{"id":89143,"date":"2023-06-02T07:08:33","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T12:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/?p=89143"},"modified":"2023-06-04T18:21:16","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T23:51:16","slug":"microsoft-power-bi-desktop-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/microsoft-power-bi-desktop-for-beginners\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Started with Power BI Desktop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you stepping into the Power PI platform? Then you must know the Power BI basics. You might get confused on where to get started? or how? To sort out those issues, we come up with some step by step instructions on how to start with Power BI desktop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having a thorough understanding of Power BI also helps to pass the PL-900 certification. If you want to be well-versed in business intelligence and analytics, you can take the <\/span>PL-900 certification<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This article dives you into the basics of Power BI desktop by getting familiarized with importing, transforming, and visualizing the data.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dive in!<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting started with the Power BI Desktop<\/span><\/h3>\n

Power BI is a business intelligence and data visualization application that transforms information from many data sources into interactive dashboards and reports. Power BI desktop, Power BI service built on SaaS, and mobile Power BI apps accessible for various platforms are all part of the Power BI package, which offers a variety of products, connectors, and services. Business customers utilise this group of services to gather data and create BI reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also Read: \u00a0Free Questions on PL-900 Exam<\/a> Certification<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here are some steps are on how to create interactive reports and dashboards in Power BI desktop:<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1: Installation of Power BI Desktop<\/b><\/h4>\n

To start downloading\u00a0 Power BI Desktop, you need to go to the download page of Power BI and choose the download free option. And select the languages you want to download.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Alternatively, you can also download the Power BI desktop from the services of Power BI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Now, select the download icon option in the top menu bar and followed by selection of Power BI desktop.<\/span><\/p>\n

To install Power BI Desktop on your computer, click Get on the Microsoft Storage page and then follow the on-screen instructions. From the Windows Start menu or the icon in the taskbar, launch Power BI Desktop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now the Welcome screen appears when Power BI Desktop launches for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n

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You can get data, view recent sources, access recent reports, open other reports, or choose other links from the welcome screen. To exit the Welcome screen, click the close button.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the left side of Power BI Desktop, there will be three icons for the desktop views such as Report, Data, and Model and it will be placed in top to bottom manner.The yellow bar on the left indicates the current view, and by choosing any of the icons, you can switch between views.<\/span><\/p>\n

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To focus on the group of buttons in the window when using the keyboard, use Ctrl<\/span> + F6.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Power BI Desktop has options such as Power Query Editor, which will be present in a separate window. And its main function includes, building queries and transforming data, then loading refined data models into Power BI Desktop to make the reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 2: Connecting to the data<\/b><\/h4>\n

After the installation of Power BI Desktop, you are ready to connect with the data. In order to see the many types of data sources that exist, select Get Data > Click More in Power BI Desktop Home tab, and then go to the Get Data window, check the list of All data sources.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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By following the above steps, you can get connected to varied Web data sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

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On the Home tab, choose Get Data > Web to get connected to a web data source. After the selection of the right data sources, the data shaping was carried out to pick only the required amount of data.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 3: Shape data<\/b><\/h4>\n

You may be able to modify the data to meet your needs now that you are connected to a data source. You can use the Power Query Editor detailed instructions for modifying the data while it is loaded and being shown in order to shape it. Only this specific view of the data is affected by shaping and the original data source will be unaffected.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the power source editor, select each step and confirm preview the table in the Navigator window. Next, you can change type and it is mainly used for detecting whole number data while importing it and changing the original text type into whole numbers automatically.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can be able to apply your own changes and transformations to the data and see them in the Applied Steps.<\/span><\/p>\n

The user can be able to select the table that has too much information for your needs, Select the header of each column that has to be removed. Hold down the Shift key to choose several adjacent columns, or else press the Ctrl to select the non-adjacent columns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Affordability is completely related to sunglasses sales and thus you need to analyze the column.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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On second thought, Affordability might be relevant to sunglasses sales after all. You can repeat the last step in the Applied Steps pane and it can be done by selection of the X delete icon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now redo the step, by selecting the columns that need to be deleted. To achieve more flexibility, you can delete each column as a separate step.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now right-click any step icon in the Applied Steps pane and select delete it, rename it, move it up or down in the sequence, or add or delete steps after it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For intermediate steps, you will receive warning that changes made could affect the later steps and break the query.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, if you want to sort the table by the factor Weather, you have to delete the Sorted Rows step.And you will receive a warning that deletion may break the query.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After this step, you will be able to remove the bottom 10 rows after that are sorted out by weather. And thus the sorting process can remove the different rows. You also get a warning if you choose the Sorted Rows step and try any intermediate step at this point.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 4: Combining the data<\/b><\/h4>\n

If you want to import data of state abbreviations into the power query editor, the user needs to select a new source and select the web from the New Query group on the Home tab.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the web dialog box, enter the URL for state abbreviations based sites such as <\/span>https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_U.S._state_abbreviations<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then you select table codes as well as abbreviations for US states, territories, federal distinct and other regions and then click OK. Now the table appears in the Power Query editor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eliminate all the columns except Name and status of region and ANSI. To retain only those columns, scroll down ctrl and select columns. Then, right click any one of the column header and choose Remove other columns, or in the Manage column groups, select the remove other columns option.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Now drop down arrow next to the icon name and state of region column header and followed by selection of filters > equals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In filter rows, you can select a valid field in the drop down and then select state. Finally click OK. <\/span>In the properties field of query settings, rename the table into state codes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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With the shaped state codes table, you can combine the two tables into one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 5: Building reports<\/b><\/p>\n

You may create reports and visualizations in the Power BI Desktop Report view. There are six key areas in the Report view:<\/span><\/p>\n