shout-out to Bill Jelen, MrExcel himself, for publishing this book and pa ently answering my ques ons Table of Contents Foreword Power Pivot and Power Query – the Parents of Power BI Why I Wrote this Book Acknowledgements Chapter - Ge ng Started with Power BI Ge ng Set Up Using this Book and Downloading Sample Files Download the Exercises and view the List of URLs The PBI.guide Website Chapter - First Look – an Introduc on to Power BI Desktop Interac ng with a Power BI Report Introducing Power Query Impor ng and Cleaning Data using Power Query Summary of Your Introduc on to Power Query Chapter - Publishing Your Report Signing in to PowerBI.com for the First Time The PowerBI.com Experience (aka “the Service”) Crea ng a Workspace Power BI Licence Op ons: A Brief Overview Chapter - Files Stored in SharePoint/OneDrive for Business Step 1: Finding the Connec on Path Step 2: Using the Power BI Desktop Web Connec on Step 3: Pulling the Data into Power BI Step 4: Build a Simple Visual Step 5: Publish to Your New Workspace Step 6: Set up a Scheduled Refresh Chapter - Crea ng a Power BI Model Using a Template File with a Pre-built Calendar Table Crea ng Rela onships Between Tables Managing Sort Order Adding Addi onal “Lookup/Dimension” Tables Adjus ng Power BI Visuals Filtering via Slicers and the Filter Panel Exploring More Visuals Chapter - Ge ng Your Data into the “Right Shape” Power Query’s Two Best Features in One Chapter! Comparing Data from Two Fact Tables Chapter - DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions) Wri ng Your First DAX Measure Storing Measures in their Own Dedicated Table Year to Date Measure Prior Year Comparison and the CALCULATE Func on Removing Filters Forma ng Your DAX Ra os and Percentages Using DIVIDE Virtual Calculated Columns using the X Func ons Dealing with Mul ple Date Fields in Your Fact Table Organising Measures into Folders DAX – Next Steps in Your Learning Chapter - The Calendar Table Turning O Auto Date/Time for New Files Power Query Advanced Editor Copying Queries Between les Changing the Display Order of Fields Marking as Date Table Chapter - Crea ng a Template File Se ng Your Default Theme Fonts and Colours Adding a Measures Table Using Your Template Edi ng/Upda ng Templates Chapter 10 - Intermission for Excel Fans A Li le History of Power BI A Demonstra on of Excel’s “Power” Features Create an Interac ve Pivot Chart Chapter 11 - Enrich Your Power BI Report Condi onal Forma ng Tool ps Drill-through Page Report Design Tips Making Analysis Easier Natural Language Queries and AI-Driven Insights Chapter 12 - Sharing Your Reports via Apps Publish Your Report to the Workspace Create an App from Your Workspace Sharing the App Upda ng a Report and an App Scheduling a Refresh where a Gateway is Required Chapter 13 - Addi onal Important Features Row-Level Security Data ows Connec ng to a Dataset via Power BI Desktop Chapter 14 - Where Do We Go from Here? Some Topics We Didn’t Cover… Next Steps in Your Power BI Journey Pages a er the Index in the printed book Index Chapter - Getting Started with Power BI Power BI allows you to create and share robust, interac ve, refreshable reports in a secure environment It is a pla orm consis ng of several elements that allow report creators to provide informa on that is easily accessible and easily refreshable Power BI was o cially launched in July 2015 and is rapidly becoming commonplace in workplaces