Blog
Pre-con Speaker for MBAS2K19 & Power BI DIAD in Panama
I have 2 quick BIG announcements. Ken Puls and I (Miguel Escobar) will be doing a pre-con workshop session for the Microsoft Business Applications Summit 2019. This will be the first time that Ken and I will be delivering an on-site training. For the most part of 2015, 2016 and 2017, we were delivering a […]
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Combine or Append Data: Optimal Combination Pattern
This is going to be the last post series in the series on Combine or Append Data. In the first post we saw the basics of how to do the Append operation through the UI. In the second post we saw the Combine Files experience with Flat Files and how easy it is to combine […]
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Combine or Append Data: Combining Excel Files
In the previous post we saw how we were able to combine multiple files from a Folder. In that post we were using flat files but, how would that process be for Excel files? This is the post where we’re going to see the difference between simple flat files and more complex files (like an […]
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Combine or Append Data: Combining Flat Files
IMPORTANT: You can read the official documentation that Microsoft has on this topic from the following link (url). In the previous blog post, I went through the basic concepts behind the Append operation found in Power Query for Excel and Power BI. In that post, we only used 2 files and it was pretty straightforward […]
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Combine or Append Data in Power BI / Power Query: Main Concepts
IMPORTANT: You can read the official documentation that Microsoft has on this topic from the following link (url). I’ve previously done a series on Merge / JOIN operations (First Part here) and it’s now time to do one on Combine / Append operations. so…How do you combine / append / stack tables with Power BI […]
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Connecting to Files in SharePoint & OneDrive with Power BI / Power Query
IMPORTANT: You can read the official documentation that Microsoft has on this topic from the following link (url). I’ve been trying to join multiple Facebook communities that revolve around Power BI topics. I was able to join a couple communities that are completely neutral in the sense that they’re not run by a for-profit company, […]
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Relative Date Filters in Power BI / DAX / Power Query
A few years ago (in march of 2013!), I wrote a guest blog post on Rob’s blog (PowerPivotPro) on how to do relative date filters. The title of that post was “how to always show Yesterday, Today, or Tomorrow’s Data” with DAX in PowerPivot back in Excel. The post tried to address the issue that […]
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Fuzzy Matching in Power BI / Power Query
IMPORTANT: You can read the official documentation that Microsoft has on this topic from the following link (url). A long awaited post! The Fuzzy matching preview feature was added to Power BI Desktop MONTHS ago and here’s my take on it. What is Fuzzy Matching? In short, it’s an algorithm for approximate string matching. Why […]
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Lazy Evaluation & Query Folding in Power BI / Power Query
How do things work in the world? Humans are curious beings. We want to know how things work and perhaps harness them for our own purposes. In this case, we’re curious about how the Evaluation Model works for Power BI & Power Query when it comes to executing your queries and getting your data. You […]
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Data Privacy and the Formula Firewall in Power BI / Power Query
IMPORTANT: You can read the official documentation that Microsoft has on this topic from the following link (url). Have you ever received any Errors similar to these? Formula.Firewall: Query ‘Merge1’ (step ‘Source’) is accessing data sources that have privacy levels which cannot be used together. Please rebuild this data combination. Formula.Firewall: Query ‘Query1’ (step ‘Added […]
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Parameter Tables in Power BI / Power Query
One of the most interesting and most unique scenarios is Parameter Tables in Power Query / Power BI. The way to make a dynamic Power Query solution is to make sure that it can be easily customizable and, at the same time, be able to work as more of a pattern rather than just a […]
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Parameters and Functions in Power BI / Power Query–Combine Files Experience
I highly recommend that you read the first and second part in this series prior to reading this one, but you can jump right in if you understand the main concepts of parameters, arguments and functions in the M language. Understanding the Combine Files Experience: Practical Example The scenario that we’re going to tackle is […]
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