TABLE OF CONTENTS

Power BI Essentials
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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: GETTING TO KNOW BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 1

Introduction to Business Intelligence 2

Importance of Business Intelligence in Organizations 2
To Get Insights into Consumer Behavior 2
Inefficient Business Processes 2
Discover New Opportunities 2
Types of BI 3
Managed BI 3
Partially Managed BI 3
Self-service BI 3
Steps Involved in Self Service Business Intelligence 4
Getting Raw Data 4
Data Transformation 4
Data Modeling 4
Data Enrichment 4
Data Visualization 4
Collaboration 4
Introduction to Power BI 5
Comparison of Traditional BI vs. Self-Service BI 6
Loss of Valuable Time 6
Data Explosion 6
Multiple Email Exchanges 6
Repetition 7
Outdated Data 7
How Does Power BI Solve These Problems? 8
Direct Connectivity to Data Sources 8
Automated Data Transformation 8
Faster Operational Speed 8
Prevents Data Explosion 8
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Instantaneous Updates 8
Permission Control 9
Business Insights wherever you go 9
Different Products of Power BI 10
Power BI Desktop 10
Power BI Service 10
Power BI Report Server 10
Power BI Mobile 10
Power BI Service License 11
Power BI Free vs. Power BI Pro 11
Power BI Premium 12
Competitors of Power BI 13
Competitive Advantages of Power BI 14

CHAPTER 2: GETTING STARTED WITH POWER BI 15

Setting Up Office365 Business Basic Trial Account 16

Signing Up for Power BI Service 18
Downloading Power BI Desktop 20

CHAPTER 3: POWER BI DESKTOP NAVIGATION 22

Exploring Power BI Desktop Navigation 23

Getting familiar with Ribbon Menu 24
File 24
Home 25
Insert 26
Modeling 26
View 27
Help 28
Getting familiar with Tab Menu 29
Introduction to Visualizations and Fields Pane 30
Getting started with Power Query Editor 31
Query Editor Ribbon Menu Options 32
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File 32
Home 32
Transform 33
Add Column 34
View 34
Tools 35
Help 35

CHAPTER 4: GETTING DATA FROM DATA SOURCES 37

Getting Data in Power BI 38

File 38
Database 38
Power BI Platform 39
Azure 39
Online Services 40
Other 40
Getting Data from Website 41
Getting Data from Access Database 43
Getting Data from SQL Server Database 45
Getting Data from SQL Server Database using SQL Statements 47

CHAPTER 5: DATA TRANSFORMATION 48

Getting Data from Excel 49

Selecting Queries via Navigator 50
Removing Blank Rows from the Top 51
Using First Row as a Header 52
Removing Blank Columns and Choosing Relevant Columns 53
Renaming Column Names 55
Data Types 56
Numerical Data Types 56
Date/ Time Data Types 56
Text Data Type 56
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Boolean Data Type: 56

Changing Data Type 57
Removing Errors 58
Cleaning and Trimming the Text 59
Correcting Spelling Mistakes 61
Filling Down 63
Splitting Column by a Delimiter 64
Changing Case of a Column 66
Filtering Out Databased on Product Line 67
Removing Duplicates 68
Merge Query 70
Expanding Table 72
Exploring and Editing Applied Steps 73
Renaming and Changing Property of an Applied Step 75
Checking Repeatable Workflows 77
Exploring Code Behind Every Step & Advanced Editor 78

CHAPTER 6: INTRODUCTION TO DATA MODELING 80

Understanding Data Modeling 81

Primary Keys (or a Unique Identifier) 81
Foreign Keys 81
Deleting Relationships 82
Hiding Tables and Fields 83
Creating New Relationships: Drag and Drop 84
Creating New Relationships: Manage Relationships 85
Cardinality and Cross Filter Direction 87
Cardinality 87
Cross filter direction 87
Editing Relationships 88
Why is a Data Model More Efficient than a Flattened Dataset? 89

CHAPTER 7: INTRODUCTION TO DAX 90

What is DAX? 91
Difference between DAX and EXCEL functions 92
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Defining Calculated Columns 93

