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AH-Ohio
Regular Visitor

Bridge table (s)

Hello, I'm pulling in millions of rows across different, multiple tables. And according to whom is looking at the data, the visual slicers will filter accordingly.  
Each table has a lot of columns. There are common columns across the tables - which I've combined into several separate tables for "each" common column via sql directly in the data hub.  I really tried to put these common column tables into one single  table - but had issues joining due to the size of the data.  
And I'm not sure if I want to do that.  
Is it better to leave them all separate once I've brought them into query? And build my relationships in power bi from there?

Should I append the common column tables into one big single column (ensuring null/duplicates are removed) in one single bridge table?

Can someone please offer best advice on what to do and how to accomplish?

3 REPLIES 3
AH-Ohio
Regular Visitor

I should also mention, the tables that I have brought in already don't contain data such as sales data or anything like that.  It more of only dimension tables really.  All the data in all the tables answers who, what, where, when, how. For example all the huge tables include only info such as: where is the geography, what is the market, brands, categories, dates to ship, who is person owning project, etc. 

So I took these tables in the data hub and extracted the common columns across all. Then I unioned them into one column for each of those dimensions.  The reason I did this was to create the bridge on building the relationships between all the tables.  And the reason I did this was because the raw tables are not separated by each project but rather by tabs on where the data was entered.  And some

of the tabs share common data (i.e. the tables I created).

ImkeF
Community Champion
Community Champion

Hi @AH-Ohio ,
for Power BI it is ideal to model according to the star schema: Understand star schema and the importance for Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Docs
Power BI – Star schema or single table - SQLBI

Imke Feldmann (The BIccountant)

If you liked my solution, please give it a thumbs up. And if I did answer your question, please mark this post as a solution. Thanks!

How to integrate M-code into your solution -- How to get your questions answered quickly -- How to provide sample data -- Check out more PBI- learning resources here -- Performance Tipps for M-queries

I'm familiar with the star schema- which is somewhat of the approach I attempted the data hub prior to brining in the common Column tables. I attempted to put them in to one single table (which would have served as the "dimension table") ; however- due to size of data was unsuccessful.   How can I accomplish this task in query (should I append every single common colum

table into one single column in one table and then build the relationships)?

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