Microsoft Excel — Introduction to Power Query Excel Add-In
Part of the Microsoft Power BI Suite #Data #Analytics
Introduction
I recently came across an excellent overview article posted on LinkedIn about PowerBI, Microsoft’s suite of business intelligence add-in tools for Excel. If you are an Excel user, this is a must read article — to at least develop an awareness of the how potential applications of Excel are developing and broadening Excel’s capabilities. It is powerful.
Power BI — within Excel — consists of Power Query (“Get and Transform in Office 2016), Power Pivot, Power Maps and Power View. This post only touches on Part 1, Power Query. Microsoft also has a separate Power BI applications — Power BI Desktop and PowerBI.com (online version).
Power Query simply allows you to easily grab data from many different sources and “clean it” for data analysis purposes in Excel.
“Every Excel user who spends their days re-organising data must learn about Power Query (now called Get & Transform in Excel 2016). It is so good that not knowing it will soon be career limiting.”
Learning the BASICs of Power Query
I have compiled some of my favorite Power Query materials below to help gain an understanding and get you thinking about how to get started.
WebLinks
- Power Query Reformats Ugliest Report Ever — a high level walk-through that will give you a sense of what Power Query does
- Getting Started with Microsoft Power Query for Excel — basic setup and use of Power Query
Once you have installed the Power Query add-in (Excel 2013 and prior), it will appear as a Tab on the menu bar:
Click on the Power Query tab to show the full ribbon:
If you have Office 2016, the “Get and Transform” tool is located under the Data tab (it is built in to Excel 2016).
ExcelIsFun YouTube Channel Videos
One of my “go to” resources for all things Excel is Mike Girvin’s ExcelIsFun YouTube channel. His content is excellent and presented in a generally easy to understand manner (Ok, sometimes I have to watch twice depending on my knowledge of the topic going in…)
Here are a few of my favorite introductory videos (and these ARE BASIC!) on Power Query (the full Power Query playlist — 72 videos — is here). If you want more, he has plenty to pick from!
Power Query #01 — Merge 3 Tables into One in PowerPivot (05:31)
Power Query #02 — Transform Data and Import into PowerPivot or Excel Table (09:04)
Power Query #04: Import Multiple CSV Files In 1 Step & Retrieve New Files Automatically (07:14)
Download and Install Power Query (03:38)
Invest just a little time with this content and, I hope, you will be motivated to dig deeper! I use Power Query every day and it has changed the way I function with data — in a very positive way!
About Don
“It’s Time for Different”
One lesson learned over the years is that all of us, regardless of organization type or size, struggle with similar issues — primarily information management and presentation, and effective use of our time. Let’s change that…one person at a time!
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