Analyst in Action

In today's blog, we will take a deep dive into the basic functionality of Power BI. We will talk about the types of filters available in the Power BI whether in the query editor or at the visualization level. Let's start with the purpose of using filters that is limiting the rows on the basis of a condition or restrict the data which you don't want to showcase in your visualization. There are many types of filters available in Power BI. We will start with the filters available in the query editor. I am considering the sample superstore data. So, I have imported the Orders and Returns table and we will be applying the filter on the order date. When we select the date filters it will lead to a pop-up where you can select basic and advanced filtering currently I am selecting the advanced version. The filter will limit the data for a particular duration as you can see in the image below. You can remove the filter just by selecting the clear filter. Just to check the code of the...

You must be aware of the purpose and significance of Vlookup in Excel. But when it comes to Microsoft Power BI there is no Vlookup in it. Power BI provides you Related and Lookupvalue which is quite similar to Vlookup in Excel. If you aren't familiar with the Vlookup kindly refer to our blog . Let's get started with the purpose of both functions. You will be shocked to know that both of them will give you the same result. Because it follows the same principle of Vlookup i.e. searching for a particular value in a column and returns a value from a different column (different table). In this blog, we will showcase how and when to use related and lookup values. We will be using Sample Superstore data. The question that comes to my mind is when to use the related functions? So there are certain criteria to be met before creating a column with related. One of the conditions is that both the tables (one where we are creating a column and the other will be from where the value will com...

Let's discuss another problem of the week. As a Power BI user, there are times when you want to combine queries. What are the ways to do so? In most cases, you can attain it by using either append or merge and both serve different purposes. Let's understand what do these terms mean in Power BI and how they are functionally different from each other.  It is quite common to get data from various sources and you need to combine those data depending on a particular column which is common in both tables so that you can add extra information or column to your big table. In such cases, we use merge queries. How to perform merge queries? For instance, I am considering Sample Superstore data and we will merge the returns table to the order table. You will find both merge and append in the home tab in extreme right in the power query editor. ProTip - You will find two options when you click on the drop-down in merge which are merge queries and merge queries as new. When you use merge que...

Finally, we are back with new blogs. The idea of all the blogs is to share the problem of the week which I faced and provide a solution to it. So, as Business Intelligence Analyst one of my major responsibilities is to design an optimized data model and avoid many to many relationships. The primitive approach to such a problem is to create bridge tables out of a big flat table and create one to many relationships in that process. Creating bridge tables can be achieved in the Power Query Editor. There are mainly two ways to achieve that one is to take reference tables and the other is to create a duplicate table out of the big flat table. So what is the difference between duplicate and reference? Let's dig deeper into it. If you see both of them create a copy of the main table but in duplicate, it will copy the changes applied to the main table whilst in the reference the bridge table will be isolated from all the changes applied to the main table. The reference query always points ...

As a tableau enthusiast, I always see similar questions on the tableau community and in today's blog, we will address that. If you are new to tableau then you must be perplexed about the use of groups and sets in tableau. It troubled me a lot in the beginning and after using tableau for a significant period I realized that it's not that difficult and you can identify the purpose after using it. Let's dwell around it and highlight the differences.  Before highlighting the differences we will understand what is a group in tableau? As the name suggested you can group different members into a particular group without any condition associated with it and it will create a new dimension every time. The definition can be confusing at times so let's dig deep into it by taking a closer look at how a group works in the Tableau public. I am using sample superstore data. Before creating a group let's understand the idea behind it. I am taking the subcategory and we are looking t...

In today's blog, we will deep dive into the Power query editor. The interface of the power query editor is a replica of an excel spreadsheet but in the former things are much easier as compared to excel. Power query editor offers a lot of features which we have discussed in the guide to power query editor blog .  In this blog, we will focus on one of the features i.e. add columns. You can find it next to the transform tab in the power query editor. We will be working with the sample superstore data. The idea is to explore the add column tab. Let's start with duplicating the column which is just a click away feature available in the power query editor. You just need to select the column of which you need to make a duplicate and select the duplicate column tab available on the top. Unlike in Excel, you need to apply shortcuts to achieve the same. The power query editor is all about making your life easier. From duplicating the columns we will move to index the columns which can b...

Are you looking for advancement in basic symbol maps and geographical maps? Then this blog is for you. Tilemaps are the best head away for basic maps because in the latter the shape and sizes of the location play a crucial role. The basic highlight feature of any tilemap is all the regions are represented by the same shape or size. Shapes can vary from circle to hexagon or squares. Such maps play a vital role when the size of the region is not so important for the visualization.  This blog is inspired by one of the Tableau Zen Master. Matt Chamber's work is an inspiration for me and in today's blog, I will highlight the steps to draw tilemaps in Tableau Public. Kindly check out Matt's blog. Our focus is solely on the different states in the US. Tilemaps are a great advantage in such scenarios because there are a lot of smaller states in the US that aren't easy to identify in a standard map. Tilemaps come to the rescue in such cases. Tilemaps cannot be used when we are...