Long Time to Import Excel data

[Anonymous]

Only 208K rows x 106 columns...took over an hour to import. Is it better to have source file open or closed while importing? Is there a way to copy and paste all at once in like 2 seconds like we can do in excel? Power BI is saying I have to parse into 3000 row increments?? I thought Power BI was designed for millions of rows?

[v-stephen-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

You don't have to make the source file open when importing.

Importing data does take time. The length of time can also be caused by different factors.

There's a optimization about data model for your reference:

Data reduction techniques for Import modeling - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards,

Stephen Tao

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

[lbendlin]

Yes, Power BI has no problem with long tables. What it absolutely does not like are wide tables. 106 columns is considered very wide.  But it also depends on the type of column, the cardinality, the column width etc.

Are you only importing or doing transforms?  What Excel format is it, xls or xlsx ?  Would you be able to provide a sample file?