Store Queries for Reuse?

[gmbarrett1]

New Power BI user coming from Qlik Sense. What is the best practice to leverage queries across multiple reports? In Qlik you could store transformed/aggregated data into optimized QVD files to be used in other apps and transformations. Is this possible in Power BI? For example, query_1 aggregates and groups data from one table and query_2 merges and transforms data from two other tables, all in one report. If I wanted to use those queries in other reports and blend them with other tables/queries, what is the best way to do this? I know you can do this upstream at the DW/ETL layer but obviously this requires experience and access there. From what I have read Dataflows can do this and save to CSV files, which sounds similar to how Qlik handles QVDs. Thank you in advance.

[Icey · Accepted solution]

Hi @gmbarrett1 ,

Based on my test, you can connect to multiple datasets when using "DirectQuery" connection mode. And the tables from different datasets will be marked with different colors.

Reference: DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services (preview) | Microsoft Power BI Blog | ...

Best regards

Icey

If this post helps, then consider Accepting it as the solution to help other members find it faster.

[mahoneypat]

Yes.  You can create Dataflows or publish reports which will create a dataset with it that can be used to create other reports.

Introduction to dataflows and self-service data prep - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

Create reports based on datasets from different workspaces - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

Pat

[gmbarrett1]

Can I blend two datasets in one report?

[Icey · Accepted solution]

Hi @gmbarrett1 ,

Based on my test, you can connect to multiple datasets when using "DirectQuery" connection mode. And the tables from different datasets will be marked with different colors.

Reference: DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services (preview) | Microsoft Power BI Blog | ...

Best regards

Icey

If this post helps, then consider Accepting it as the solution to help other members find it faster.

[gmbarrett1]

Thank you @Icey . Good to know that you can pull them into the same report. Are you able to link and/or merge those different datasets within the report?

[mahoneypat · Accepted solution]

Yes.  Please see this page/video for a good intro.

New composite models in Power BI: A milestone in Business Intelligence - SQLBI

Pat