What Happens to Historical Data - Adding a New Column to a Power BI Dataset with Incremental Refresh

[smpa01]

How does adding a new column to a Power BI dataset with incremental refresh affect the historical data for that column?
Will the new column be populated for existing historical partitions, or only for new data after the schema change?
Is a full refresh required to backfill the new column in historical data?

[v-sdhruv]

Hi @smpa01 ,

I hope the explaination provided addressed your query. If any of  response has addressed your query, please accept it as a solution so that other members can find it easily.
Thank You

[v-sdhruv · Accepted solution]

Hi @smpa01 ,

When you modify your Power BI dataset to add a new column, historical partitions are not automatically reprocessed. The new column will be blank in those historical partitions. Only future data added will have data for the new column.

You must force a full refresh to populate the new column across all partitions.

Hope this helps!
If the response has addressed your query, please accept it as a solution so that other members can find it easily.
Thank You

[FBergamaschi]

The refresh recalculates the column entirely

If you want the refresh to happen only on a portion of a table, you need to set up Incremental Refresh

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv2BtOtLblH3lwpQ5NBq6kD6fsVziO9sE

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Francesco Bergamaschi

MBA, M.Eng, M.Econ, Professor of BI