Defining a Calculated Measure 96
Formatting the Data Type 97
Understanding the Data Categories 98
Address/City/Continent/Country/Region 98
Latitude/Longitude 98
Place/Postal Code/State or Province 98
Web URL/Image URL 98
Barcode 98
Changing the Data Category 99

CHAPTER 8: CREATING DATE TABLE 100

Why is a separate Calendar table needed? 101

Creating the Date Table: Using CALENDAR() 102
Creating the Date Table: Using CALENDARAUTO() 103
Marking the Date Table as Date Table 104
Adding Date Columns 105
Creating YEAR() Column 105
Creating MONTH() Column 105
Formatting the Columns 106
Creating Relationship 108

CHAPTER 9: DATA VISUALIZATION 109

What is Data Visualization? 110

Canvas 110
Visualization Panel 110
Filters Panel 110
Creating a Default Visual (Table) 111
Formatting a Table 112
Creating and Formatting a Column Chart 113
Creating a Line Chart 114
Creating a Pie Chart 115
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Creating a Card Visual 116

Creating a Filled Map Visual 117
Creating a Bar Chart 118
Creating a Matrix 119
Creating a Treemap Visual 120
Creating a Bubble Map Visual 121
Getting Custom Visuals from the Store 122
Creating a Custom Visual: Sankey chart 125
Creating a Custom Visual: Radar Chart 126

CHAPTER 10: FILTERS 127

Understanding Visual Interaction 128

Understanding Visual Interaction States 129
Editing Visuals Interaction 130
Creating a Slicer 131
Formatting a Slicer 132
Types of Filters 133
Filters on this visual 133
Filter on this Page 133
Filter on all Pages 133
Drill through Filter 133
Editing Visual Level Filter 134
Adding New Visual Level Filter 136
Applying Page Level Filter 137
Applying Report Level Filter 138
Applying TOP N Visual 139
Drill through Filters 140
Custom Visuals: Enlighten World Flag Slicer 142
Custom Visuals: Chiclet Slicer 143

CHAPTER 11: POWER BI DESKTOP FEATURES 145

Focus Mode 146

Export Data/Show Data 147
Spotlight 148
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Show Data Points as Table 149

Exclude/Include Records 150
Page Options 151
Inserting Image and Text Box 152
Mobile Layout 153
Save and Publish to My Workspace 154

CHAPTER 12: POWER BI SERVICE FEATURES 155

What is Power BI Service 156

Datasets 156
Reports 156
Dashboards 156
Workbooks 156
Dataflows 156
Logging in to Power BI Service 157
Understanding the Navigation 158
Navigation Explained 159
File 159
Export 159
Share 160
Chat in Teams 160
Get Insights 160
Subscribe 160
Edit Report 160
More Options 161
Reset 161
Bookmark 161
View 162
Refresh 162
Comment 162
Add to Favorites 162
Sign in Toggle 162
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Feedback 163
Help & Support 163
Download 163
Settings Gear 163
Notification 163
Search 163
File Details 164
Filter 164
Pages 164
Report 164
Working with Filters 165
Changing the Report View 166
Editing the Existing Report 167
Publishing Report to Web 168
Generating a QR Code for Report 170
Export to PowerPoint 171
Getting Data Directly in Power BI Service 173
My Organization: 173
Services 174
Files 174
Databases 174
Converting Excel File to a Table 175
Importing / Uploading Excel File in Power BI Service 176

