PowerBI Software
This covers material from the following Microsoft Learn modules:
Download data files
Installation
Install the desktop version PowerBI on your pc:
- Download the latest version of PowerBI
- Log in with your mail.wvu.edu account, and not your mix.wvu.edu email. The former is a Microsoft Account, and the latter is a Google account.
- Click on the down arrow on the top-right corner of the screen. Choose Power BI Desktop. You should be taken to the Microsoft Store.
Data Analytics
Identify levels:
- Descriptive: what happened?
- Diagnostics: why did it happen?
- Predictive: What will happen?
- Prescriptive: What should happen?
- Cognitive: (newish) Machine learning algorithms
Identify roles:
- Business analyst: closer to business
- Data analyst: closer to data
- Data Engineer: Manage data pipeline
- Data Scientist: Statistics / data mining
- Database administrator: Tech person in charge of storing data
Tasks of a Business analyst:
- Prepare data: majority of time
- Model: create relationships
- Visualize: create charts
- Analyze: statistics, charts, etc…
- Manage: security, distribution, updates, etc…
Get Started with Power BI
Software:
- PowerBI Desktop: desktop app, Windows-only
- PowerBI Service: online platform used with a browser
- Workspace is a shared online space
- Contains an app, a simplified interface to access reports and dashboards
- Contains data and rules for controlling access
- PowerBI Mobile: app for iPhone/Android
Building blocks:
- Semantic model is a model of data sources, data tables, and transformations
- Visualization / Report
- Dashboard
Get Data in Power BI
- Database
- Choose authentication mode
- Select tables to import
- Write SQL query
- Know that you can use a custom parameter in a query
- File
- Locations: Local file, OneDrive, SharePoint
- Know how to refresh or change a datasource by clicking on Data source settings
- Non-relational database
- Describe how you you can pick a non-relational database as a source.
- Storage mode
- Import: load all data into a local copy
- DirectQuery: keep data in database, ideal for large datasets
- Dual: Some data is imported, others kept in database
- Errors
- Understand how to relink a file to import
Understand the role of PowerQuery Editor, and how it is different from PowerBI
Features:
- Use First Row as Headers
- Rename columns
- Remove top/bottom/null rows and columns
- Pivot / Unpivot data
- Rename table
- Replace values (or null values)
- Remove duplicates
- Datatypes
- Change datatype
- Understand purpose for decimal, fixed decimal, whole, percentage, date/time, text, and boolean (TRUE/FALSE)
- Tables
- Append queries: used for identical columns
- Merge (or join): use to do a left/right outer or inner join
- View table statistics to profile your data