Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide - Third Edition

Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide - Third Edition

by Devin Knight, Erin Ostrowsky, Mitchell Pearson, Bradley Schacht
Released November 2022
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781804613498

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Book description

Bring your data to life with this accessible yet fast-paced introduction to Power BI, now in color.

Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free eBook in PDF format.

Key Features

  • Learn faster with practical examples of the latest features of Power BI, including navigator buttons, column-level security, visualizing goals, and more
  • Migrate your existing Excel and data analysis skills to Power BI
  • Build accurate analytical models, reports, and dashboards, now in color

Book Description

Updated with the latest features and improvements in Power BI, this fast-paced yet comprehensive guide will help you master the core concepts of data visualization quickly. You'll learn how to install Power BI, design effective data models, and build basic dashboards and visualizations to help you make better business decisions. This new edition will also help you bridge the gap between MS Excel and Power BI.

Throughout this book, you'll learn how to obtain data from a variety of sources and clean it using the Power Query Editor. You'll also start designing data models to navigate and explore relationships within your data and building DAX formulas to make data easier to work with. Visualizing data is a key element of this book, so there's an emphasis on helping you get to grips with data visualization styles and enhanced digital storytelling.

As you progress, you'll start building your own dataflows, gain an understanding of the Common Data Model, and automate dataflow refreshes to eradicate data cleaning inefficiency. You'll learn how to administer your organization's Power BI environment so that deployment can be made seamless, data refreshes can run properly, and security can be fully implemented.

By the end of this Power BI book, you'll know how to get the most out of Power BI for better business intelligence.

What you will learn

  • Connect to data sources using import, DirectQuery, and live connection options
  • Use Power Query Editor for data transformation and data cleansing processes, and write M and R scripts and dataflows to do the same in the cloud
  • Design effective reports with built-in and custom visuals to optimize user experience
  • Implement row-level and column-level security in your dashboards
  • Administer a Power BI cloud tenant for your organization
  • Use built-in AI capabilities to enhance Power BI data transformation techniques
  • Deploy your Power BI Desktop files into Power BI Report Server

Who this book is for

This book is for aspiring business intelligence and data professionals with a basic understanding of BI concepts, who want to learn Power BI quickly. Complete beginners with no BI background can also get plenty of useful information from this book.

Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Get in touch
  2. Gaining Data Literacy with Power BI
    1. The challenge facing organizations with low data literacy
    2. Overcoming low data literacy with a data strategy
    3. Why choose Power BI
    4. Migrating your Excel skills to Power BI
    5. Summary
  3. Connecting to Data
    1. Getting started
    2. Importing data
      1. Excel as a source
      2. SQL Server as a source
      3. Dataverse as a source
      4. Web as a source
    3. DirectQuery
      1. Limitations
    4. Composite models
    5. Live connection
      1. Limitations
    6. Choosing a data connection method
    7. Summary
  4. Data Transformation Strategies
    1. The Power Query Editor
    2. Transformation basics
      1. Use First Row as Headers
      2. Remove Columns
      3. Change Type
      4. Add Column From Examples
    3. Advanced data transformation options
      1. Add Conditional Columns
      2. Fill Down
      3. Unpivot
      4. Merge Queries
      5. Append Query
    4. The R programming language
      1. Installation and configuration
      2. The R script transform
    5. AI Insights
      1. Sentiment Analysis with Text Analytics
    6. The M formula language
      1. Exploring the M Query library with #shared
    7. Summary
  5. Building the Data Model
    1. Organizing data with a star schema
    2. Building relationships
      1. Editing relationships
      2. Creating a new relationship
        1. Creating a relationship on the date key
        2. Disabling automatically created date tables
    3. Working with complex relationships
      1. Many-to-many relationships
        1. Filtering behavior
        2. Cross-filtering direction
        3. Enabling filtering from the many side of a relationship
      2. Role-playing tables
        1. Importing the date table
    4. Usability enhancements
      1. Hiding tables and columns
      2. Renaming tables and columns
      3. Default summarization
      4. How to display one column but sort by another
      5. Data categorization
      6. Creating hierarchies
    5. Improving data model performance
      1. Query performance
        1. Data model design methodologies
        2. Importing data
        3. DirectQuery
        4. Aggregations
      2. Processing performance
        1. Query folding
        2. Incremental refresh
        3. Best practices
    6. Summary
  6. Leveraging DAX
    1. Building calculated columns
      1. Creating calculated columns with string functions
      2. Using the FORMAT function in DAX
      3. Implementing conditional logic with IF()
      4. Implementing conditional logic with SWITCH()
      5. Leveraging existing relationships with navigation functions
    2. Creating calculated measures
      1. Creating basic calculated measures
        1. Total Sales
        2. Total Cost
        3. Profit
        4. Profit Margin
      2. Optional parameters
      3. Assignment of calculated measures
      4. Display folders
    3. Understanding filter context
      1. Using CALCULATE() to modify filter context
      2. Calculating the percentage of total
    4. Working with time intelligence functions
      1. Creating year-to-date calculations
      2. Creating prior year calculations with CALCULATE()
    5. Role-playing tables with DAX
    6. Summary
  7. Visualizing Data
    1. Report view basics
    2. Creating new visuals
    3. Filtering visualizations and data
      1. Cross-filtering and cross-highlighting
      2. Edit interactions
      3. Slicer
        1. String/text
        2. Numeric
        3. Date
      4. Report filters
    4. Visualizing tabular data
      1. Table
      2. Matrix
    5. Visualizing categorical data
      1. Bar and column charts
      2. Pie and donut charts
      3. Treemap
      4. Scatter chart
    6. Visualizing trend data
      1. Line and area charts
      2. Combo charts
      3. Ribbon chart
      4. Waterfall chart
      5. Funnel chart
    7. Visualizing KPI data
      1. Gauge
      2. KPI
    8. Visualizing data using cards
      1. Card
      2. Multi-row card
    9. Visualizing geographical data
      1. Map
      2. Filled map
      3. Shape map
      4. ArcGIS Map
      5. Azure maps
    10. Advanced visualizations
      1. Natural language with Q&A
      2. Visuals from analytics
      3. Power BI custom visuals
    11. Data visualization tips and tricks
      1. Changing visuals
      2. Formatting visuals
      3. The Analytics section
      4. The Top N filter
      5. Show value as
    12. Summary
  8. Digital Storytelling with Power BI
    1. Configuring drill through
    2. Capturing report views with bookmarks
    3. Combining object visibility with bookmarks
      1. Bookmarking alternate views of the same data
      2. Using buttons to select bookmarks
      3. Using the Bookmark navigator
    4. Report pages as tooltips
    5. Using the Page navigator
    6. Summary
  9. Using a Cloud Deployment with the Power BI Service
    1. Exploring the Power BI service
    2. Creating workspaces
    3. Deploying reports to the Power BI service
      1. Datasets
      2. Workbooks
    4. Creating and interacting with dashboards
      1. Creating your first dashboard
      2. Asking your dashboard a question
    5. Sharing your reports and dashboards
      1. Subscribing to reports
      2. Power BI apps
    6. Maintaining dashboards
      1. Setting up row-level security
      2. Scheduling data refreshes
    7. Using Metrics to track progress
    8. Summary
  10. Data Cleansing in the Cloud with Dataflows
    1. Getting started with dataflows
      1. Exploring datamarts
    2. Creating a dataflow
    3. Using dataflows as a data source in Power BI Desktop
    4. Summary
  11. On-Premises Solutions with Power BI Report Server
    1. Accessing Power BI Report Server
    2. Deploying to Power BI Report Server
      1. Deploying a Power BI report
      2. Deploying a paginated report
    3. Securing reports
    4. Scheduling data refreshes
    5. Summary
  12. Other Books You May Enjoy
  13. Index

Product information

  • Title: Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide - Third Edition
  • Author(s): Devin Knight, Erin Ostrowsky, Mitchell Pearson, Bradley Schacht
  • Release date: November 2022
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781804613498