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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
11 years ago

Data structure and data limits

Hi    How is the data stored/structured in BI?   Is it stored in tables like Access, as an example?   Are there any data limits?   Thanks   Andy
GuyInACube's avatar
GuyInACube
Administrator
11 years ago

The following post talks about Data Model limits within an Excel Workbook.  

 

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Data-Model-specification-and-limits-19aa79f8-e6e8-45a8-9be2-b58778fd68ef?CTT=5&origin=HA104099212&CorrelationId=6765f5e3-a020-4f3f-abef-0b252d78ca50&ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

 

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.  

 

Is that what you were looking for?

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    11 years ago

    Hi

     

    Thanks for your prompt reply

     

    Your answer refers to Excel, doesn't BI have its own database?

     

    Thanks

     

    Andy

     

     

     

    • GuyInACube's avatar
      GuyInACube
      Administrator
      11 years ago

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

      • andre's avatar
        andre
        Memorable Member
        11 years ago

        Anonymous just to add to Adam's last comment, the engine that we know as Power Pivot in Excel or what we sometimes call a model in Power BI Desktop is in fact Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services.  When you open up Power BI Desktop or Power Pivot, you effectively instantiate a Tabular instance of Analysis Services.

         

        SQL Server 2014 is running inside Excel 2013 Power Pivot and SQL Server 2016 is running inside Power BI Desktop.  So, if you want to understand practical limits of Power Pivot or Desktop Data models, you can simply look up limitations of the respective versions of Analysis Services.