Forum Discussion
Query with CTE gives error
I wrote a query that uses a CTE. I don't have permissions to create a view or stored procedure.
Gotcha, putting a custom sql query into the query builder is not recommended - as you can see :smileyhappy:
Here are your options ...
1. Create a view - sounds like this isn't an option for you
2. Re-write the query without using a CTE - that would be a good test of your SQL skills
3. Stop using the custom sql code, query the underlying tables using the GUI, and use PQ to create the output you want - that would be a good test of your PQ skills
I am not sure why it isn't recommended. I don't see the documentation saying that and I don't see a list of query limitiations.
I am evaluating Power BI to determine in my organization wants to buy and use it as a visualization tool. I am not trying to "test my skills". I am trying to evaluate products to see how they work (or if they work in this case).
I cannot import the tables and join them because they are too large. I cannot use Direct Query because it doesn't support many to many relationships. All I see are a lot of llmitations.
Power BI is supposed to be self-service. That typically means not writing views or stored procedures (and generally not CTEs) and if a feature is there, I expect it to work.
your issue and thoughts about it are exactly what I'm facing today. Would be nice if it jsut passed through the query and used the results like it does in the preview. My query also works fine in PowerPivot with a recursive CTE and I was just trying it in Power BI but the same code in Power BI isn't accepted. cheers
I have the same issue with CTE. It will be much convenient to support CTE. I use a workaround to save data into excel and import it.
FYI, most people start these conversations with "thanks for trying to help me ..."
Writing custom SQL query generally works just fine - it's just recommended that you don't do it that way, that you create a view. Along those lines self-service BI doesn't mean that people are going to write SQL queries with CTEs to access the data, so I don't see not being able to do that in the tool as a major limitation to self-service BI. The only limitation that you have here is that you need a view created in your database, and that's not a limitation of this product.
To get around the limitation of creating a view, this solution does allow you (as a self-service tool) to take the tables out of your database and do the joining yourself using the query editor GUI. Your data must be very, very large if you can't get that to work in Power BI, and if your data is that large I'll ask you again, why aren't you doing that in a view in your database? If you have a nail that you need to put in a wall and you reach in your bag and get a screwdriver, well I don't think that's the screwdriver's fault.
One last point, I realize you're not trying to "test your skills" but I will say that this product is not BI magic dust - it does require some skills to use. If you're the type of person that can write a SQL query with a CTE then you'll be able to figure it out. Unless you don't want to figure it out.
I do appreciate any help. I was just hoping for an answer as to why it doesn't work rather than how to work around it. If there are limitations in queries in Power BI, that really should be documented by Microsoft.
This would be used with a data warehouse, so the tables often have millions of rows.
As a developer, of course I can write queries (or views or stored procedures), but management doesn't really understand how this all works and thinks anyone can get a tool and drag tables and fields around and get reports and visualizations. They see a 2 hour demo and think it is so easy (which it is if you know the tool and have cultivated data). At a minimum, I believe unless your dataset is small and/or carefully cultivated, IT (or technical business people) needs to create views, cubes or queries.
I completely understand that that is not a Power BI limitation strictly, but a self-service limitation that all these tools have.
I'm going to communicate this all to my client, and if they don't buy it suggest they have several potential report writers try and create reports with the data warehouse as is.
