Power Query

What is Power Query?

 

Power Query is a tool developed by Microsoft that is integrated into Excel and Power BI. This tool allows users to quickly import, clean, transform and improve their data before starting analyses.

 

This high-performance tool is an essential ally for anyone who must regularly transform their data before being able to use it. Despite its performance, this tool remains, in my opinion, underused. Many Excel users are completely unaware of its existence.

 

Power Query is available in Excel and Power BI, but I recommend using it with Power BI mainly for 2 reasons:

 

- Power BI desktop is free, so if the company you work for does not have the Office 365 suite and therefore Excel you will still be able to use the tool.

 

- Power BI has much more striking visuals than Excel and you will be able to produce much more captivating reports than those of Excel and if your company has a subscription to Power BI Services, this function allows you to easily share your reports and to easily manage access, something that is not as easy with Excel!

 

 

Here are 5 reasons to use Power Query with Power BI.

 

Using Power Query in Power BI has several significant benefits for data analysis and manipulation.

 

Here are five arguments that highlight why Power Query is a valuable tool:

 

1. Automation of the data import and transformation process:

Power Query helps automate repetitive tasks like importing, cleaning, and transforming data. It is therefore practically possible to automate 100% of your data transformation process. Imagine the time you can save!

 

From experience, I have seen several analysts reduce the time to produce analyzes by 50 to 70%. All this time can therefore be used to do more analysis or simply to have more time to support the business.

 

2. Documentation of the transformation stages:

Who has ever taken an Excel file with dozens and dozens of tabs with complex formulas and it is practically impossible to understand how the file works without more than 40 hours of training by its creator?

 

Or a file with lots of VBA code, poorly structured and which works half the time?

 

I'm sure you understand what I'm trying to describe. Power Query just helped us. Each transformation that we create will be documented directly in Power Query automatically. This makes it much simpler to understand the execution sequence of the process and it will not take much time for a new user to feel comfortable with the Power Query documentation process.

 

3. Ease of handling:

 

Do you have a doctorate in computer programming? Probably not and it is far from being required to have programming experience to use Power Query! Some purists will mention that they will write their code, but it is very easy to use Power Query functions to transform your data without writing 1 line of code (Power Query does it for you!) With an intuitive interface and turnkey features it is possible to make complex transformations in just a few clicks!

 

 

4. Access to data:

 

Power BI can connect to hundreds of different data sources as simple as CSV files, Excel or directories on your computer, but also to data sources like SQL Server or Oracle databases, cloud services like Salesforce or Azure. In the past, the ability to connect to data sources was reserved for IT functions that used more complex tools. Here, Power Query gives this access to data to all analysts and is a complete change for data analysis. For those interested, here is the list of Power Query connectors and it is common for Microsoft to develop new connectors.

 

5. Improving data quality:

 

Power Query is a robust tool for cleaning and transforming your data. Need to modify the format of a data column, eliminate errors or duplicates?

Need to create data based on a column?

Power Query is by far the tool for performing this type of transformation and once the tool is configured the process is now automated.

 

 

Conclusion :

 

In closing, Power Query gives a lot of flexibility to its users. The option to connect directly to data and automate the data import and transformation process frees analysts from performing redundant tasks with little added value and now with this time saving it is possible to focus more on analyzes and thus better support the company.

 

Dive into Power Query and transform information into business intelligence.