Using Microsoft Power

BI to Explore and
Visualize Data
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Power BI
Power BI is a suite
of business
analytics tools to
analyze data and
share insights, with
tools for business
users to gain access
to their most
important metrics in
a single location
across all devices
and platforms.
Tools & Platforms

Services Desktop Mobile Embedded

• Web-based • Windows only • Cross- • Report

• All platforms • Robust platform integration
• Limited design tools • Report • REST services
design tools • Query and viewers • Create
• Limited data modeling custom
sources tools visualizations
• Dashboards
• Publishing
Power BI Building Blocks

• Visualization
s
• Datasets
• Reports
• Dashboards
• Tiles
Building Block Associations

+
DATA DEVICES
SOURCES
REPORTS VISUALIZATIONS
DASHBOARDS
Getting Data
Power BI can connect to wide variety of data sources, including on-premises
databases, Azure storage, Excel worksheets and a large number of 3 rd party
services.

• Clean and transform

data with the Query
Editor
• Connect to advanced
data sources and
create transformations
• “Massage” irregularly
formatted data
Modeling
Modeling is the technique of creating a logical
connections and relationships between data sources.

• Create Calculated Columns

• Optimize data models for
better visuals
• Create Measures and work
with time-based functions
• Create Calculated Tables
Visualizations
A visualization is a visual representation of data, such as a
chart, graph, map, or other “visual” representations of data.

• Line, bar, pie, stacked

• Matrix/pivots
• Key performance
• Tree maps
• Geo and filled maps
• Slicers/filters
• Custom visualizations
Publishing & Sharing
• Publish reports from Power BI
Desktop to the Power BI
Service
• Print and export dashboards
• Manually republish and
refresh data
• Create and connect to
content packs
• Integrate OneDrive for
Business
Exploring Data
• Use Quick Insights
• Ask questions using
natural language
• Create custom Q&A
suggestions
• Share Dashboards with
your organization
• Edit Tile details
Data Analysis Expressions
DAX is a collection of functions, operators, and constants
that can be used in a formula, or expression, to calculate
and return one or more values.
• Measure
Calculation on a
collection of rows
AFTER aggregation.
• Calculated Column
Calculation on each
individual row BEFORE
aggregation.
Power BI Service Integration
Power BI Service DEVELOPE
integration is R AZURE
SUBSCRIPTION
facilitated via Power
BI Embedded. Power
BI Embedded is an
Azure service that AZURE
DATA
WORKSPACES WORKSPACE
enables developers to
surface Power BI data
experiences within
their applications. APP
What is Power BI?
• Power BI (Power Business Intelligence) is a Data
Visualization and Business Intelligence tool that
converts data from different data sources to interactive
dashboards and BI reports for business-driven decisions.
• The Power BI suite provides multiple software,
connectors, and services.
• Power BI apps are available for different platforms.
• This set of services is used by business users to
consume data and build BI reports.
What is Business Intelligence?
• Business Intelligence assists companies in processing
and filtering massive amounts of stored data and
transforming it into actionable insights. Mining, Data
Warehouse, and Data Analytics are the correlated
names of Business Intelligence.
• Exploratory data analysis, dashboards, and predictive
modeling are the core methods of business intelligence.
Why do we need a Business Intelligence
Tool?
• In today's digital era, unstructured data is dispersed all
around the world. Companies face difficulty in handling
and monitoring huge amounts of data, which in turn
negatively affects their business strategies and
operation management. This is why the companies
require powerful BI tools for quick decision-making to
increase their sales production, increase the availability
of structured data, generate immense reports, handle
customers, track employee performance, and enhance
operational efficiency.
The parts of Power BI
• Power BI constitutes of a Microsoft Windows desktop
application called Power BI Desktop, an online SaaS
(Software as a Service) called Power BI Service and a
mobile Power BI apps that can be accessed from
Windows phones and tablets, and also available on
Apple iOS and Google Android devices.
• These three elements— Desktop, the Service,
and Mobile apps - are the backbone of the Power BI
system and lets users create, share and consume the
actionable insights in the most effective way.
What are the Major Components of
Power BI?
• Power Query
• It is the process of cleansing and transforming data and
permits users to access datasets connecting from multiple
sources. It is included on the Power BI desktop. Business users
may view the data from distinct databases like MySQL, SQL
servers, DB2, and many more.

• Power View
• It is a data visualization tool that assists users in developing
stunning charts, and colorful maps, that turn data into a story.
What are the Major Components of
Power BI?
• Power Map
• It is a 3D map visualization tool to identify geospatial data on
Map visuals. It seamlessly helps organizations to examine the
maximum sales production geographically, visualizing the
demographic populations of specific regions.

• Power Pivot
• It is a Data Modelling technique that is used to create
relationships between datasets. It performs complex
computations by utilizing DAX functions.
What are the Major Components of
Power BI?
• Power Q & A
• When dealing with giant datasets, it becomes crucial to get to
know the in-depth details of the data. Luckily, it is done
through natural language where users may ask questions and
obtain the answer through Power Q & A.
Power BI - Architecture
• Power BI Desktop − This is used to create reports and data
visualizations on the dataset.
• Power BI Gateway − You can use Power BI on-premises
gateway to keep your data fresh by connecting to your on-
premises data sources without the need to move the data. It
allows you to query large datasets and benefit from the existing
investments.
• Power BI Mobile Apps − Using Power BI mobile apps, you can
stay connected to their data from anywhere. Power BI apps are
available for Windows, iOS, and Android platform.
• Power BI Service − This is a cloud service and is used to
publish Power BI reports and data visualizations.
Power BI - Architecture
Power BI - Supported Data Sources
• Flat Files
• SQL Database
• OData Feed
• Blank Query
• Azure Cloud platform
• Online Services
• Blank Query
• Other data sources such as Hadoop, Exchange, or Active
Directory
Power BI - Supported Data Sources
• Power BI supports large range of data sources. You can
click Get data and it shows you all the available data
connections. It allows you to connect to different flat
files, SQL database, and Azure cloud or even web
platforms such as Facebook, Google Analytics, and
Salesforce objects. It also includes ODBC connection to
connect to other ODBC data sources, which are not
listed.
When you click
“More..” tab as
shown in the
above screenshot,
you can see a
new navigation
window, where on
the left side it
shows a category
of all available
data sources. You
also have an
option to perform
a search at the
top.
Database
Import vs DirectQuery
• DirectQuery option limits the option of data
manipulation and the data stays in SQL database.
DirectQuery is live and there is no need to schedule
refresh as in the Import method.
• Import method allows to perform data transformation
and manipulation. When you publish the data to PBI
service, limit is 1GB. It consumes and pushes data into
Power BI Azure backend and data can be refreshed up
to 8 times a day and a schedule can be set up for data
refresh.
Using Data Modeling and Navigation
• Data Modeling is one of the features used to connect multiple
data sources in BI tool using a relationship. A relationship
defines how data sources are connected with each other and
you can create interesting data visualizations on multiple data
sources.
• With the modeling feature, you can build custom calculations
on the existing tables and these columns can be directly
presented into Power BI visualizations. This allows businesses
to define new metrics and to perform custom calculations for
those metrics.
Power BI - Visualization Options