About XLS file/source

[TotalAnonymous]

Dear community, 

I hope you're doing well. Currently, I'm trying to connect PBI Desktop with the SharePoint folder that contains XLS files. 

Here is what I've done using Blank Query

Through this code, I'm trying to combine XLS Files using CSV function. I saw in the forum that Power Query / Power BI has trouble to handle XLS file. Using that code, somehow Power Query can read the data from XLS file

However, I'm not sure if I publish the report into PBI Service, the refresh process will be running smoothly. Is there anyone in the community that have used XLS file as a source and using CSV function? To be honest, I'm not sure whether the XLS file need to be converted first into XLSX file or not (in term of best practice so that the refresh process will not error)

Thank you

 

[TotalAnonymous]

Hi @v-vpabbu , 

Thanks for your respond! I still don't believe that XLS extention works well with CSV function. Will try to ask user to convert the file first to XLSX. Thank you 

[v-vpabbu · Accepted solution]

Hi @TotalAnonymous,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.

Power BI doesn’t handle XLS files well because they use older drivers that aren’t always supported in Power BI Service. You might get it to work in Power BI Desktop using the CSV function, but there's a high chance it will fail during refresh in the service.

The best approach is to convert your XLS files to XLSX since Power BI works with them much more smoothly, and your refresh process will be more reliable.

If this post helps, then please consider Accepting as solution to help the other members find it more quickly, don't forget to give a "Kudos" – I’d truly appreciate it!

Regards,
Vinay Pabbu