Forum Discussion
Exporting data from Power BI to Excel
Hi all
Does anybody know (as per the post below) when 'export data to CSV' was actually implemented in PBI Desktop ? I currently have PBI Desktop (Mar 2016) installed, but can't see it in there - I would have expected to see an 'Export' option, with a 'CSV' sub option in the File menu. Possibly, given the date of the response below from Admin (29 Mar 2016), it may be coming in the Apr 2016 update ??
The above said, I'm struggling to undersatnd why an export to CSV option has been put ahead of an export to Excel option (and why there were no data export options at all, before the issue was raised !!) No file loads better into Excel than an Excel (.xlsx) file. In addition, there can sometimes be structural issues with CSV files. Given Excel and Power BI are both MS products, I would have thought it would be obvious and straightforward to provide an 'Export to Excel' option in the File menu in PBI Desktop.
Paul
How can we improve Power BI?
Export PowerBI Desktop to CSV/Excel
Please provide the ability to export PowerBI desktop reports to csv/excel, some users need the data from time to time
We’ve implemented export data to CSV. You can open a CSV file in Excel — Excel is often the default program to open CSV files. We hope this handles this feature request. If it does not, please open a new idea.
33 Replies
The export to CSV is there, you click the ellipses (...) on a visual and choose "Export". The only option you have for export is CSV. For anything beyond that, you'll have to post a new Idea.
Paulx99 look in the top right corner of a visualization (...) - defaults to data.csv - as Greg_Deckler said you can rename but not change file format
EDIT: By the way after you open the data.csv and make any change (just make a column wider) and then try to save you'll see this
And as soon as you hit NO - it will default to xlsx.
Hi Sean
Appreciate your reply, but we might be talking at cross purposes here. I'm not interested in exporting the data from a visualisation in the Report screen to either CSV or Excel. What I want to be able to do is to export data from the Data screen to Excel. That's why I was looking for a File -> Export -> Excel option in the File menu. But there is no such option and there is no CSV option there either.
Paul
Please refer to my reply to Sean. What I want to be able to do is export data from the Data screen in PBI Desktop, NOT data from the Report screen in PBI Desktop. Exporting data from the Report screen to either CSV or Execl is of no interest to me.
Paulx99 I wrote about this on 8/23/15
Ctrl-A is to Select All - So I can Copy and Paste in Excel
I agree with you we should be able to do this
"Also please enable Ctrl+A (Select ALL) in the Data View - currently it works only in the Query Editor.
This way we could Select ALL Data in the Data View where it would include the Calculated Columns."
Hi
I have a dashboard in Power BI Service and i'm trying to publish to web and then export to CSV.
But there is no option to export to CSV from the Dashboards.Could you tell me please if there are some way to do that.
Thanks in advance.Pablo
Hi Pablo
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Firstly, most of my experience has been with PBI Desktop, not PBI Service. In addition, I have only been a member of this community for a relatively short period of time. So, I am by no means an expert.
I dialed into my PBI Service account to have a look at what you have mentioned and agree there appears to be no option to export to CSV from the dashboards. The only place I can see you can do that is in the reports section.
In the absense of any other members out there having a suggestion for you on that, it might be a good enhancement request to make to make on the Power BI Ideas site.
Paul
Looks like export to CSV is not available in BI any more. Can someone tell me why it was dropped.
Can someone assist I am in a report view and would like to export to excel . The problem is the value of the calculated fields in one of the coulumns in the report ( last years sales using calculate and sameperiodlastyear function ) when exported to the excel sheet is not adding up .
However the simple aggregrate field for sum sales is adding up correctly .
If there is a limitation on the ecport of calculated measures , then how do i ever report alot of the reports that are built in Microsoft BI ? Tableau allows you to export the report straight to xcel and with calculated coulmns as well.
Can anyone assist .
Colin
still available on my June 2017 update version. cannot export to .csv directly, only through a visualization table (bizarre I know). There are also currently record limits on amount of records you are allowed to export. this method is not ideal.
You can connect to the Power BI SSAS server if you know the localhost port.
I didn't read the whole thread so I don't know if MattAllington chimed in at some stage but he has an excellent solution for this. His post is about connecting to Power BI assets from exclel and if you read his code, you will see where the information you need is at.
Why do you need to export to excel? My guess is that anything you need to do in excel the query editor or calc columns/measures could do just as well. If it is the case that you are more familiar with Excel you can do the same with the combination of Power Query (Get & Transform in 2016) and Power Pivot. If your looking for even more advanced analytics, design a predictive analytics model in the Cortana Analytics Suite and deploy it as a web service. With Power Query or the Query Editor you can call on this webservice and visualize the outcomes of those predictions.
Firstly, I'm definately not trying to do things in Excel that can be done in PBI - that would make no sense, given I have PBI.
The answer to your question as to why I need to export data to Excel is that I'm doing descriptive analytics, not predictive analytics. I look at data retrospectively to isolate very specific items of concern (exceptions), which I then need to export to Excel for end users (who know nothing about PBI and have no need to use it), but who do know how to use Excel, so they can view and/or investigate these exceptions further themselves or, distribute them to others for further investigation and feedback. For this reason, from a DA (data analytics) point of view, not having an 'Export to Excel' option in PBI seems like a major oversight to me.
Rather than PBI Desktop just being a data destination and downloadable production environment where results untlimately end up being published in PBI Service for consumption by end users, to me, PBI Desktop should also be looked at as being a powerful analysis AND conversion tool - loading data in a certain format from one system and exporting it to another system in a completely different format. Such capability (including being able to export data to Excel) is standard for any major DA software out there.
I think MS needs to decide if PBI is meant to be a BI tool only or if it is intended to be a BI AND DA tool. From what I've seen so far, it is definately a BI tool (and a very good one at that), with some DA capability. In my view, it still has a long way to go to match the DA capabilities of other major DA software providers out there. Being able to export data from the Data View in PBI Desktop to Excel would be a good start for those of us that need to perform descriptive analytics.
Pivot Tables in Excel are in Compact Form and have Collapse/Expand buttons.
You can summarize the fields and fit a lot of data on one Page! You can Expand only the fields you want to see the details for
With the Matrix in PBI you can't - you have to scroll and scroll and keep scrolling... to get to what you want to see...
Slicers remove data AND field Totals in the Matrix so they do not help
Agree.
