Author: Soheil Bakhshi

Business Intelligence - BI, Excel, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power Query, Quick Tips, Self-Service BI, T-SQL

Quick Tips: How to Filter a Column by another Column from a Different Query in Power Query

Filter a Column by a Column from a Different Query in Power Query

A while ago I was visiting a customer that asked if they can filter a query data by a column from another query in Power BI. And I said of course you can. In this post I explain how that can be achieved in Power Query. The key point is to know how to reference a query and how to reference a column of that query in Power Query. This is useful when you have a lookup table that can be sourced from every supported data source in Power Query and you want to filter the results of another query by relevant column in the lookup query. In that case, you’ll have a sort of dynamic filtering. So, whenever you refresh your model if new records have been changed in or added to the source of the lookup query, your table will automatically include the new values in the filter step in Power Query.

Referencing a Query

It is quite simple, you just need to use the name of the query. If the query name contains special characters like space, then you need to wrap it with number sign and double quotes like #”QUERY_NAME”. So, if I want to reference another query, in a new blank query, then the Power Query (M) scripts would look like below:

let
    Source = Product
in
    Source

Or something like 

let
    Source = #"Product Category"
in
    Source

Referencing a Column

Referencing a column is also quite simple. When you reference a column you need to mention the referencing query name, explained above, along with the column name in brackets. So, the format will look like #”QUERY_NAME”[COLUMN_NAME]. The result is a list of values of that particular column.

let
    Source = #"Product Category"[Product Category Name]
in
    Source
Referencing a Column from Another Query in Power Query
Continue reading “Quick Tips: How to Filter a Column by another Column from a Different Query in Power Query” →
Business Intelligence - BI, On-premises Data Gateway Enterprise Mode, Power BI

Quick Tips: On-premises Data Gateway, Network Ports Test

Network Ports Test in On-premises Data Gateway

The latest version of On-premises Data Gateway February 2019 (3000.1.257) has been released on 1st March 2019. The release note is quite short and it doesn’t really provide a lot of information. At least that’s the case as at today (6 March 2019).

There is One new feature however, that I found very interesting is the “Network Ports Test” under the “Diagnostics” tab. This is an important feature I believe that gives you the ability to deal with your network administrators or your security officers much easier. You can now easily run a test directly from the gateway UI and pass the test results to your network admins if any of test steps fails.

As you can see in the screenshot you can click on “Start new test” and then open the completed test results to send them back to your networking team is needed.

That was really quick wasn’t it?

Smile

Check this out if you want to learn about processes involved with implementing On-premises Data Gateway across organisations and how to com up with an implementation plan.

WARNING: The above post is a really long one.

Smile

Azure Analysis Services, BISM Tabular, Business Intelligence - BI, Data Warehousing - DW, DAX, Excel, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power Pivot, Power Query, Quick Tips, SQL Server, SQL Server Analysis Services - SSAS, T-SQL

Quick Tips: Time Dimension with Granularity of Seconds in Power BI and Analysis Services Tabular Models

Quick Tips: Time Dimension with Granularity of Seconds in Power BI and Analysis Services Tabular Models
Photo by Markus Spiske

In an article I posted a while back I showed different methods of creating Time dimension in Power BI and Tabular models. The Time dimension I explained was in Minutes. In this post I show you simple way to create Time dimension supporting Seconds. As this is a quick tip, I only show you how to get the Time and ID columns in the Time dimension. If you need to add time bands (time buckets) check this out for more details.

Time Dimension in Seconds Grain with Power Query (M):

Copy/paste the code below in 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]))),
#"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Time Column Added",{{"ID", Int64.Type}, {"Time", type time}})
in
#"Changed Type"
Time Dimension in Power Query

Time Dimension in Seconds Grain with DAX:

Run the DAX expression below in a new calculated Table in Power BI or SSAS Tabular model:

Time in DAX = ADDCOLUMNS(
                       GENERATESERIES(1, 86400, 1)
                        , "Time", TIME(0, 0, 0) + [Value]/86400
                        )
Time Dimension in Seconds Level with DAX
Continue reading “Quick Tips: Time Dimension with Granularity of Seconds in Power BI and Analysis Services Tabular Models” →
Azure, Azure Analysis Services, BISM Multidimensional, BISM Tabular, Business Intelligence - BI, On-premises Data Gateway Enterprise Mode, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service, SQL Server, SQL Server Analysis Services - SSAS

Preparing On-premises Data Gateway Implementation Plans for Enterprises

Definitive Guide to On-premises Data Gateway Implementation
Photo credit: Kayla Duhon

If you are a Business Intelligence consultant working on Power Platform, Azure Logic Apps and Azure Analysis Services landscape, you probably know that On-premises Data Gateway cab be one of the most essential parts of your engagements with your customers. In many cases, installing On-premises Data Gateway can be a one-man-band job but in many others, it requires teamwork effort. Either way, it can go smoothly if you already have a well-thought implementation plan otherwise, it can quickly turn into a beast that can exhaust the whole implementation team and the customer for some days.

In this post, I do my best to provide you with some guidelines that can help you with your On-premises Data Gateway implementation planning. This post may look rather long, and some of the points are generic, but it is worthwhile mentioning them. Consider the following points before, during and after the engagement:

  • Understanding the use cases
  • Culture of the engagement
  • Environments (Dev, UAT, Prod)
  • Communication
  • Security
    • Corporate/environmental firewalls
    • Proxy Servers
    • Identity Access Management
  • People
  • Documentation
  • Installation, configuration, and testing

Here is a diagram of the important points that you should consider:

Implementing On-premises Data Gateway
Implementing On-premises Data Gateway

Use cases

You need to understand the use cases of On-premises Data Gateway (Standard Gateway) for your customer. If they need the gateway for their Power Platform, Azure Logic Apps, Azure Analysis Services or all of them. This is important as you either need to have access to your customer’s Power BI Service or Azure Portal or both, or you need to assist your customer to configure On-premises Data Gateway in Azure or in Power BI Service. The next points are:

  • Accessing customer’s Azure Portal and/or Power BI Service: The customer to decide whether to create a new account with sufficient rights for you or give you the credentials of an existing account. It is important to make sure you can access all environments and you have necessary rights to install/configure the gateway
  • You assist/consult a person at customer side with the implementation: you need to make sure you communicate with that person and see if he/she understands the requirements before the implementation date. Send them a calendar invitation beforehand to make sure he/she is present at that date. Always ask for a backup person just in case of an emergency happening to the primary person.
Continue reading “Preparing On-premises Data Gateway Implementation Plans for Enterprises” →