MS Excel table within Power BI

Hi Anjan_Madhwesh,

Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum and for the detailed post. you are raising several valid points that many users share.

Regarding the Excel-like filtering and search within Power BI tables, you're right that native visuals don't support auto filters like Excel. While slicers and filters are the current workaround, they can be clunky. There are third-party visuals like Power ON, Inforiver, or Zebra BI that offer enhanced interactivity, including in-cell filtering and Excel-style navigation. These are paid, but some offer free trials if you want to evaluate them.

For VLOOKUP-like behavior, Power BI uses relationships and DAX functions like RELATED, LOOKUPVALUE, and MERGE in Power Query. These can replicate VLOOKUP logic, but they require setup in the data model or query editor.

On the Excel integration defect with DirectQuery to Oracle yes, this is a known limitation. Excel struggles to push filters correctly through DirectQuery, especially with Oracle. Microsoft has acknowledged it, but there’s no fix yet. A workaround is to use Import mode if feasible, or create a composite model with a small imported subset for Excel analysis.

As for custom columns in Power BI Service: Viewer role doesn’t allow model edits, including calculated columns. This is by design for governance and performance reasons. If you need users to interact more deeply, consider using Personalize visuals or upgrading their role to Contributor or Member in a workspace.

I would also take a moment to thank lbendlin and sergej_og, for actively participating in the community forum and for the solutions you’ve been sharing in the community forum. Your contributions make a real difference.

If I misunderstand your needs or you still have problems on it, please feel free to let us know.  

Best Regards,
Hammad.
Community Support Team