Incremental refresh

[Anonymous]

Hi, I have some questions regarding incremental refresh.

1. Does it only work when you have date columns?
2. If I have only one date column and I used that column when I configure the incremental refresh and I set up the filter parameters on that column, Can I still use the same date column to detect data changes?

[v-yingjl]

Hi @Anonymous ,

When you enable and configure increment refresh in power bi desktop, you should set up parameters so you should have a date column first.

For incremental refresh, datasets are filtered by using Power Query date/time parameters with the reserved, case-sensitive names RangeStart and RangeEnd. These parameters are used to filter the data imported into Power BI Desktop, and also to dynamically partition the data into ranges once published to the Power BI service. The parameter values are substituted by the service to filter for each partition. There's no need to set them in dataset settings in the service. Once published, the parameter values are overridden automatically by the Power BI service.

Please refer the following Microsoft document, blog and case that could also help you:

1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-premium-incremental-refresh
2. https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/Important-Considerations-for-Setting-up-Incremental-Refresh-on/ba-p/554151
3. https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Incremental-Refresh-Date-Parameters/m-p/939626

Best Regards,

Yingjie Li

If this post helps then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Anonymous]

@v-yingjl 

Thank you for your reply. I have some more questions.
1. If I have only one date column, such as OrderDate, and I applied the "RangeStart" and "RangeEnd" parameters on this column, can I use OrderDate to configure "detect data changes" or is there any other option? for example, duplicate OrderDate and use it to configure to detect data changes

2. If I configure the incremental update to Update rows where column OrderDate is in the last 30 days, does it mean if something has changed in the data source 40 days ago, will it not be included in the updates?

Thanks in advance!

[v-yingjl · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous ,

1. If you select the Detect data changes checkbox, you can select a date/time column used to identify and refresh only the days where the data has changed. This should not be the same column used to partition the data with the RangeStart/RangeEnd parameters.
2. If you configure the incremental update to Update rows where column OrderDate is in the last 30 days, it means if something has changed in the data source 40 days ago, it will not be included in the updates.

Best Regards,

Yingjie Li

If this post helps then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.