Module 3 – Shaping and Combining Data

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 Agenda

01 Shaping Data 02 Formatting Data

03 Transforming Data 04 Combining Data

05 Merging Data 06 Appending Data

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 Agenda

Optimizing Models
07 Power BI Data Model 08 for Reports

What are
09 Hierarchies? 10 Creating Hierarchies

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Shaping Data

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Shaping Data

Shaping data is the process of transforming data, in which Power Query Editor
loads and presents the data in the best way

Here, we only deal with View in Power BI Desktop, so the original data
remains unchanged

All the steps that we perform will be captured by Applied Steps

in the Query Settings pane

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Shaping Techniques

Removing
Sorting Columns &
Rows

Adding Shaping Renaming

Columns &
Indexes Technique Columns

Date &
Data
Time
Types
Functions

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 Shaping Data

Removing Rows
& columns If we have a large dataset, we need to remove redundant and
unnecessary data to make it as small as possible, which
improves the performance of data handling in Power BI

Renaming Renaming Columns

Columns Columns should have names that make them easy to work
with, and each column should give an adequate description of
the data that it contains

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Shaping Data

Data
Types
Power Query Editor predicts the data type of each column when
loaded with the data, but it is always advisable to check the
given column data types and then format if necessary

Date & Time

Functions We should also format date-time columns with the correct data
type and use these columns to extract the year, quarter, month,
week, day, time, hour, etc.

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 Shaping Data

Adding Columns Index Columns

& Indexes We can create columns by duplicating an existing column,
1
splitting a column into multiple ones, or creating calculated
2
columns. Indexes can be created with the seed value, starting
at 1 or 0, or we can also create a custom index 3

Sorting
We can also apply the sorting technique based on a particular
column. The Home tab of Power Query Editor includes a Sort
group with which we can sort A-Z or Z-A

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Demo: Shaping Data

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Formatting Data

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Formatting Data
Formatting data helps in categorizing and identifying the data and making it much easier to work
with

Data Formatting

General Formatting Text Formatting Number Formatting

In Power Query Editor, we apply formatting functions to our text and number columns to create consistency
and ensuring that the data is well presented

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Formatting Data

General Column in Power Query Editor helps us create a

Data Formatting custom column or a duplicate column. It also lets us add an
index column to the table

General Formatting
General formatting includes:

Text Formatting

Number Formatting

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Formatting Data

From Text provides options for formatting string values,

Data Formatting merging columns, extracting values, and parsing to other
formats

General Formatting
Text formatting includes:

Text Formatting

Number Formatting

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Formatting Data

From Number offers a wide range of formatting functions for

Data Formatting number columns, such as
Statistics, Standard, Scientific, Trigonometry, Rounding,
and Information
General Formatting
Number formatting includes:
Text Formatting

Number Formatting

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Transforming Data

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Transforming Data

While Power BI is flexible with a variety of data sources that we can import data from, visualizations work
best with the data that is in a columnar format

For example, data imported from Excel may be easy for the
human eye to visualize but might not be structurally
appropriate for Power BI to translate the values into visuals

Power Query Editor offers plenty of functions to transform

data into a structure that Power BI can use effectively to build
reports

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Transforming Data

Move Group By
Pivot Column &
Unpivot Columns
12 01 Use First Row
as Headers
11 02

10 03
Fill Transpose

Transformin
g
Replace Values &
Replace Errors
09 Data 04 Reverse Rows

08 05
Rename
07 06 Count Rows

Detect Data Type

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Transforming Data

1 Use First Row as Headers

If we import columns with numeric values that include a

header, Power BI can detect that the first row is a string and
Group By that it is the header. This is not so obvious when all of the
columns contain string values. We use this function to make
the values of the first row as the header
We can aggregate one or more columns in a table. For
that, we have to click on Group By on the Table group
and select the columns we want to include

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Transforming Data

3 Reverse Rows

This function reverses the order of the rows in the table

such that the bottom rows come at the top and the top
Transpose rows go at the bottom

With Transpose, we can treat rows as columns and

columns as rows. This is useful if we import a table
from a spreadsheet in a matrix format but do not
translate it into a format that Power BI can use easily

4
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Transforming Data

5 Data Type

The Data Type function is useful for formatting the columns

where Power BI has incorrectly guessed the data type
Count Rows

We use this function to return the number of rows in

the current table. The rows are replaced with the count
of the rows

6
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Transforming Data

7 Rename

To rename a column, we select the column in the table and

click on Rename from the Any Column group, or we can
Detect Data Type right-click on the column and then click on Rename

We can select one or more columns and use the built-

in data type detection function. Power BI uses this
function to automatically correct the wrongly guessed
data types

