📄Get Data

The “Get Data” feature in Power BI provides several options to connect to different data sources, such as databases, files, cloud services, and online services. Here’s a general overview of how the “Get Data” process works:

Open Power BI: Launch Power BI on your device, either the Power BI Desktop application (for creating reports locally) or the Power BI service (for creating reports online).

Access “Get Data”: In Power BI Desktop, you’ll find the “Get Data” option on the Home tab of the ribbon. In the Power BI service, click on the “Get Data” button in the left navigation pane.



Choose a data source: Power BI offers a wide range of data connectors categorized into various groups, including:

Files: Connect to data stored in Excel workbooks, CSV files, XML, text files, etc.
Databases: Connect to on-premises databases (SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, etc.) or cloud-based databases (Azure SQL Database, Amazon Redshift, etc.).
Online Services: Connect to various online services like Dynamics 365, Google Analytics, Salesforce, etc.
Other: Connect to custom data sources using Power BI’s generic connectors like Web, OData feed, etc.

Authentication and Connection Settings: Depending on the data source selected, you may need to provide authentication credentials (e.g., username and password) to access the data. You can also configure other connection settings like specifying a specific database or table.

Data Import: Once the connection is established, you can preview the data available in the selected data source. Depending on the data source and its size, you may have options to perform data transformations, filters, or aggregations during the import process.

Load or Edit Data: After the data is imported and any necessary transformations are applied, you have the option to either load the data directly into Power BI for visualization or edit further using Power Query Editor (Power BI Desktop) to refine the data before visualization.

Data Model and Visualization: Once the data is imported into Power BI, it becomes part of the data model. You can then create various visualizations like charts, tables, maps, etc., and design interactive reports and dashboards based on the imported data.