Book Image

Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide

By : Orrin Edenfield, Edward Corcoran
5 (1)
Book Image

Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide

5 (1)
By: Orrin Edenfield, Edward Corcoran

Overview of this book

Microsoft Power BI enables organizations to create a data-driven culture with business intelligence for all. This guide to achieving the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification will help you take control of your organization's data and pass the exam with confidence. From getting started with Power BI to connecting to data sources, including files, databases, cloud services, and SaaS providers, to using Power BI’s built-in tools to build data models and produce visualizations, this book will walk you through everything from setup to preparing for the certification exam. Throughout the chapters, you'll get detailed explanations and learn how to analyze your data, prepare it for consumption by business users, and maintain an enterprise environment in a secure and efficient way. By the end of this book, you'll be able to create and maintain robust reports and dashboards, enabling you to manage a data-driven enterprise, and be ready to take the PL-300 exam with confidence.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
1
Part 1 – Preparing the Data
6
Part 2 – Modeling the Data
11
Part 3 – Visualizing the Data
15
Part 4 – Analyzing the Data
18
Part 5 – Deploying and Maintaining Deliverables
21
Part 6 – Practice Exams

Identifying data sources

In this section, we will review the various data source options that Power BI provides.

Local data sources, files, and databases

Most BI developers will work from a local Windows PC. Usually, that PC is not also running an enterprise database or functioning as a corporate file server. Power BI provides the ability to connect local data on your PC just the same as if the data is stored on a corporate file server (using network connectivity or Windows file share) or if you're running a development server on your local machine. For ad hoc and testing purposes, many users will also want to import data files, such as CSV or Excel, from their local PC as well. Power BI supports various formats and makes it easy to import local files/data.

You can also import a folder of files or a Microsoft SharePoint folder of files.

Power BI also supports connecting to databases in the most popular databases. Most enterprise organizations run their business using...