Computed Entities and merge

[Mattw112]

Hi,

My corporate BI team deleted some tables out of our SQL db I use and instead are directing me to use a view.

Problem is the view doesn't have 4 columns that I use.

So I added another view to my dataflow (which has those 4 columns) and then created a merge between the two views.  but then it says that it is a computed entity and I need premium?

I dont do a lot in Power BI, but I've created numerous dataflows in Power Apps and I never get prompted when I merge?

Is there something I did wrong, or is that just how Power BI is?

Thanks,

Terry

[MattAllington]

There is a work around. This is what you can and can't do 

with Pro you can 

* create dataflow A and set to don't load

* create dataflow B referencing A and load

with Pro you can't 

* create dataflow A and set to load

* create dataflow B referencing A and load

You need Premium to load A and B

the work around is to remove the reference to loaded dataflows (entities). You can do this by referencing them in Desktop instead, or by duplicating them as non loading entities. 

[Mattw112]

What does setting it to "not load" do?  Will I still be able to get the columns I need into the main view?

[MattAllington]

good question - I may have my terminology wrong here.  My understanding is this will prevent you connecting to them from Power BI desktop.

[MattAllington · Accepted solution]

Technically, a dataflow is an entity if it is loaded.  If it is not loaded, then it is not an entity and you can reference it in anothe query.  Using my above example, right click on query A and turn off "enable load".  After you do this, you can right click query A and select "reference" to build query B.  This is allowed.  So if you are trying to referenece (say) Customers and customers is loaded, then simply right click Customers and select "duplicate". Right click again and turn off "enable load", then right click the copy of customers and reference it.  The downside is you now have 2 copies of the customer query, but the upside is you don't need to pay for premium.