around the world You may well have seen it in ac on already The aim of this book will be to teach you how to build a simple interac ve report like the image below and for you to understand how to refresh it and share it with others Importantly I’ll be sharing my best prac ce ps and advice to give you a solid founda on in building and sharing reports the right way Power BI has brought about a complete change from the old days of Business Intelligence projects Those solu ons required dealing with so ware salespeople followed by weeks of requirements gathering by business analysts The requirements were then sent to distant developers crea ng what they think you said you need, rounded o with “out of Index Symbols 0-based numbering 99 Fact tables 100 3D Map 138 #DIV/0, preventing 118 // for comments 160 #REF error, not an issue 26 & to concatenate 96 ?web=1 52 A Add Column, Multiply 60 Adelaide budget 88 Administrator access 45 Adobe Color Wheel 135 Advanced Editor, introduced 125 Age from date 21 AI Insights 189 ALL See REMOVEFILTERS in DAX Allington, Matt 123, 215 ALT + Enter equivalent in DAX 116 Analyze in Excel 39 Drill-down limitations 110 Using measures 107 App Creating from Workspace 192 Updating 197 Applied Steps Cog icon 32 Introduced 14 Properties 32 Renaming a step 20 versus Macro Recorder 16 Apply Later 21 Aquarium visual 188 Attribute column 92 Auto date/time Disabling 59, 124 Axis labels truncated 77 Axis Title 77 B Bar Chart 86, 172 Bident 29 Blue for tables 108 Bookmarks 180 Bravo.bi 217 Bridge table 100 Buttons Page Navigation 182 Reset button 178 C CALCULATE in DAX 121 Calculator icon 110 Calendar Building your own 124 needs ' ' in formula 110 Pre-built 59 Canvas Background 184 De ned Capitalize Each Word 19 Card icon 133 Card Visual 82, 170 Case-sensitive formulas 31 Changed Type 15 Click to Run vs MSI 41 Close and Apply 16 Cloud, the De ned 35 Clustered bar Introduced 18 Co ee House Report 59, 157 Cog icon 32 Collect, Combine, and Transform book 127 Collie, Rob 123 Color Wheel 135 Colour coding in Formula Bar 108 Reports vs Datasets 48 Colours, Complementary 135 Column Chart 173 Column from Example 24 Combo chart 102 Common Dimension Linking fact tables via 100 Complementary colours 135 Concatenate with & 96 CONCATENATEX 119 Conditional Formatting 157 Connection Path 50 Contributor access 46 COUNTROWS in DAX 111 Count versus Sum 17 Cross Highlighting 175 Ctrl+T tables 67 Ctrl key in PowerBI Desktop Custom Column 31 Custom Visuals 187 D Data Bars 159 Data Explorer 137 Data ows 204 Data sources 205 Diagram view 208 from Power BI Desktop 210 Pasting queries 212 Refreshing 209 Datamarts 216 Data Model De ned Hiding columns 104 Inactive relationship 120 in Excel 143 Relationships, creating 62 Two Fact Tables 100 Dataset 213 Data view Date.From 124 Dates Calculating age 21 Displaying as number 21 Multiple date columns 119 Why 1899 21 Date Table, Mark as 131 DateTime.LocalNow 124 DAX Formatter 117 DAX Formulas for Power Pivot book 123 Dax.guide website 123 DAX Measures CALCULATE 121 Days YTD 111 Dedicated table 108 DIVIDE 117 Excel compatibility list 114 explicit vs implicit 106 for Headings 160 Formatting 117 in Excel 147 IntelliSense 105 Organizing in folders 122 SELECTEDVALUE 161 SUM 103 SUMX 119 // to comment 160 USERELATIONSHIP 121 Year to Date 110 Daxstudio.org 217 Day of Week, sorting 64 Days to Total Years 22 Days YTD 111 Decomposition Tree 185 Introduced de