Forum Discussion

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
3 years ago

Long Time to Import Excel data

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?

2 Replies

  • 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?

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable

    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.