Tag: T-SQL

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

Time Dimension in Power BI and SSAS Tabular Model Supporting Minutes Time Bands

2018-05-23 12_58_48-Symbols (Open in Visio).vsdx - Visio Professional

Date dimension has been discussed quite a lot on the Internet and you can find lots of valuable articles around it here and there. But what if you need to analyse your data in time level? A customer has a requirement to analyse their data in Minutes level. This means that the granularity of the fact table would be at minute level. So, if they store the data in their transactional database in seconds level, then we need to aggregate that data to minutes level. I don’t want to go there, just bear in mind that the granularity of your fact table is something that you must think about at the very first steps. In most cases, if not all cases, you’d be better to have a separate Time dimension. Then you need to have a TimeID or Time column in your fact table to be able to create a relationship between the Time dimension and the fact table. In this post I show you two ways to create Time dimension in Power BI:

  • Creating Time dimension with DAX
  • Creating Time dimension with Power Query (M)

Alternatively, you can take care of the Time dimension in the source system like SQL Server. Continue reading and you’ll find a T-SQL codes as complementary.

The techniques that I explain here can be done in SSAS Tabular model and Azure Analysis Services as well.

Requirements:

To follow the steps of building the test model you need to have:

  • Power BI Desktop: Download the latest version from here
  • A sample fact table containing time or datetime. I modified FactInternetSales from AdventureWorksDW and made it available for you to download in Excel format (find the download link at the bottom of the post)

Continue reading “Time Dimension in Power BI and SSAS Tabular Model Supporting Minutes Time Bands” →

Power BI, Power BI Desktop, SQL Server, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server Analysis Services - SSAS, SQL Server Integration Services - SSIS, T-SQL, Uncategorized

Exporting Power BI Data to SQL Server

Exporting Power BI Data to SQL Server

Update 2021 March:

You can now export the data directly from Power BI Desktop using our free external tool, Power BI Exporter. Read more here.

Update 2019 April:

If you want to export the data model from either Power BI Desktop or Power BI Service to CSV or SQL Server check this out.

In the previous blog posts, I explained how to export Power BI data to Excel and CSV here and here. As promised in this post I explain how to export data from Power BI Desktop to SQL Server.

Hans Peter Pfister has already explained how to export data from Power BI Desktop to SQL Server using R scripts. Although Hans has done a brilliant job, it might be a bit hard to make it work if you don’t have any R experience and you don’t even know how to install and call R libraries. That’s so true about me, I’m NOT an R guy, but, who knows, maybe I will be. Smile 

But, what if you don’t want to go with R? If you are more involved with BI than analytics, then using R might not really be your cup of tea. Luckily, there is another way to export your Power BI data to SQL Server which is more BI friendly. You can export Power BI data to SQL Server using SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services). So if you are familiar with SSIS, then it might be your preferred choice.

With respect to Hans, in this post, I explain his method of exporting data from Power BI Desktop to SQL Server more in detail so that anyone who is not that familiar with R can make it work. I also explain how to export data from Power BI Desktop to SQL Server using SSIS. If there is any other methods you’re aware of please let me know in the comment section below.

Exporting Data from Power BI Desktop to SQL Server with R

As stated before, Hans has already explained this method here. So I don’t explain exactly what he did, but, I use his method to export data from the existing Power BI Desktop model to SQL Server and I explain it step-by-step.

Requirements

To make this method work you need to:

  • The latest version of Power BI Desktop, you can download it from here
  • Have access to an instance of SQL Server, either on your own machine or on a server in your local network to export the data to
  • Either install R for Windows, you can download it from here OR using an existing R-Server OR install SQL Server 2016 R Services
  • Install RODBC library for R, you can download the library from here

Note: I haven’t installed R Studio and nothing went wrong.

Installing RODBC Library for R and SQL Server R Services

As mentioned earlier, you can install R OR SQL Server R Services OR R-Server, but, as I haven’t tried R-Server myself I just explain how to install RODBC in R and SQL Server R Services.

You have to download the library from the link provided above, then extract the contents of the zip file which contains an “RODBC” folder. Then all you really need to do is to copy the “RODBC” to the “library” folder that exists in either R or SQL Server 2016 folders in your “Program Files” folder.

