Importing sample datasets

For the examples in this chapter you will import two sets of data to create tables inside the model. This first table is a list of all states in the United States plus the District of Columbia. The second data set is a short list of famous landmarks.

Note

These examples are available at https://github.com/derekewilson/SSAS_2016_Tabular_Model.

Getting ready

This example assumes you have a working tabular mode server and SQL Server Data Tools installed.

How to do it...

1. Open Visual Studio, select File and then New Project.
2. On the next screen select Analysis Services Tabular Project to create a new Analysis Service tabular project.
   

3. Select Model from the menu and Import from Data Source.
   

4. Select Excel File from the bottom of the Table Import Wizard and click Next.
   

5. Browse to the location of the US States.xlsx file. Check the Use first row as column headers box.
   

6. Select the Service Account to specify a user that has access to the data source. Click Next.
   

7. Review the Source Table information and click Finish.
   

8. Click Close after successfully importing the data.
   

9. Now repeat steps 4-8 and import into the data the Famous Landmarks.csv file.

How it works...

Let's review what was done in the previous steps for this first recipe. In steps 1 and 2 we created a new Tabular Model project and selected the option to import data. Then in steps 3 and 4 we selected the source data type of Excel and chose the file to import that included a list of the States in the USA. During step 5 we selected how the data source can be accessed via user security. In step 6, we reviewed the import process and started loading the data. In step 7 we were able to see that the data was successfully imported. Then you repeated the process to import the Famous Landmarks file. You now have two data tables loaded into your model that Tabular mode can use.