Data Discovery with Power Query

Abstract

Although Power Pivot provides many types of connections you can use to query data, there are times when you need to manipulate the data before loading it into the model. This process is commonly known as tttthe transform part of the ETL (extract, transform, and load) process. This is where Power Query really shines and is a very useful part of your BI arsenal. Power Query provides an easy-to-use interface for discovering and transforming data. It contains tools to clean and shape data such as removing duplicates, replacing values, and grouping data. In addition, it supports a vast array of data sources both structured and unstructured, such as relational databases, web pages, and Hadoop, just to name a few. Once the data is extracted and transformed, you can then easily load it into a Power Pivot model.