Let's take a look at How to Connect Power BI to SQL Server. In past I have covered some of the tutorials specific to the connections of the Power BI. Like say you connect to the CSV File, Excel File and variety of other files that can make it easier for you to work with the data sources. That seems like a good option to try out with SQL Server source.
So if you have not tried with other sources before you should use this tutorial as a guide for you to work with the data source connection. And this would also help you in terms of the data and the output in general.
So let's learn how to do just that.
Connect to Data Source - SQL Server
Make sure to follow the process as explained below. Alternatively you can also make use of the above video explanation. And that would also help you for the data source connection in general. Like say steps that you use would apply same for most of the databases too.
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Open the Power BI desktop.
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Click on the "Get Data" button.
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Find the option of "SQL Server" from the list of data sources.
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Give the "Server URL" and "Database Name" in the dialog.
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Use import option or directquery of your choice.
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Click OK to load the data table.
Now that you have the table that you would be holding for the data. You have to think of the data source to be loaded into the DAX editor. This would allow you to edit the data for the data table. This would help you to further process.
SQL Server Sources
You can see that SQL server sources can be plenty. Like say source can be on the Google Cloud, Azure and AWS. I think depending on where you choose to make use of for the connection. It all kind of helps out and also sources are easier to handle once you get used to connecting a lot of them as you work with SQL.
Now the knowledge of the DAX editor would be handy as you deal with large number of the rows. Those kind of adds up with the DAX language. I have learned to from the examples of variety of the connection as you can see. It all kind of adds up. There are some ways you can learn as you work up on more.
I hope by the end of this tutorial you have learned how to connect to the Power BI desktop. You can also go ahead and use the option to publish that data for the Power BI services on the cloud. So it all kind of adds up if you ask me. Let me know if you have learned something new and also learned new things along the way.