CHAPTER 13: DASHBOARD IN POWER BI SERVICE 177

Pinning Visuals to Dashboard 177

Navigation & Tools of Dashboard 180
Navigation & Tools of Dashboard Explained 181
Ask a question about your data 181
File 181
Share 181
Chat in Teams 182
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Comment 182
Subscribe 182
Edit 182
More Options 183
Full Screen 184
Add to Favorites 184
Refresh Visuals 184
Sign In 184
Feedback 185
Help & Support 185
Download 185
Settings 185
Notifications 186
Search Bar 186
Dashboard Details 187
Tiles Area 187
Difference Between a Report and a Dashboard 188
Data Source 188
Page 188
Interactive Visuals 188
Pinning Slicers 188
Natural Language 188
Adding Tiles 189
Creating Alerts on Card Tile 191
Updating Visuals & Testing the Alert 193
Pinning a Live Page 195
Publishing an Excel file at Dashboard 196
Customizing Dashboard for Mobile View 199
Sharing Dashboard 200
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CHAPTER 14: QUICK INSIGHTS 201

Introduction to Quick Insights 202

Generating Quick Insights for Our Sales Report 203
Generating Quick Insights for a Visual 204

CHAPTER 15: SAMPLES 205

Introduction to Samples 205

Getting the Sample Reports 207
Get the sample reports in Power BI Service 207
Get the sample reports in Power BI Desktop 208
Learning from Samples 210

CHAPTER 16: POWER BI MOBILE 211

Signing into Power BI Mobile 212

Exploring Power BI Mobile Settings 214
Sign in Toggle 214
Camera 215
Search 215
Activity Feed 215
Favorites 215
Apps 215
Workspaces 216
More 216
Working with Power BI Mobile Dashboard 218
Dashboard name 218
Drop-down menu 218
Presentation mode 219
More options 219
Invite 219
Comments 220
Dashboard Tiles 220
Annotating and Sharing a Visual 221
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Working with Power BI Mobile Reports 222

Drop-down menu 222
Presentation Mode 223
More options 223
Comments 224
Reset 224
Filters: 224
Pages 225
More: 225
Exploring Power BI Mobile Samples 226
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Chapter 9: Data Visualization

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What is Data Visualization?

Being the core feature of Power BI, visualization makes the data presentable and
understandable. Its unique interactive features make it user-friendly for its consumer. Let us
explore the visualizations in detail. Visualizations reside in the “Report” section of Power BI.
Report section consists of three main components: Canvas, Visualization Panel, and Filters
Panel. Let us briefly discuss them one by one.
Canvas:
It is a blank page where data is placed in compelling visual form.
Visualization Panel:
This panel consists of a set of default and custom visuals. In addition to visuals, this
panel contains the Fields area, Formatting area and Analytics tab. Please note, this pane is
context-sensitive, i.e., it will change its properties based on selected visual type. This Fields
area contains the actual data structure listed as field names, which can be dragged and placed
on canvas against appropriate visuals.
Filters Panel:
Filter panel provides a list of filters applied on each of the visual, on the current page
or the entire report.

As we have got ourselves familiar with different panels in the report section. It is time to
discuss some of the visual types and their usage.
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Creating a Default Visual (Table)

Creating a default visual is easy. The steps mentioned below will walk you through
the process.
Continue using the previous file with this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_1.pbix...
To create a default table:
1. In Fields section, drag “Order Method type” and “Profit (CM)” fields from
Sales Table to Values area in the visualizations pane.

Power BI creates a default visual type on the canvas, which in this case is “TABLE”.
2. Click on Profit (CM) in the Sales Table.

Measure tools open.

3. Click on “$” and type 2 in the text box.

The default aggregation is sum (if possible) otherwise count.

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Formatting a Table
We have successfully created our first visual. Let us now make some cosmetic and
formatting changes in the table make it more compelling.
Continue using the previous file with this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_2.pbix...
To Format a table:
1. Click on Paint Roller icon in the Visualization
pane to open Formatting properties.
2. Go to Style > Style > Condensed.
3. Click Values > Text Size and change it to 15.
4. Go to Column Header > Text Size and change it
to 15.
5. Click Title > Turn On.
6. Drill down in Title drop down and in Title Text >
type “Profit by Method”, Text Size> 15,
Alignment > Centre, Font Colour > White,
Background Colour > Black.

Now, The Table looks much more compelling.

