Modeling Data in Power BI

By Stacia Misner Varga
Learn how to work with data that comes from different sources and is structured in different ways by using Power BI transformations to combine, reshape, cleanse, and enhance that data to create a model that supports reporting and analytics.
Play course overview
Course info
Rating
(19)
Level
Beginner
Updated
Mar 29, 2019
Duration
4h 57m
Table of contents
Course Overview
Course Overview 2m
Using the Query Editor to Prepare a Power BI Data Model
Overview 2m Loading Data 2m Exploring Power BI Data Sources 4m Databases: DirectQuery and Analysis Services Connect Live 3m Demonstration Data Overview 5m Loading the Demonstration Data: Single TSV Files and Groups of Files 5m Loading the Demonstration Data: CSV Files 1m Loading the Demonstration Data: XML and HTML Table 3m Saving the Demonstration Data and Counting Loaded Rows 5m Shaping Data: The Basics 2m Filtering Rows in a Query 3m Eliminating Columns in a Query 4m Combining Queries 6m Fixing Metadata 5m Summary 2m
Exploring Additional Techniques in the Power BI Query Editor
Overview 3m Query Enhancements 1m Adding Columns by Expanding XML 2m Adding Columns by Splitting by Delimiter 3m Adding Custom Columns 5m Converting an Epoch Timestamp 3m Renaming Queries 2m Restructuring Data 2m Duplicating vs. Referencing a Query 4m Using Unpivot 2m Introducing Custom Functions 3m Reviewing a Custom Function to Expand XML 5m Naming and Using a Custom Function 3m Consolidating the Data Model by Merging Queries 6m Data Cleansing 1m Using Data Cleansing Transformations 5m Summary 2m
Enhancing a Power BI Model with Relationships and Hierarchies
Overview 2m Understanding Relationships 3m Checking for Relationship Problems in the Model 3m Introduction to Managing Relationships 2m Reviewing and Creating Relationships in the Model 4m Using the Relationship Editor 3m Resolving Relationship Issues by Fixing Data Quality 3m Introducing Bridge Table Relationships 3m Resolving Relationship Issues with a Bridge Table 6m Working with Hierarchies (Ad Hoc) 4m Adding a Permanent Hierarchy to the Model 4m Summary 1m
Improving the Data Model for Reporting
Overview 1m Configuring Model Properties 3m Renaming and Hiding Columns and Reviewing "Sort by Column" 5m Configuring Column Data Types and Formatting 5m Configuring Default Summarization 4m Using Data Categories 2m Preparing Data for Geographic Data Categories 6m Assigning Fields to Geographic Data Categories 1m Assigning Fields to the Web URL Data Category 2m Enhancing the Model for Q&A 2m Adding a Synonym to the Model 5m Exploring Q&A Linguistic Issues in the Model 2m Introducing the Power BI Linguistic Schema 5m Editing the Linguistic Schema 5m Summary 1m
Using DAX to Enhance a Power BI Model
Overview 2m Introducing DAX 2m Defining New Columns: Concatenating Columns 5m Defining New Columns: Translating a Value 6m Using Variables in a DAX Expression 2m Defining New Columns: Performing a Lookup to a Related Table 6m Creating Measures 4m Adding Measures to the Model 5m Using DAX Parameters: Creating Query Parameters 5m Using DAX Parameters: Using Query Parameters 3m Using DAX Parameters: Working with What if Parameters 5m Summary 2m
Working with Dates and Time in Power BI
Overview 2m Creating a Calculated Date Table 3m Using DAX Functions for Date and Time Operations 4m Creating Calculated Columns for a Date Table 4m Working with Date Hierarchies 4m Applying Time Intelligence 1m Using the TOTALYTD() Function 4m Using the CALCULATE() Function with the SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR() Function 3m Using the OPENINGBALANCEMONTH() Function 3m Summary 1m
Applying Evaluation Context
Overview 2m Exploring Row Context 1m Using the RELATED() Function to Explore Row Context 4m Using the AVERAGEX() Iterator Function 4m Understanding Filter Context 2m Using the CALCULATE() Function with ALL() 3m Using the CALCULATE() Function with KEEPFILTERS() 3m Working with Parent-child Functions 1m Using the PATH() and PATHITEM() Functions 3m Using the PATHLENGTH() and ISFILTERED() Functions 5m Summary 2m
Description
Course info
Rating
(19)
Level
Beginner
Updated
Mar 29, 2019
Duration
4h 57m
Description

Data in its raw form is rarely useful for reporting and analysis. In this course, Modeling Data in Power BI, you'll learn how to use Power BI to transform raw data into meaningful insights. First, you'll learn how to gather data and apply transformations to easily blend multiple sources together, reduce the data to its most useful elements, and prepare the data for exploration. Next, you'll discover how to configure the model to support Power BI features for insightful visualizations, geospatial analysis, and natural language queries. Finally, you'll explore the basics of DAX, Power BI's expression language, to add calculations to your model. When you're finished with this course, you'll have the skills and knowledge of Power BI data modeling that you can use to build your own models that support a variety of analytical requirements and take full advantage of Power BI's capabilities.

About the author
Stacia Misner Varga
About the author

Stacia Misner Varga is a consultant, instructor, author, mentor, BI Partner for SQLSkills, and principal of Data Inspirations specializing in Microsoft business intelligence technologies for over 10 years. She is a frequent speaker at the PASS Summit, IT/Dev Connections conferences, and various SQL Saturday and Microsoft-related events worldwide.

More from the author
Building Your First Power BI Report
Beginner
1h 37m
Jun 3, 2019
Getting Started with R in the Microsoft Data Platform
Intermediate
2h 53m
Mar 8, 2018
More courses by Stacia Misner Varga
Section Introduction Transcripts
Section Introduction Transcripts

Course Overview
Hello. I'm Stacia Varga, and welcome to the Modeling Data in Power BI course. I work with data all the time as a consultant, helping my clients use and understand their data and as an instructor and author, teaching people how to build data solutions and work with data effectively. The whole point of using Power BI is to enable the exploration and visualization of data whether you're doing this for yourself or for others. Because data in its raw form is not often suitable for this purpose, you need to create a data model that refines and enriches this data to make it more useful and understandable. There are a lot of steps involved in data modeling for Power BI, and Power BI is certainly packed with lots of features for data modeling. In this course, I'll show you how to start with a set of files and incrementally refine and enhance that data to produce a better data model. We'll start by loading data into a model and then shaping and cleansing the data, and we'll learn how the structure of the data model affects how the data displays and see how incremental changes improve the model structure, not only for reporting, but also to take advantage of special Power BI features for geospatial analysis and natural language queries. We'll also learn how to enhance the model with various types of calculations that transform raw data into information. By the end of this course, you'll know how to apply a variety of techniques in Power BI to model your own data. From here, you can continue learning more about Power BI by viewing other Pluralsight courses on Power Query, DAX, and several other courses covering different aspects of using Power BI. Although you don't need to know any programming or data query languages before you start this course, some familiarity with basic data analysis is helpful. Let's get started on this Power BI journey with the Modeling Data in Power BI course here, at Pluralsight.

You're the smartest person in the room

PROVE IT

Your team won't just close the skills gap

THEY'LL HURDLE IT