Merge with excel file and SQL tables

[LeoClariano]

Hi guys,

I'd like to know if is a best practice merge excel file with SQL tables in the same Power BI file. If not, why not?

[RachelGomez1619]

Here are the steps to merge these tables:

Click on the Data tab.
In the Get & Transform Data group, click on ‘Get Data’.
In the drop-down, click on ‘Combine Queries.
Click on ‘Merge’. This will open the Merge dialog box.
In the Merge dialog box, Select ‘Merge1’ from the first drop down.
Select ‘Region’ from the second drop down.
In ‘Merge1’ preview, click on the ‘Sales Rep’ column. Doing this will select the entire column.
In Region preview, click on the ‘Sales Rep’ column. Doing this will select the entire column.
In the ‘Join Kind’ drop-down, select Left Outer (all from first, matching from second).
Click OK.

Greeting,

Rachel Gomez

[lbendlin]

Don't do it.  Merges are expensive and will sooner or later wake the formula firewall dragon.  Join your data sources in the Power BI data model instead.