8
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Transforming Data

9 Fill

We can use the Fill function to fill in the null values

with values from adjacent cells either in an upward
Replace Values & Replace Errors or in a downward direction. This function works
only at the column level

With these two functions, we can very quickly replace

a value or an error in a column with another value.
Both functions can work on one or more columns

10
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Transforming Data

11 Move

The Move function moves one or more columns to another

location in the table. We can move the columns to the left,
Pivot Column & Unpivot Columns to the right, to the beginning, or to the end

The Pivot Column function takes in values from a

selected column and uses them to create a new
column. The Unpivot Columns function can also
help with this but by converting the selected
columns into attribute–value pairs
12
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Demo: Transforming Data with
Power Query Editor

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Combining Data

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Combining Data

By using Power BI, we can gather data from different sources and different types into a single dataset to
build reports

Combining Data

Data
Model Merging Data Appending Data

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Combining Data - Merging
Data

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Combining Data - Merging Data

To merge columns of two tables, the two tables must have a joining column, where the values match in
order so that they can be combined

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Combining Data - Merging Data
These are the Joins used in Merging data

All rows from the first All rows from the

table and the second table and the
matching rows from
Left Outer Right Outer matching rows from the
the second first table
table

All rows from both Full Outer Inner Matching rows from
tables both tables

Rows only from the Left Anti Right Anti Rows only from the
first table second table

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Combining Data -
Appending Data

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Combining Data - Appending Data

When we append rows, we take rows from one or more tables and add them to the first table

In most situations, the columns and the data types will match. However, we can
also append rows between two tables that have all different columns, but the
result will be unclean. There will be no values when the number of columns of
these tables does not match

If we are appending rows from multiple sources and if the table

contains index values that overlap when the data is combined, we
combine the data and then create a new index column on the table into
which the rows are appended

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Combining Data - Appending Data

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Demo: Combining Data in Power
Query Editor

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Power BI Data Model

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Power BI Data Model

A data model is typically associated with a relational database, such as Microsoft SQL Server. In Power BI
Desktop, we connect to multiple data sources and bring data together in the data model by creating
relationships between them

In a data model, we can create calculated tables and columns,

relationships, hierarchies, etc. and change data types, defaults, and
properties

If we do all these right in our model, then the creation of reports

will be a much smoother process, and it will produce more
accurate results

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Power BI Data Model
Things to keep in mind while developing a model in Power BI:

Data types Fact and Dimension Tables

A wrong data type might cause
The data is stored in fact tables,
incorrect results in our visuals. When
and the descriptive
importing numbers, we have to be
information about the data is
accurate and determine whether we
need precise rounding stored in dimension tables

Cross-filtering Reduced Size of the Dataset

When we turn on bi-directional cross-
filtering in our relationships, it enables To reduce the volume of the data,
the tables in our star schema to we can join the tables, apply filters,
operate as if held in a single table, and or remove the data that will not be
we can join and aggregate values used in visualization
between the dimension tables

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Optimizing Models for
Reports

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Optimizing Models for Reports

Data is frequently in a raw format when we import it into Power BI,

especially if we have taken it directly from a database

When we combine data from different data sources into the Power
BI model, there is a high chance that the data will have different
formats and data types

Optimizing the data makes it more consistent and helps us work

with it more efficiently, focusing on the information we need

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Optimizing Models for Reports
Three techniques to optimize our data in the model:

Hide Fields Sort Data Format Data

It is good to hide fields that we are Power BI automatically sorts data, Changing data types and
not going to use in our visuals. but when we want the data to be formatting the data are good
Hiding a field removes the field ordered in a particular way, this can ways of optimizing our data, and
name from the Fields pane, but also be done. It makes data analysis it helps in presenting the same
neither the column nor the much easier for users with clarity in reports and
underlying data will be deleted dashboards

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What are Hierarchies?

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What are Hierarchies?

A hierarchy is a set of related fields grouped together to drill down from one level to the next

Each level of the hierarchy is contained within the next level, and it
cannot exist independently

Power BI automatically creates a hierarchy on date-time fields.

However, we can also create our own hierarchies within the model to
suit our requirements for analysis

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What are Hierarchies?

Examples of hierarchies that we can create in Power BI to drill down from top to bottom:

Country Yea
r

State Quarter

City Month

Street Day

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Creating Hierarchies

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Creating Hierarchies

Power BI Desktop >

1 Fields

Select a column and

create a hierarchy 2

Right-click to specify
3 the new name

Click on the ellipsis of

another column to 4
add to the hierarchy

Repeat to add multiple

5 columns; we can also
move, delete, & rename
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Demo: Creating
Hierarchies

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