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Creating and Formatting a Column Chart

Column charts are generally used to display comparison among certain values. Let us
create one.
Continue using the previous file with this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_3.pbix...
To create and format a column chart:
1. Click Clustered Column Chart Visualization.
2. From Product Table drag Product Type in Axis area of Visualization Pane and
from Sales Table drag Profit (CM) in Value area of the Visualization pane.

3. Click drop-down menu on the Column Chart visual on the canvas.

4. Click on Sort Ascending, Sort by Profit (CM).

5. Click on Paint Roller Icon to access Format options: Y-Axis > Off, Data Labels >
On and Display units > Millions, Title > “Profit Per Product Type” and
Alignment > Centre.
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You can change the size & colours of the canvas page by going to the Visualization pane and
Paint Roller icon for the formatting option. You can even add a background image.
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Creating a Line Chart

Line charts are generally used to depict certain trend in a particular time span.
Continue using the previous file with this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_4.pbix...
To create a line chart:
1. Click Line Chart the visualization pane.
2. Drag Date value from Date Table to Axis field.
3. Drag Profit (CM) value from Sales Table to Values field.

4. Click on Paint Roller Icon to access Format options.

5. Set Title > “Profit by Month”, Text Size> 15, Alignment > Centre.
6. Double Click on Profit (CM) in Fields area and change it to “Profit”.

7. Double click on Page name and change it to “Profit”.

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Creating a Pie Chart

Pie charts are generally used to display percentage contributions.
Continue using the previous file for this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_5.pbix...
To create a Pie Chart:
1. Click on a + sign in the bottom left of the canvas to add a new page.
2. Name the page as “Cost”.
3. Select Pie chart from the visualization pane.
4. Drag Product Line from Product Table to Legend field.
5. Drag Total Cost (CC) from Sales Table to Value field.
6. Click on Paint Roller Icon to access Format options.
7. Click on Title > “Cost incurred for Every Product Line”, Text Size> 15,
Alignment > Centre.
8. Click on Detail Labels > Label Style > Category, data value.

Hovering with the mouse over the Pie Chart will display a tooltip with more information
including percentages.
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Creating a Card Visual

Card visuals are used to display key metrics of your data.
Continue using the previous file for this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_6.pbix...
To create a card visual:
1. Click on Card visualization from the visualization pane.
2. Drag Total Cost (CC) value from Sales Table to the Field area.
3. Click on Total Cost (CC) in the Sales Table.

Column tools open.

4. Click on “$” and type 2 in the text area.

5. Click on Paint Roller Icon to access Format options.

6. Set the Category Label > Off, Border > On, Title > On, Title Text> “Total
Cost”, Title Font size > 20, Title Background Colour > blue, Alignment >
Centre.
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Creating a Filled Map Visual

Filled Maps are used to display geographical distribution of values depicted in the
form of color saturation, the higher the intensity of color, the larger the value and vice versa.
Continue using the previous file for this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_7.pbix...
To create a filled map:
1. Click on the Filled map visualization from the visualization pane.
2. Drag Retailer Country from Sales Table to the Location field.
3. Drag Total Cost (CC) from Sales Table to the Tooltips field.
4. Click on Paint Roller icon to access Format options.
5. Set Map style > Aerial, Title > On, Title Text Size: 15 and Alignment >
Centre.
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Creating a Bar Chart

Bar charts are one of the most common chart types and are used to compare values.
Bar Chart is like a Column chart with horizontal orientation.
Continue using the previous file for this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_8.pbix...
Let’s create a new page and format Revenue first by following the steps mentioned
below:
1. Click on a + sign in the bottom left of the canvas to add a new page.
2. New Page > Revenue.
3. Click on Revenue (CC) in the Sales Table.

Column tools open.

4. Click on “$” and type “2” in the text box.

Now let’s create a bar chart.

