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Power BI Practice: Efficiently Importing Sample Data from a Large SQL Server Table into Power BI

Mohamad Mahmood's photo
Mohamad Mahmood
·

3 min read

Scenario:

You are modeling data by using Microsoft Power BI. Part of the data model is a large Microsoft SQL Server table named Order that has more than 100 million records. During the development process, you need to import a sample of the data from the Order table.

Solution: You add a WHERE clause to the SQL statement. Does this meet the goal?

Answer: Yes, adding a WHERE clause to the SQL statement does meet the goal. By using a WHERE clause, you can filter the data to import only a subset of records from the large Order table, which helps in managing performance and focusing on a sample of the data during the development process. This approach allows you to work with a manageable dataset without needing to import all 100 million records.

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: Open Power BI Desktop

• Launch Power BI Desktop on your computer.

Step 2: Connect to SQL Server

• Go to the "Home" tab.

• Click on "Get Data" and select "SQL Server" from the list of data sources.

• Click "Connect."

Step 3: Enter Server and Database Information

• In the "SQL Server database" window, enter the name of your SQL Server and the database name.

• Click "OK."

Step 4: Write the SQL Query with WHERE Clause

• In the "Navigator" window, select "Advanced options."

• Enter your SQL query with a WHERE clause to filter the data.

For example:

SELECT * FROM Order WHERE OrderDate >= '2023-01-01' AND OrderDate < '2023-02-01'

This query imports only the orders from January 2023.

Step 5: Load Data

• Click "OK" to execute the query.

• In the "Navigator" window, select the table and click "Load" to import the filtered data into Power BI.

Step 6: Verify Data Import

• Once the data is loaded, go to the "Data" view in Power BI Desktop.

• Verify that the data has been imported correctly and that it matches the criteria specified in your WHERE clause.

Additional Tips

• Adjust the WHERE Clause: Modify the WHERE clause as needed to get a different sample of data.

• Use Parameters: Consider using parameters in Power BI to make the WHERE clause dynamic and easily adjustable.

• Performance: Filtering data at the source using a WHERE clause improves performance by reducing the amount of data transferred and processed.

By following these steps, you can efficiently import a sample of data from a large SQL Server table into Power BI, making the development process more manageable.

Sample data

a sample SQL command to create a table similar to the Order table and populate it with some sample data:

-- Create a sample Order table 
CREATE TABLE SampleOrder ( OrderID INT PRIMARY KEY, CustomerID INT, OrderDate DATE, OrderAmount DECIMAL(10, 2) );

.

-- Insert sample data into the SampleOrder table 
INSERT INTO SampleOrder (OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate, OrderAmount) 
VALUES 
(1, 101, '2023-01-01', 150.00), 
(2, 102, '2023-01-02', 200.00), 
(3, 103, '2023-01-03', 250.00), 
(4, 104, '2023-01-04', 300.00), 
(5, 105, '2023-01-05', 350.00);

The above command creates a SampleOrder table with columns for OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate, and OrderAmount. It then inserts five sample records into the table.

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