Accessing, Retrieving, and Transforming Data

Power BI Desktop and dataflows in the Power BI service contain a rich set of connectors and transformation capabilities that support the integration and enhancement of data from many different sources. These features are all driven by a powerful functional language and query engine, M, which leverages source system resources when possible and can greatly extend the scope and robustness of the data retrieval process beyond what’s possible via the standard query editor interface alone. As with almost all BI projects, the design and development of the data access and retrieval process have significant implications for the analytical value, scalability, and sustainability of the overall Power BI solution.

In this chapter, we dive into both Power BI Desktop’s Get Data experience and the equivalent process with dataflows in the Power BI service in establishing and managing data source connections and queries. Although these...