Tag: Power BI Desktop

Business Intelligence - BI, Excel, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Desktop RS, Power Query, Self-Service BI

Finding Minimum Date and Maximum Date Across All Tables in Power Query in Power BI and Excel

Finding Minimum Date and Maximum Date Across All Tables in Power Query in Power BI and Excel

When we talk about data analysis in Power BI, creating a Date table is inevitable. There are different methods to create a Date table either in DAX or in Power Query. In DAX you my use either CALENDAR() function or CALENDARAUTO() function to create the Date table. In Power Query you may use a combination of List.Dates(), #date() and #duration() functions. Either way, there is one point that is always challenging and it is how to find out a proper date range, starting from a date in the past and ending with a date in the future, that covers all relevant dates within the data model. One simple answer is, we can ask the business. The SMEs know what the valid date range is..

While this is a correct argument it is not always the case. Especially with the Start Date which is a date in the past. In many cases the business says:

Lets’s have a look at the data to find out.

That is also a correct point, we can always a look at the data, find all columns with either Date or DateTime datatypes then sort the data in ascending or descending order to get the results. But what if there many of them? Then this process can be very time consuming.

Many of you may already thought that we can use CALENDARAUTO() in DAX and we are good to go. Well, that’s not quite right. In many cases there are some Date or DateTime columns that must not be considered in our Date dimension. Like Birth Date or Deceased Date. More on this later in this post.

In this post I share a piece of code I wrote for myself. I was in a situation to identify the Start Date and the End Date of the date dimension many times, so I thought it might help you as well.

How it works?

The Power Query expressions I share in this post starts with getting all existing queries using:

  • #sections intrinsic variable
  • Filtering out the current query name, which is GetMinMaxAllDates in my sample, to avoid getting the following error:

Expression.Error: A cyclic reference was encountered during evaluation.

Expression.Error: A cyclic reference was encountered during evaluation.
Continue reading “Finding Minimum Date and Maximum Date Across All Tables in Power Query in Power BI and Excel” →
Business Intelligence - BI, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Desktop RS, Power Query, Quick Tips, Self-Service BI, SQL Server, T-SQL

Quick Tips, Power BI Desktop, Query Parameters, Part 4, Passing Power Query Parameter Values to SQL Server Stored Procedures

I have written 3 blogposts about query parameters in the past.

This is the fourth one in the form of Quick Tips. Here is the scenario. One of my customers had a requirement to get data from a Stored Procedure from SQL Server. She required to pass the values from a Query Parameter back to SQL Server and get the results in Power BI.

The solution is somewhat easy. I created a simple stored procedure in AdventureWorksDW2019 as below:

CREATE PROCEDURE SP_Sales_by_Date 
	@date int
AS
BEGIN
	SET NOCOUNT ON;
	SELECT *
	FROM [dbo].[FactInternetSales]
	WHERE OrderDateKey >= @date
END
GO

In Power BI Desktop, get data from SQL Server, then:

  • Enter Server name
  • Enter Database name
  • Select Data Connectivity Mode
  • Expand the Advanced options
  • Type in a SQL statement to call the stored procedure like below:
exec SP_Sales_by_Date @date = 20140101
  • Click OK
Get Data From SQL Server using SQL Statements in Power BI Desktop
  • Click Transform Data
Transform Data in Power BI Desktop

Now we need to create a Query Parameter. In my sample I create a DateKey in Decimal Number data type:

Creating New Query Parameter in Power BI Desktop
Continue reading “Quick Tips, Power BI Desktop, Query Parameters, Part 4, Passing Power Query Parameter Values to SQL Server Stored Procedures” →
Azure Analysis Services, BISM Tabular, Business Intelligence - BI, Data Warehousing - DW, DAX, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Desktop RS, Power Pivot, Power Query, Quick Tips, Self-Service BI, SQL Server, SQL Server Analysis Services - SSAS, T-SQL

Quick Tips: Time Dimension with Time Bands at Seconds Granularity in Power BI and SSAS Tabular

Time Dimension with Time Bands at Seconds Granularity in Power BI and SSAS Tabular

I wrote some other posts on this topic in the past, you can find them here and here. In the first post I explain how to create “Time” dimension with time bands at minutes granularity. Then one of my customers required the “Time” dimension at seconds granularity which encouraged me to write the second blogpost. In the second blogpost though I didn’t do time bands, so here I am, writing the third post which is a variation of the second post supporting time bands of 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 45 min and 60 min while the grain of the “Time” dimension is down to second. in this quick post I jump directly to the point and show you how to generate the “Time” dimension in three different ways, using T-SQL in SQL Server, using Power Query (M) and DAX. Here it is then:

Time Dimension at Second Grain with Power Query (M) Supporting Time Bands:

