📊 Power BI Learning Roadmap — Part 3

Topic 4: Getting Data into Power BI

Before Power BI can analyze anything, it needs access to data.

Power BI can connect to data from many different sources, including Excel files, CSV files, databases, websites, cloud platforms, and organizational systems.

The first skill you need is understanding how Power BI connects to these sources and what happens after you connect to them.

🔹 Get Data

In Power BI Desktop, the Get Data option is used to connect to a data source.

When you select Get Data, Power BI provides connectors for different types of sources.

Some common examples are:

• Excel

• Text/CSV

• SQL Server

• Oracle

• MySQL

• PostgreSQL

• SharePoint

• Web

• Azure services

• Dataverse

• Power Platform sources

The connector you choose depends on where your data is stored.

Example

Suppose your sales team maintains a file called:

Sales_2026.xlsx

You can connect Power BI to that Excel file.

Power BI will read the workbook and show you the available sheets and tables.

You can then choose the data you want to work with.

🔹 Connecting to Excel

Excel is one of the most common sources for beginners.

Suppose your workbook contains:

Sales

• Order ID | Date | Product | Region | Amount

• 1001 | 01-Jan-26 | Laptop | West | ₹80,000

• 1002 | 03-Jan-26 | Monitor | South | ₹25,000

• 1003 | 05-Jan-26 | Laptop | North | ₹75,000

When you connect the workbook, Power BI can identify the available sheets and tables.

You then decide which data should be loaded.

This is important because you don't necessarily need to import everything from a source.

If an Excel workbook contains 20 sheets but your report only requires two, loading only the required data can keep the model cleaner.

🔹 Connecting to CSV or Text Files

CSV files are another common source.

For example:

• OrderID,Product,Region,Amount

• 1001,Laptop,West,80000

• 1002,Monitor,South,25000

• 1003,Laptop,North,75000

Power BI can read the file and identify:

• Columns

• Rows

• Data types

• Delimiters

You should always verify the detected data types.

For example:

• OrderID → Whole Number

• Amount → Decimal Number

• Date → Date

• Product → Text

Incorrect data types can create problems later during transformation, modeling, and DAX calculations.

🔹 Connecting to Databases

In professional environments, data often doesn't come from Excel.

It may be stored in a database such as SQL Server.

For example:

• SQL Server

• Sales

• Customers

• Products

• Employees

Power BI can connect directly to the database and retrieve the required tables or queries.

This is particularly common in enterprise reporting because databases are often the central source for operational data.

🔹 Import Mode

One of the most important concepts when connecting to data is Import mode.

With Import mode, Power BI loads a copy of the required data into its analytical model.

For example, if you import sales data from SQL Server, Power BI stores the imported data in its model.

When a user interacts with the report, Power BI can analyze this imported data without querying the original database for every interaction.

This generally provides very fast report interaction.