Forum Discussion
Advocate IICan we update the dataset without deleting and adding again?
Typically, I work with Excel or Power BI Desktop programs and build my data model there. You can, under specific circumstances, add a column for instance and the next time you refresh, it will be added to your data model. This does not tend to work if you create calculated columns. You have to remove the calculated columns and then refresh and then add the columns back.
If you do it this way, update the data model and then load the PBIX or Excel file and overwrite the old data set, you will not break all of your reports, dashboards, etc.
Advocate III am working with my data model in Excel using Power Query and uploading that into PowerBI.com. My data source is an Azure SQL database. I haven't figured out how to refresh it to see the new column, it just keeps refreshing the data but not the schema changes. Are you using Power Query? I've been going to the "Recent Sources" icon and then selecting my Azure db connection and finding the table with the changes and reloading it into the model, in which it adds it with a new name, like "Customers (2)" since I already have "Customers." Then I delete "Customers" and change "Customers (2)" to "Customers" and add back in any calculated columns. Maybe there's an option I'm not seeing?
You can overwrite the dataset in PowerBI.com? For me I have only seen it add a new dataset with the same name. And then I have to recreate the dashboard.
Community ChampionIf you have custom columns, it will never update the schema, you have to get rid of those first. Get rid of your custom columns first, then just refresh, don't create a new query, should plop your new columns in, add calc columns back.
I've never really had success doing what you are doing, something about the rename process just doesn't really work well in my experience.
- kpatterson2
Oh my gosh that worked! Just had to delete the custom columns first, if any exist. I didn't really think I had any because I was thinking in terms of calculated columns, but it had added columns in for the relationships.
Other people have told me the same thing about adding a new table and deleting the old one and renaming- that it didn't work for them. But it's not really a better method, still have to add any custom columns in.
- kpatterson2
So while that sort of solved one problem for me, were you saying earlier that you can overwrite the data set in powerbi.com without deleting any reports or dashboards?
- Greg_Deckler
I update my Excel and PBIX data sets and my dashboard stays how it is other than the data being updated. I can't say that I've specifically tested reports, I'll have to test some of that. When you upload the file, it should prompt you if you want to overwrite the data set.
- kpatterson2
Ok, I see how you get the message about replacing the file- it appears if you click "Get Data" in the bottom left as opposed to clicking the + sign next to Datasets. However, it did not ask me that question if I picked a file from One Drive, which is where my Excel file is. When I picked "local file" option, it did ask me that question and I've been getting an error though after clicking to replace the file. I tried replacing a different dataset and it worked without an error but not really- I didn't see my new columns. So still a little puzzled