How to Connect Multiple Data Sources in Power BI Desktop

The ability to derive insights from diverse sources can differentiate a business. With the help of Microsoft tool, Power BI Desktop, analysts and data professionals may integrate several data sources and transform disorganised data into insightful actions. Imagine creating an interactive report that combines your Excel sales data with financial data from SQL Server, customer information from Salesforce, and other sources. To master these skills, consider exploring Microsoft Power BI Courses, which provide in-depth knowledge and practical experience for leveraging this powerful tool.

To help you realise the full potential of your data and make wiser decisions, this blog will guide you through connecting, aggregating, and visualising data in Power BI Desktop.

Understanding the Importance of Multiple Data Sources

Organisations find themselves with dispersed data mainly stored in disparate software systems. For example, the financial information may be stored in the SQL Server, sales information may be put in the excel file, and the customers’ data may be located in the cloud-based facilities such as Salesforce. However, it is only possible to find significant patterns derived from these sets of data in case they are integrated. That is why using Power BI, and more specifically the Power BI Desktop tool, one can load these different data sources into a single model, which would then allow one to have a wider view of the data and make more informed decisions.

Getting Started with Power BI Desktop

Before going straight to the steps of joining multiple datasets together, make sure that Power BI Desktop has been downloaded on the computer. It is an application that comes with Microsoft and its application can be obtained from the official Power BI website. If installed, open Power BI Desktop and they will be a simple welcome window where you can start with the connection to your sources.

Connecting to Your First Data Source

Take these actions to establish a connection to your first data source:

Step 1: Switch on Power BI Desktop and go to the ‘Home’ tab.
Step 2: Roll over the “Get Data” option; a pull-down menu will open revealing the available data sources.
Step 3: Choose the type of data source you are willing to work with in this context. Power BI Desktop is compatible with almost all types of data source like MS Excel, MS SQL Server, MS Azure, Oracle, Share point etc.
Step 4: Upon choosing the data source type, a new window will appear with the fields that you need to fill in the connection details, which depends on the data source you have chosen, file path, server name, database name or API key Among them.
Step 5: After typing the information needed, click ‘Connect.’ Power BI Desktop will connect to the data model and show a preview of what is to be expected.

Once the connection is made you may use Power Query Editor to clean and shape the data as needed or import it into Power BI.

Adding Additional Data Sources

You might want to connect to more data sources after your initial one to enhance your report. This is how you do it:

Step 1: Return to the “Home” tab while still in your Power BI Desktop file.
Step 2: Click “Get Data” once more to select a different kind of data source from the list.
Step 3: To add the second data source, follow the same procedure for inputting the connection details and clicking “Connect.”

With Power BI, you can include several data sources in a single report. For instance, an Excel file with sales data, an SQL Server database with product details, and a cloud service like Azure with further data might all be connected.

Combining Data from Multiple Sources

The next step is to merge the various data sources you have connected to produce a single, cohesive data model. This is where Power BI powerful data modelling features are useful.

Step 1: Open Power BI Desktop and navigate to the “Model” view. You will see every table from the linked data sources.
Step 2: Determine which fields are shared by tables from various data sources. These fields will function as the relationship-building keys.
Step 3: To establish associations, drag and drop fields from one table to the matching field in another table. Power BI Desktop supports one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships.

You may construct a cohesive data model that enables cross-tabulation and more perceptive visualisation by establishing connections across tables.

Using Power Query Editor for Data Transformation

To guarantee accuracy and consistency, you might need to do some data transformation and cleaning before merging data from several sources. Power BI Desktop Power Query Editor offers an extensive toolkit for shaping and transforming data. One may:

Take out any extra columns.
Rename columns to make them more understandable
Type rows according to specific standards.
To combine data from several sources, merge queries
Make computations and design unique columns.

On the “Home” tab, select “Transform Data” to open Power Query Editor. This will cause a new window to open, from which you may load the data into your Power BI model and conduct several data transformation operations.

Creating Visualisations with Combined Data

Once data have been linked and merged, it is possible to produce visualisations that represent joined united model data. When using Power BI Desktop you can create a vast number of visualisations, including bar charts, line charts, pie charts, maps, and many others. To produce visuals:

Step 1: Open Power BI Desktop and navigate to the “Report” view.
Step 2: From the visualisation window, choose a form of visualisation.
Step 3: Drag and drop fields from your data model into the visualisation fields pane to generate the required chart or graph.
Step 4: Filter data using the filters pane and add interactive components to your visualisation to improve it.

Refreshing Data Connections

The capability of Power BI Desktop to update data connections is one of its main advantages. To ensure that your reports are updated you can effortlessly refresh the data in Power BI whenever the data in your source systems is changed. To update the data:

Step 1: Select the “Home” option.
Step 2: Use the “Data” window to refresh individual tables or click “Refresh” to refresh all data sources.

Best Practices for Connecting Multiple Data Sources

The following best practices should be considered while using Power BI Desktop to work with numerous data sources:

Ensure Data Quality: Verify data consistency and quality before connecting to various sources to prevent inconsistencies in your analysis.
Minimise Data Load: To minimise performance, load only the required columns and rows.
Use Descriptive Names: In Power BI rename tables and fields to improve their readability and user experience.
Regularly Update Data Connections: Set up a schedule for data refreshes to guarantee that the data in your reports is always up to date.

Conclusion

Connecting several data sources is one of the most effective ways to combine different datasets and produce insightful insights in Power BI Desktop. Following the instructions in this blog, you may efficiently link, aggregate, and visualise data from various sources. This facilitates thorough data analysis and improved decision-making. You can also access The Knowledge Academy free resources to make Power BI Desktop vital for any data professional or business analyst wishing to exploit their organisation’s data because of its versatility and strong data modelling capabilities.