Pre-Filtering Data before Importing

Question

we have an sql server database that contains very old data, and we just need some recent data for creating our reports. so, we chose to import only the data whose date is later than a date X for exemple 10/12/2015 00:00:00

when we connect to the sql server database, and after we choose our tables and click on edit and we apply filters:

1- Are these filters applied before importing the data from the database to power Bi?

2- Or, are all our data imported first in power bi and then the filter is executed after that?

thanks a lot

_seanrich_ · Answer

For future readers, you would solve this in one of two ways. If you want two tables (data sources) in your Power BI file, you'd create two separate data sources using Get Data &gt; SQL Server database. However, if you wanted a single data source in Power BI with both workorder and address records, you'd write SQL in the aforementioned "Advanced options" when creating your data source. Your SQL might look something like:select&nbsp; &nbsp;workorder.WorkOrderId,&nbsp; &nbsp;workorder.WorkOrderDate,&nbsp; address.AddressId,&nbsp; address.AddressDatafrom workorder&nbsp; &nbsp;left join address on address.AddressId = workorder.AddressIdwhere workorder.WorkOrderDate &gt;= [someStartDate]&nbsp; &nbsp;and workorder.WorkOrderDate &lt;= [someEndDate]&nbsp;Having some basic SQL query knowledge will go a long way in solving these problems.

anonymous · Answer

ouafaa,With SQL Server database, Power BI should be smart enough to send some transformation to the backend instead of doing the transformation in Power BI. In your case, filters will be applied first in the backend and then Power BI will retrieve the filtered rows. You can check out this article for more information regarding query folding:&nbsp;https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/3635/query-folding-in-power-query-to-improve-performance/

v-yuta-msft · Answer

Hi&nbsp;ouafaa,
&nbsp;
If you want to filter data before the data has been imported into PBI, you can click Get Data-&gt;advanced options and write some SQL statements to achieve data you want.
If you want to filter data in Query Editors after the data been imported into PBI, you can use query parameter to filter your table. More details about query parameter, please refer to: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/deep-dive-into-query-parameters-and-power-bi-templates/.
&nbsp;
Regards,
Jimmy Tao

ouafaa · Answer

Hi,&nbsp;&nbsp;thanks for your replies.&nbsp;when we do&nbsp;et Data-&gt;advanced options and write some SQL statements to filter data, can we filter many tables on the same time ? can we write an sql statement that retrieve many tables and filter them befor importing data to power bi ?&nbsp;Thanks&nbsp;&nbsp;

v-yuta-msft · Answer

Hi&nbsp;ouafaa,
&nbsp;
Yes, you can. But keep in mind. Power bi only support sql statement like select .. from ... where ... , don't spport stored procedure.
&nbsp;
Hope this can help you.
Jimmy Tao

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Pre-Filtering Data before Importing

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