How can I find out more about joining data sets and performing calculations within Power BI?

[Anonymous]

Hi there

We're looking into a BI/data visualization too.

How can I find out more about joining data sets and performing calculations within Power BI?

As examples

We have data from multiple sources that we can join using eg client name, county and site name

We also need to extract data from a string of information

Thanks

Andy

[Seth_C_Bauer]

Hey Andy,

This should get you started. You'll want to use the Power BI desktop app to do that.

https://support.powerbi.com/knowledgebase/articles/464155-create-and-manage-relationships-in-power-b...

You can essentially "mash up" your data here, create your visualizations and publish to the power bi site.

[Anonymous]

Spoiler

Many thanks for this

Some more questions if i may:

1) Does Power BI incorporate Excel formulae?

As examples I use "if" formulae and other formulae to extra data between underscores, or between brackets, can I do this in BI?
If i have data in a string eg "Client name-UK_160x700_(Campaign)""

2) Where is data stored do you know and if on eg cloud is there an additional charge for this?

3) Expanding the brief a little, is Power BI essentially a means to create dashboards or can it be used to visualize data, eg using infographics?

thanks

Andy

[AlongTheseLines]

Where the data is "stored" depends on whether you are _importing_ data from a source (like Excel, Power BI Desktop files, some SaaS providers) or _connecting_ to an external data source (like Azure SQL Database, on-premises Analysis Services, some SaaS providers). If importing then a copy of the data is stored in the Power BI service. If connecting then the data just resides in the source system.

[andre · Accepted solution]

You can do all of that using Power Query.  Take a look at Merge, Append and Split features of PQ. 

You should be able to massage your data into a required format.  If the built in transformations are not enough, you can use these PQ formulas as well

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Power-Query-formula-categories-125024ec-873c-47b9-bdfd-b437...