5. Click on Clustered Bar Chart visualization.
6. Drag Order method type from Sales Table to the Axis field.
7. Drag Revenue (CC) from Sales Table to the Value field.
8. In the upper right corner of the chart, select Sort by Revenue (CC) option from
the drop-down menu.
9. Click on Paint Roller Icon to access Format options.
10. Set the Data Labels > On, X-Axis > off, Title > On, Title Text Size > 15, Title
Alignment > Centre.
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Creating a Matrix
Matrix is like a Pivot Table of Excel. This visualization type is used to display data in
Tabular format with aggregations against multiple fields.
Continue using the previous file for this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_9.pbix...
To create a matrix:
1. Click on the Matrix visualization.
2. Drag Retailer Country from Sales Table to the Rows field.
3. Drag Order method type from Sales Table to the Column field.
4. Drag Revenue (CC) from Sales Table to the Value field.
5. Click on the Paint Roller icon to access Format options.
6. Set Style > Bold Header, Values & Column Header > Text Size: 10, Subtotals
> Row & Column: Off.

If you want to display data without aggregations, use a Table instead of a Matrix.
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Creating a Treemap Visual

Tree map visual is used to display data in hierarchal format.
Continue using the previous file with this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_10.pbix...
To create a Treemap:
1. Click on Treemap visualization in the visualization pane.
2. Drag Retailer Type from Sales Table to the Group field.
3. Drag Revenue (CC) from Sales Table to the Value field.
4. Click on the Paint Roller icon to access the Format options.
5. Set Title > Text Size: 15, Title Alignment > Centre.
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Creating a Bubble Map Visual

Bubble map is used to display geographical data with different sized bubbles. The size
of the Bubble is directly proportional to the numerical value it indicates.
Continue using the previous file for this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_11.pbix...
To create a Bubble map:
1. Click on the Map visual in the visualization pane.
2. Drag Retailer Country from Sales Table to the Location field.
3. Drag Revenue (CC) from Sales Table to the Size field.
4. Click on Paint Roller icon to access the Format options.
5. Set Bubbles > Size > 15, Title > On, Title Text Size > 15, Title Alignment >
Centre.
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Getting Custom Visuals from the Store

Apart from default visuals in Power BI, you can also download custom visuals made
by a third party for your report. Below mentioned is the process for downloading custom
visuals.
Continue using the previous file with this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_12.pbix...
Before getting custom visuals lets create a separate page for them by following the
below mentioned steps:
1. Click on a + sign in bottom left of the canvas to add a new page.
2. Rename the new page to Custom Visuals.
3. Click on . . . button on the Visualizations pane which indicates more options.
4. Click on Get More Visuals option from the drop-down.

5. Choose from the list of visuals from different categories.

For this exercise, we will download the Sankey Chart and Radar Chart.
6. Type Sankey Chart in the Search box.
7. Click on the App Store button on the right corner.
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8. Click on Get it Now.

A pop-up menu appears.

9. Click Ok.

10. Click on . . . button on the Visualizations pane which indicates more option.
11. Click on Get More Visuals option from the drop down.
12. Type Radar Chart in the Search box.

13. Click on the App store button on the right corner.

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14. Click on Get it Now.

A pop-up menu appears.

15. Click Ok.

The downloaded visuals are added to the list of default visuals.

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Creating a Custom Visual: Sankey chart

Sankey charts are a specific type of flow diagram, in which the width of the arrows is
shown proportionally to the flow quantity.
Continue using the previous file with this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_13.pbix...
To create a Sanky Chart visualization:
1. Click on Sankey Chart Visualization.
2. Drag Order method type from Sales Table to the Source field.
3. Drag Retailer type from Sales Table to the Destination field.
4. Drag Quantity sold from Sales Table to the Weight field.
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Creating a Custom Visual: Radar Chart

A radar chart is a graphical method of displaying multivariate data in the form of a
two-dimensional chart of three or more quantitative variables represented on axes starting
from the same point. The relative position and angle of the axes is typically uninformative.
Continue using the previous file with this exercise or open the file
Data_Visualization_14.pbix...
To create a Radar Chart Visualization:
1. Click on Radar Chart visualization.
2. Drag Product Line from Product Table to Category field.
3. Drag Quantity Sold from Sales Table to the Y-Axis field.
4. Right-click on the Quantity Sold in Fields Area and click on Count.