Jonge, Kasper v Design tips for reports 168 Detect Data Type 97 DirectQuery 216 DIVIDE in DAX 117 Don’t Summarize 78 Drill down Drill through Drill-through Page 166 du Soleil, Oz 34 E E5 Trial, free 35 Empty space, before New visual 29 Enable Editing 41 End of Month 96 Escobar, Miguel 127 Excel 3D Map 138 Chart formatting 155 Connect to Power BI dataset 42 Copy Path 52 Custom number formatting 156 Data Model 143 DAX Measures 147 Diagram View 144 Enable Editing 41 Get Data 42 Import from 12 Interactive Dashboards video 156 Manage Data Model 137 Pasting query from PBI 129 Pivot Chart 151 PivotTable 146 PivotTable from Power BI 42 Power View 139 Refresh All 156 Slicers 152 Excel on Fire channel 34 Exporting 39 F F2 to rename 26 Feedback site 33 Feldmann, Imke 217 Ferrari, Alberto 74, 123, 133 Fields Panel Expanding 16 Filtering in Power Query 90 Introduced Removing for measure 114 Reset via row labels 71 when sorted (bug) 115 with Filter Panel 79 with Slicers 77 First day of week 125 Fiscal month order 131 Fiscal year 112 Fish visual 188 Fixed decimal 60 Fix is button rarely works 28 Folders for Measures 122 in Power Query 99 Formula bar, showing 14 Formulas Case-sensitive 31 Fourmoo 204 G Gateway 198 Gemini project 137 Goals 216 Golden Dataset 215 Guy in a Cube channel 35, 139 H Hamburger menu 43 HASONEVALUE in DAX 161 Havens, Reid 180 Headings based on Measures 160 Hiding columns 104 History worksheet name 109 I Icon Sets 162 INDEX/MATCH equivalent 66 Insert new page in report 101 Iterator Functions 118 J Jelen, Bill vi Joiner table 100 L Leading zeros 30 Leap day bug 1900 21 LEN equivalent 31 Licence levels Embedded 49 Premium Per Capacity 49 Premium Per User 49 Pro 37, 48 Lineage View 214 Line and Clustered Column chart 102, 174 Lines Inserting 86 Rotate to vertical 86 Lotus 123 v M Manage Data Model 137, 143 Manage permissions 38 Many to Many 69 Map icon missing 29 Mark as Date Table 131 Master Your Data book 127 Matrix visual 65, 85 Maxim of Data Transformation 119 MAXX in DAX 119 Measure-based Headings 160 Measures table 108 Member access 46 Merge Columns 20 Microso , Workout Wednesday 169 M is for Data Monkey book 127 M language 126 Model View Auto t 68 Introduced 10 Months, across columns 88 My workspace, avoiding 43 N Nadella, Satya 138 Naming convention 44, 107 for Tables 67 Natural Language Queries 189 Negatives as Red 158 Netz, Amir v New Page with + icon 101 Northern Territory, Postcodes 30 NOW() equivalent 124 O OneDrive for Business Connection Path 50 Files stored in 50 One to Many 69 Only Create Connection 129 P Paginated Reports 217 Path to OneDrive 50 PBI.guide Peltier, Jon 156 Perth v Philips, James 139 Pitchfork 29 Pivot Chart 151 PivotTable Fields pane arrangement 146 from Data Model 146 Power BI History 137 Launch date Vertipaq engine 74 Power BI Cleaner tool 217 PowerBI.com Data ow 204 De ned Signing in 35 Power BI Data Stories Gallery 39 Power BI Designer 139 Power BI Desktop Create an App 192 Ctrl key for buttons Fields Panel 16 First look Four screens from Data ow 210 Installing Web connection 51 Power BI Ideas site 33 Power BI Metrics 216 Power BI Partner Showcase 39 Power BI Premium 216 Power Pivot 137 Power Query Add Column 60 Adding custom column 31, 96 Advanced Editor 125 Applied Steps 14 Apply Later 21 Capitalize Each Word 19 Changed Type 15 Choose Columns 54 Close and Apply 16 Combine les 93 Copying between les 128 Date.From 124 DateTime.LocalNow 124 