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Paulx99's avatar
Paulx99
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10 years ago

Power BI Desktop Field Characteristics

Hi All

 

I was wondering if anyone knows how and where Power BI Desktop stores field start positions and field lengths belonging to data that has been loaded into it ?

 

Cheers

 

Paul 

 

Need Help

4 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    10 years ago

    Paulx99 I don't think there is any way to see this in the Desktop itself... You could change the PBIX file extension to .zip and dig into all the files that are available in there.

    • Paulx99's avatar
      Paulx99
      Icon for Kudo Kingpin rankKudo Kingpin
      10 years ago

      Hi Eno1978

       

      I agree with you..I certainly haven't been able to find this in Desktop.. It would be great to have such a facility in Desktop.

      Changing the .pbix extension to a .zip extension is an interesting idea... Just tried and can see alll the files, but if I try to open any of them (tried using notepad) the contents are completely unreadable.

       

      Do you any suggestions on what (software package) could open these files within the .zip file, so the contents are readable ?

       

      Thanks

       

      Paul

    • Paulx99's avatar
      Paulx99
      Icon for Kudo Kingpin rankKudo Kingpin
      10 years ago

      Hi Vicky

       

      Sorry for the late reply. I'm guessing your question is a general one and not specifically related to my question about Power BI Desktop field characteristics ?

       

      Assuming that to be the case, yes, there are many issues I encounter in my use of Power BI Desktop - nothing to do with the software not working properly - just things that I'm looking for and would like to see in there - a screen displaying the field characteristics behind a data view would be a good example.

       

      That said, there is no doubt PBI Desktop is a brilliant piece of software and it is still only early days for it (if we take V2.0 as the baseline) and that the current rate of development is rapid. However, I find PBI Desktop to be far stronger in terms of BI capability than data analytic (DA) capability (no surprise really, I guess given it's called Power BI desktop !!). Coming from a DA background, I find the lack of DA capabilities that I'm looking for in PBI Desktop frustrating. There is much DA capabilitity and fuctionality that could be built into PBI Desktop, which would enhance and compliment the current BI capabilitity and functionality.

       

      At the end of the day, I think Microsoft needs to decide whether PBI Desktop is a BI tool only or whether it is a BI and DA tool. If it’s both, then in my view, more DA capability and funcionality needs to be built into PBI Desktop. From my perspective, DA compliments BI and visa-versa - they go hand in hand. Right now, however, I’ve really got no choice but to use DA specific software (which I’ve been using for years), to get the DA part done and then PBI Desktop to complete the BI side. I'd really like to see it all in one package - PBI Desktop.

       

      Regards

       

       

      Paul