Importing data as text
Tabular modeling natively supports the import of files with extensions of text (.txt), comma separated values (.csv), and tab separated values (.tab). Once a file to import has been defined, the user can specify the delimiter (column separator), and the importing interface scans the file to estimate the underlying data types for each column. Finally, the interface finishes the import process by loading the data according to this specification.
Getting ready
A text file to simulate the output file for the sales record header has been created and is available from the online resources for this chapter. This file includes the sales_order_id, customer_id, employee_id, currency_id, customer_po_id, sales_territory_id, order_dt (order date), due_dt (due date), ship_dt (ship date), and sales_amount fields.
The file will be imported as a table into PowerPivot (and the tabular model). A screenshot of the file is shown as follows:
How to do It…
Most data imports can be managed...