De ned Deleting a query 92 Detect Data Type 97 Editor, introduced 13 FILTERED STEPS 90 Folders to organize 99 from Data ow 210 in Excel 140 in Excel, history 137 Introduced 11 Magic podcast 128 Merge Columns 20 Navigator 12 New Source 141 no Undo 21 Remove Empty 53 Remove Rows 15 Removing Column 26 Renaming a column 25 Renaming a step 20 Re-open via icon 19 Replace Values 19 Rounding 22 Select all columns 97 Step Properties 32 Trim 19 Unpivot Other Columns 89 Use First Row as Headers 15 Power View 139 Pre-built Calendar 59 Premium Per Capacity 49 Privacy levels 57 Project Gemini 137 Protected words Measure 109 Publishing a report 35 Publish to web 39 Puls, Deanna vi Puls, Ken 127 Purple for measures 108 Q Q&A 189 R Rad, Reza 204 RAM requirement Raviv, Gil 127 Refresh Rate per day 58 Scheduled 56 Relationships Autodetect 69 Changing 69 Creating 62 Direction 70 Inactive 120 Many to Many 69 One to Many 69 Remove Empty 53 REMOVEFILTERS in DAX 114 Remove Rows 15 Removing Column 26 Renaming a column 25 Renaming a step 20 Replace Values 19 Report design tips 168 Reserved words Measure 109 Roche, Matthew 119 Role Adding consumers 202 Setting up 201 Rounding 22 Row-Level Security 201 Russo, Marco 74, 123 S Sample les Saxton, Adam 35, 139 Scheduled Refresh 56 Security, Row-Level 201 SELECTEDVALUE in DAX 161 Service, de ned Shaping data 88 Share icon 37 SharePoint 50 Sharing via Apps 192 Sharks visual 188 SHIFT + Enter in formula 116 Single source of truth 42 Sleeper car v Slicers 77 as Buttons 78 in Excel 152 Select All button 79 Single select 79 Small Multiples 186 Sort Order 63 by Month 130 SQLBI channel 123 SQLBI.com 74, 123 Step Properties 32 Success! hyperlink 47 SUMX in DAX 119 Supercharge Power BI book 123 T Table Visual 106, 170 Tabular Editor 217 Tasmania 29 Template File 134 Tenant, de ned 35 Text.BetweenDelimiters 24 Text.Length 31 Text.PadStart 31 e De nitive Guide to DAX 123 eme Colours 134 the Service See PowerBI.com ousands, in Excel 155 Title text in visual 28 Tooltips Creating 165 on hover, introduced TOTALYTD in DAX 110 Tra c Lights 162 Transform Sample File 94 Treacy, Mynda 156 Trident 29 Trim 19 Two fact tables 100 U Un ltering 111 Unpivot Other Columns 89 Use First Row as Headers 15 USERELATIONSHIP in DAX 121 V Variance measure 105 Vertipaq engine 74 Viewer access 47 Visual Adding new 29 Adjusting 75 Bar Chart 86 Cards 82 Change title 28 Creating rst 17 Custom Visuals 187 Decomposition Tree 185 Matrix 85 Small Multiples 186 Table Visual 106 VLOOKUP in Data Model 66 W Wa e icon 47 Waterfall chart 190 Webb, Chris 137 Weekday, sorting 64 Why I did this step 32 Workout Wednesday 169 Workspace Creating 43 Naming 44 Publishing to a 47 X X Functions in DAX 118 XLOOKUP in Data Model 66 Y Year-end, custom 112 Year to Date measure 110 Z Zero-based numbering 99 Zero, leading 30 ... takes your repor ng to the next level PowerBI.com, also known as ? ?the service”, is where you save your reports to share with others The report consumers can log in to PowerBI.com to view the reports... Cleaning Data using Power Query Summary of Your Introduc on to Power Query Chapter - Publishing Your Report Signing in to PowerBI.com for the First Time The PowerBI.com Experience (aka ? ?the Service”)... Power Query and shows you how to apply the things you have learned in the book to Excel One of the main reasons I’m such a fan of Power BI is that it doesn’t force you to choose Power BI or Excel,