Forum Discussion
Is a dataflow needed for excel file saved to onedrive?
I have a question regarding the best practice for connecting PowerBI to excel files saved on OneDrive. What benefit would I get from creating a dataflow that connects to the excel file vs simply connecting right to the excel file itself?
I am in the process of moving everything to the service and utilizing dataflow as much as possible but it seems redundant to connect a dataflow to the excel file.
I fully understand the benefit of dataflows for other data sources but we have several dim tables that are managed in excel. The files are small and updated infrequently. I know it is important to centralize datasets but wouldnt using the excel file saved on OneDrive provide be the same level of contralization as a the dataflow connecting to the same excel file? Is there an advantage of creating the extra step?
I hope my question made sense and please tell me if I am missing something. I am trying to figure out the best way to centralize these dim tables that are currently managed via excel.
Hey Anonymous ,
I understand your thinking, but nevertheless I recommend using dataflows to share the dimensions with your users.
There are two reasons for this recommendation
- Consistency, you present data to your users in a consistent way
- Clean data, you can take care of all the data cleaning in your dataflows, meaning users don't have to interfere with all the things that might happen when people are entering data into excel, e.g. creating empty rows if the are using the DEL key instead of removing the entire rows if the want to delete content.
Hopefully, this helps to make your decision.
Regards,
Tom
2 Replies
- TomMartens
Super User
Hey Anonymous ,
I understand your thinking, but nevertheless I recommend using dataflows to share the dimensions with your users.
There are two reasons for this recommendation
- Consistency, you present data to your users in a consistent way
- Clean data, you can take care of all the data cleaning in your dataflows, meaning users don't have to interfere with all the things that might happen when people are entering data into excel, e.g. creating empty rows if the are using the DEL key instead of removing the entire rows if the want to delete content.
Hopefully, this helps to make your decision.
Regards,
Tom