Copy/paste the code below in Query Editor’s Advanced Editor to generate Time dimension in Power Query:

let
Source = Table.FromList({1..86400}, Splitter.SplitByNothing()),
#"Renamed Columns" = Table.RenameColumns(Source,{{"Column1", "ID"}}),
#"Time Column Added" = Table.AddColumn(#"Renamed Columns", "Time", each Time.From(#datetime(1970,1,1,0,0,0) + #duration(0,0,0,[ID])), Time.Type),
    #"Hour Added" = Table.AddColumn(#"Time Column Added", "Hour", each Time.Hour([Time]), Int64.Type),
    #"Minute Added" = Table.AddColumn(#"Hour Added", "Minute", each Time.Minute([Time]), Int64.Type),
    #"5 Min Band Added" = Table.AddColumn(#"Minute Added", "5 Min Band", each Time.From(#datetime(1970,1,1,Time.Hour([Time]),0,0) + #duration(0, 0, (Number.RoundDown(Time.Minute([Time])/5) * 5) + 5, 0)), Time.Type),
    #"15 Min Band Added" = Table.AddColumn(#"5 Min Band Added", "15 Min Band", each Time.From(#datetime(1970,1,1,Time.Hour([Time]),0,0) + #duration(0, 0, (Number.RoundDown(Time.Minute([Time])/15) * 15) + 15, 0)), Time.Type),
#"30 Min Band Added" = Table.AddColumn(#"15 Min Band Added", "30 Min Band", each Time.From(#datetime(1970,1,1,Time.Hour([Time]),0,0) + #duration(0, 0, (Number.RoundDown(Time.Minute([Time])/30) * 30) + 30, 0)), Time.Type),
#"45 Min Band Added" = Table.AddColumn(#"30 Min Band Added", "45 Min Band", each Time.From(#datetime(1970,1,1,Time.Hour([Time]),0,0) + #duration(0, 0, (Number.RoundDown(Time.Minute([Time])/45) * 45) + 45, 0)), Time.Type),
#"60 Min Band Added" = Table.AddColumn(#"45 Min Band Added", "60 Min Band", each Time.From(#datetime(1970,1,1,Time.Hour([Time]),0,0) + #duration(0, 0, (Number.RoundDown(Time.Minute([Time])/60) * 60) + 60, 0)), Time.Type),
    #"Removed Other Columns" = Table.SelectColumns(#"60 Min Band Added",{"Time", "Hour", "Minute", "5 Min Band", "15 Min Band", "30 Min Band", "45 Min Band", "60 Min Band"})
in
    #"Removed Other Columns"
Continue reading “Quick Tips: Time Dimension with Time Bands at Seconds Granularity in Power BI and SSAS Tabular” →
Business Intelligence - BI, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Governance, Power BI Service, Self-Service BI

Power BI Governance, Good Practices, Part 2: Version Control with OneDrive, Teams and SharePoint Online

Power BI Governance, Version Control with OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online

One of the most important aspects of the software development life cycle is to have control over different versions of a solution, especially in a project where there is more than one developer involved in the implementation. Just like when you normally create a project in visual studio and you commit the changes back to a source control system like GitHub or Azure DevOps, it’s advised to keep the history of different versions of your Power BI reports. What we expect from a source control solution is to keep tracking of all changes happening in the source code while developing a project. So you can easily roll back to a previous state if you like to. 

The other benefit of having a source control process in place is when multiple developers are working on a single project. Every single one of them makes changes in the source code then they commit all the changes into the source control server without overwriting each others’ work. 

With Power BI things are a bit different though. Power BI report files are PBIX files which are stored in binary format (well, PBIX is basically a zip file isn’t it?) which at the time of writing this post, there is no official way to enforce Power BI source control in any source control solutions like GitHub or Azure DevOps (YET). 

Microsoft announced a fantastic feature last week (6/05/2020) named “Deployment Pipelines” which does exactly what we’re after, but it is currently a preview feature which is only available only to organisations with Power BI Premium. So it is out of the game for the majority of us.

Having said that, there is still a way to keep history of changes in the shape of different versions of PBIX files. This is called Version Control.

There are several ways you can enable version control over your PBIX files while developing the report. Regardless of the version control platform you need to think about having multiple environments and who can access them for doing what.

EnvironmentAccessible toDescription
DevelopmentDevelopersData modellers and report writers access this environment for development purposes.  
User Acceptance Test (UAT)Developers, SMEs, Technical Leads, Power BI AdminsAfter the development is finished the developers deploy the solution to the UAT environment. The solution will then be tested by SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) to make sure the business requirements are met.
Pre-prod (Optional but recommended)Technical Leads, Power BI AdminsAfter the solution passed all UAT testing scenarios Technical Leads or Power BI Admins will deploy it to Pre-prod for final checks to make sure all data sources are correctly pointing to production data sources and all reports and dashboards are working as expected.  
ProductionTechnical Leads, Power BI Admins, End UsersAfter pre-prod checks completed Technical Leads or Power BI Admins deploy the solution to the Production environment which is then available to the end users.

Version Control Options

If your organisation does not have a Premium capacity then “Deployment Pipelines” feature is not available to you. So you need to come up with a solution though. In this section I name some Version Control options available to you

  • OneDrive for Business
  • Microsoft Teams/SharePoint Online
Continue reading “Power BI Governance, Good Practices, Part 2: Version Control with OneDrive, Teams and SharePoint Online” →