Data structure and data limits

Question

Hi&nbsp;&nbsp;How is the data stored/structured in BI?&nbsp;Is it stored in tables like Access, as an&nbsp;example?&nbsp;Are&nbsp;there any data limits?&nbsp;Thanks&nbsp;Andy

guyinacube · Answer

The following post talks about Data Model limits within an Excel Workbook. &nbsp;
&nbsp;
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Data-Model-specification-and-limits-19aa79f8-e6e8-45a8-9be2-b58778fd68ef?CTT=5&amp;origin=HA104099212&amp;CorrelationId=6765f5e3-a020-4f3f-abef-0b252d78ca50&amp;ui=en-US&amp;rs=en-US&amp;ad=US
&nbsp;
I don't know that this is the same within Power BI Desktop as we actually use an AS Tabular instance instead of the in-memoy engine like we do in Excel, so you may have more flexability. &nbsp;
&nbsp;
Is that what you were looking for?

anonymous · Answer

Hi&nbsp;Thanks for your prompt reply&nbsp;Your answer refers to Excel, doesn't BI have its own database?&nbsp;Thanks&nbsp;Andy&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

guyinacube · Answer

We use the Data Model. &nbsp;Excel is one of the containers of the Data Model. &nbsp;Power BI Desktop is another and then Analysis Services Tabular.

andre · Answer

Anonymous&nbsp;just to add to Adam's&nbsp;last comment, the engine that we know as Power Pivot in&nbsp;Excel or what we sometimes call a model in Power BI Desktop is in fact Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services.&nbsp; When you open up Power BI Desktop or Power Pivot, you&nbsp;effectively instantiate a Tabular instance of Analysis Services.&nbsp;SQL Server 2014 is&nbsp;running inside Excel 2013 Power Pivot and SQL Server 2016 is running inside Power BI Desktop.&nbsp; So, if you want to understand practical limits of Power Pivot or Desktop Data models, you can simply&nbsp;look up&nbsp;limitations of the respective versions of Analysis Services.

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Data structure and data limits

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