Forum Discussion
Confused about joins
Hi Anonymous ,
You're thinking too much in the moment - think end-product:
Once you've done your T1/T2 merge, you right-click on the T2 query and UNCHECK 'Enable Load'. This prevents this query having to be run when you actually refresh your report in the service, as it doesn't need to be materialised for the data model. This just leaves your merged T1 query to be run which, as you can see, has all the details it needs within its folded native query to produce your merged T1 in the model.
Pete
First
Wait, so you're saying write the query as SQL? From all I can read this is considered bad form, hence me avoiding it.
I'd much rather write an SQL query than use Power Query, but I'm doing my best to learn the correct way of doing things in PBI.
Second
Yes, I know I can filter down, but in this case that still leaves me with a lot more lines than I need. I was hoping there was a more efficient approach, similar to writing a join. Especially since my scenario involves several big tables, not just two.
Okay. So you either use the second method or use DirectQuery instead of importation.
Don't worry PowerQuery only loads the first 1000 rows to work with, once you're done with your transformations, the whole table will be imported into the file.
Learn about filters WITH parameters, totally different than a simple filter. It will reduce the number of rows refreshed in the file.
Or just use DirectQuery and call it a day. DirectQuery you don't have to worry about the number of tables or rows you have. The only problem is that your visualizations will take longer to refresh because the PBI file will query the database every single time you do something.