Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide

Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide

by Devin Knight, Brian Knight, Mitchell Pearson, Manuel Quintana
Released July 2018
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781789138221

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Book description

Bring your data to life with Power BI

Key Features

  • Get to grips with the fundamentals of Microsoft Power BI and its Business Intelligence capabilities
  • Build accurate analytical models, reports and dashboards 
  • Get faster and more intuitive insights from your data using Microsoft Power BI

Book Description

Microsoft Power BI is a cloud-based service that helps you easily visualize and share insights using your organization's data.This book will get you started with business intelligence using the Power BI toolset, covering essential concepts such as installation,designing effective data models, as well as building basic dashboards and visualizations to make your data come to life

You will learn how to get your data the way you want – connecting to data sources sources and how to clean your data with the Power BI Query Editor. You will next learn how to properly design your data model to make your data easier to work with.. You will next learn how to properly design your data model to navigate table relationships and build DAX formulas to make your data easier to work with.

Visualizing your data is another key element of this book, and you will learn how to follow proper data visualization styles and enhanced digital storytelling techniques.

By the end of this book, you will understand how to administer your organization's Power BI environment so deployment can be made seamless, data refreshes can run properly, and security can be fully implemented

What you will learn

  • Connect to data sources using both import and DirectQuery options
  • Use the Query Editor to apply data transformations and data cleansing processes, including learning how to write M and R scripts
  • Design optimized data models by designing relationships and DAX calculations
  • Leverage built-in and custom visuals to design effective reports
  • Use the Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service to implement Row Level Security on your model
  • Administer a Power BI cloud tenant for your organization
  • Deploy your Power BI Desktop files into the Power BI Report Server

Who this book is for

This book is for aspiring Business Intelligence professionals who want to get up and running with Microsoft Power BI. If you have a basic understanding of BI concepts and want to learn how to apply them using Microsoft Power BI, this book is for you.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright and Credits
    1. Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide
  3. Packt Upsell
    1. Why subscribe?
    2. PacktPub.com
  4. Foreword
  5. Contributors
    1. About the authors
    2. About the reviewer
    3. Packt is searching for authors like you
  6. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
      1. Download the example code files
      2. Download the color images
      3. Conventions used
    4. Get in touch
      1. Reviews
  7. Getting Started with Importing Data Options
    1. Getting started
    2. Importing data
      1. Excel as a source
      2. SQL Server as a source
      3. Web as a source
    3. DirectQuery
      1. Limitations
    4. Live Connection
      1. Limitations
    5. Which should I choose?
    6. Summary
  8. Data Transformation Strategies
    1. The Power Query Editor
    2. Transform basics
      1. Use First Row as Headers
      2. Remove Columns
      3. Change type
      4. Add Column From Examples
    3. Advanced data transformation options
      1. Conditional Columns
      2. Fill Down
      3. Unpivot
      4. Merging Queries
      5. Appending Queries
    4. Leveraging R
      1. Installation and configuration
      2. The R Script transform
    5. M formula language
      1. #shared
    6. Summary
  9. Building the Data Model
    1. Building relationships
      1. Editing relationships
      2. Creating a new relationship
    2. Working with complex relationships
      1. Many-to-many relationships
        1. Cross-filtering direction
        2. Enabling filtering from the many side of a relationship
      2. Role-playing tables
        1. Importing the date table
    3. 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
    4. Summary
  10. Leveraging DAX
    1. Building calculated columns
      1. String functions – Month, Year
      2. Format function – Month Year
      3. Age calculation
      4. SWITCH() – age breakdown
      5. Navigation functions – RELATED
    2. Calculated measures – the basics
      1. Calculated measure – basic aggregations
        1. Total Sales
        2. Total Cost
        3. Profit
        4. Profit Margin
          1. Optional parameters
      2. Filter context
        1. Calculate
        2. Percentage of total calculation
        3. Time intelligence
          1. Year to Date Sales
          2. YTD Sales (Fiscal Calendar)
          3. Prior Year Sales
    3. Summary
  11. Visualizing Data
    1. Data visualization basics
    2. Visuals for filtering
      1. Interactive filtering
      2. The Slicer visual
    3. Visualizing tabular data
      1. The table visual
      2. The Matrix visual
    4. Visualizing categorical data
      1. Bar and Column charts
      2. Pie and Donut charts
      3. The Treemap visual
      4. The Scatter chart
    5. Visualizing trend data
      1. Line and Area charts
      2. Combo charts
      3. The Ribbon Chart
      4. The Waterfall Chart
      5. The Funnel Chart
    6. Visualizing KPI data
      1. The Gauge visual
      2. The KPI visual
    7. Visualizing geographical data
      1. The Map visual
      2. The Filled Map visual
      3. The Shape Map visual
      4. The ArcGIS Map visual
    8. Leveraging Power BI custom visuals
    9. Data visualization tips and tricks
      1. Edit interactions
      2. The Analytics pane
      3. The Top N filter
      4. Show value as
    10. Summary
  12. Digital Storytelling with Power BI
    1. Configuring drillthrough filters
    2. Storytelling with the Selection pane and bookmarks
      1. Bookmarks pane
      2. Selection pane
    3. Summary
  13. Using a Cloud Deployment with the Power BI Service
    1. Deploying to the Power BI service
      1. DATASETS
      2. WORKBOOKS
    2. Creating and interacting with dashboards
      1. Creating your first dashboard
      2. Asking your dashboard a question
      3. Subscribing to reports and dashboards
    3. Sharing your dashboards
      1. Workspaces
    4. Setting up row-level security
    5. Scheduling data refreshes
    6. Summary
  14. On-Premises Solutions with Power BI Report Server
    1. Deploying to Power BI Report Server
    2. Securing reports
    3. Scheduling data refreshes
    4. Summary
  15. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Product information

  • Title: Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide
  • Author(s): Devin Knight, Brian Knight, Mitchell Pearson, Manuel Quintana
  • Release date: July 2018
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781789138221