Library folder in R

Library folder in SQL Server 2016

How Does It Work?

Open an existing Power BI Desktop model that you’re willing to export its data to a SQL Server table and follow the steps below: (I use the “Internet Sales” model created on top of AdventureWorksDW. You can download my Power BI Desktop model at the end of this post.)

Continue reading “Exporting Power BI Data to SQL Server” →
Azure, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server Management Studio - SSMS, T-SQL

Query Azure SQL Data Warehouse in SSMS and SSDT

Azure SQL Data Warehouse in SSMS and SSTD

A while ago I wrote a blog post about Azure SQL Data Warehouse and Power BI which I explained how to install a new instance of Azure SQL Data Warehouse and how to visualise your Azure SQL DW data in Power BI. In this post I explain how to query an Azure SQL DW in SSMS and Visual Studio.

Requirements

Querying Azure SQL Data Warehouse from Visual Studio

Prior the latest release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 2016, the only available tool for querying an Azure SQL Data Warehouse was SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) for Visual Studio 2013 or 2015. Here is how you can use SSDT 2015 to query an Azure SQL Data Warehouse:

  • Open SQL Server Data Tools 2015
  • Click “SQL Object Explorer” from View menu

SQL Server Object Explorer Visual Studio

  • Click “Add SQL Server”

Add Server to SQL Server Object Explorer Visual Studio

Connect to Azure SQL Data Warehouse in SQL Server Object Explorer Visual Studio

  • Enter “Server Name”
  • If you don’t recall server name then open a web browser and log into Azure portal
  • Click “SQL databases”
  • Click any desired Azure SQL Data Warehouse you created before. Make sure the database is “Online”

Azure SQL Data Warehouse in Azure Portal

Continue reading “Query Azure SQL Data Warehouse in SSMS and SSDT” →

DAX, Excel, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power Map, Power Pivot, Power Query, Power View, Self-Service BI, T-SQL

How to Overcome Map Related Issues in Power BI, Power View and Power Map

One of the most powerful features in Power BI and Excel is supporting geospatial visualisations. In Excel we can use Map visualisation in Power View, or use Power Map directly. In Power BI, as you know, there are two built-in visualisations supporting geographic coordinate data, Map and Filled map. They work beautifully if you have enough data supported by Bing Maps. But, there are some issues with Map visualisations in both Power BI and Excel. In this post I address some of the issues I faced myself and I’ll provide the solutions for the issues. As “Filled Map” and “Map” visualisations in Power BI are very similar my focus in this post would be on “Map” visualisation. My intention is not explaining Power View and Power Map that much so my focus in this article would be on Power BI more than the other two.

Requirements

To experiment everything I explain in this post you need to have:

  • The new SQL Server sample, WideWorldImportersDW (WWI). You can download it here
  • The latest version on Power BI Desktop (current version is 2.35.4399.381 64-bit (May 2016))
  • Excel 2016 or Excel 2013

If you use Excel 2016, then you need to turn on Power View on.

Check this out if you want to learn more about BI features in Excel 2016.

Get Data in Power BI

  • Open Power BI Desktop
  • Get Data from SQL Server Database
  • Select Fact.Sales and Dimension.City then load data

Power BI Desktop

Map Issues In Power BI

Wrong Cities in Power BI

  • Expand the “Dimension City” table
  • Select “City” column then change its Data Category to City (Data Category is on “Modeling” tab from the ribbon)

Power BI Desktop Data Category

  • Put a Map visual into the page
  • Put “City” on Location
  • Put “Total Excluding Tax” on Size

Power BI Desktop Map

As you see sales distributed across different countries, but, this is not quiet right.

  • Put a slicer on the page then put “Country” on the slicer
  • Click “United States” to filter the Map

Power BI Desktop Slicer

Oops! This is not quiet right. What happened is that Bing Map Engine gets confused with the city names so that it shows a city with the same name outside of the US, just like New Plymouth which a city in New Zealand, but, the New Plymouth we have in our data source is the New Plymouth from Idaho in the US.

Continue reading “How to Overcome Map Related Issues in Power BI, Power View and Power Map” →