101. What are the differences between visual-level filters, page-level filters, and report-level filters?Â
Visual-level filters filter data within a single visualization. Page-level filters work on an entire page in a report, and different pages can have different filters. Report-level filters filter all the visualizations and pages in the report.
102. How does the Schedule Refresh feature work?
You can configure an automatic refreshing of data daily or weekly, and at different times. You can schedule only one refresh maximum daily unless you have Power BI Pro. In the Schedule Refresh section, simply use the pulldown menu choices to select frequency, time zone and time of day.
103. What information is needed to create a map in Power Map?
Power Map can display visualizations that are geographical in nature. Therefore, some kind of location data is needed—for example, city, state, country or latitude and longitude.
104. Explain Power BI vs. Tableau
Microsoft Power BI and Tableau are both data analytics tools. Power BI has an extensive free version as well as a premium paid version, while Tableau’s free version has limited capabilities. Power BI is considered more intuitive to use than Tableau, as some features in Tableau are hidden behind menus, which makes it harder to learn and use. Power BI has a natural-language query tool, which Tableau doesn’t. Overall, however, Tableau may offer more capabilities for those who are experienced in data analytics. So for the question of Power BI vs. Tableau, Microsoft Power BI is generally considered better for those new to data analytics, especially if they already have experience in Microsoft products such as Excel, Azure and Office 365.
105. What is self-service business intelligence?
Self-Service Business Intelligence (SSBI)
- SSBI is an approach to data analytics that enables business users to filter, segment, and, analyze their data, without the in-depth technical knowledge in statistical analysis, business intelligence (BI).
- SSBI has made it easier for end users to access their data and create various visuals to get better business insights.
- Anybody who has a basic understanding of the data can create reports to build intuitive and shareable dashboards.
106. What are Content packs in Power BI?
Content packs for services are pre-built solutions for popular services as part of the Power BI experience. A subscriber to a supported service can quickly connect to their account from Power BI to see their data through live dashboards and interactive reports that have been pre-built for them. Microsoft has released content packs for popular services such as Salesforce.com, Marketo, Adobe Analytics, Azure Mobile Engagement, Circuit ID, comScore Digital Analytix, QuickBooks Online, SQL Sentry and graph.
Organizational content packs provide users, BI professionals, and system integrator the tools to build their own content packs to share purpose-built dashboards, reports, and datasets within their organization.
107. What are the data destinations for Power Queries?
There are two destinations for output we get from Power Query:
- Load to a table in a worksheet.
- Load to the Excel Data Model.
108. What are the data sources for Power Map?
The data can either be present in Excel or could be present externally. To prepare your data, make sure all of the data is in Excel table format, where each row represents a unique record. Your column headings or row headings should contain text instead of actual data, so that Power Map will interpret it correctly when it plots the geographic coordinates. Using meaningful labels also makes value and category fields available to you when you design your tour in the Power Map Tour Editor pane.
To use a table structure which more accurately represents time and geography inside Power Map, include all of the data in the table rows and use descriptive text labels in the column headings, like this:
In case you wish to load your data from an external source:
- In Excel, click Data > the connection you want in the <bclass=ocpui>Get External Data group.</bclass=ocpui>
- Follow the steps in the wizard that starts.
- On the last step of the wizard, make sure Add this data to the Data Model is checked.
109. What are the different types of refreshing data for our published reports?
There are four main types of refresh in Power BI. Package refresh, model or data refresh, tile refresh and visual container refresh.
- Package refresh
This synchronizes your Power BI Desktop, or Excel, file between the Power BI service and OneDrive, or SharePoint Online. However, this does not pull data from the original data source. The dataset in Power BI will only be updated with what is in the file within OneDrive, or SharePoint Online.
- Model/data refresh
It refers to refreshing the dataset, within the Power BI service, with data from the original data source. This is done by either using scheduled refresh or refresh now. This requires a gateway for on-premises data sources.
- Tile refresh
Tile refresh updates the cache for tile visuals, on the dashboard, once data changes. This happens about every fifteen minutes. You can also force a tile refresh by selecting the ellipsis(…) in the upper right of a dashboard and selecting Refresh dashboard tiles.
- Visual container refresh
Refreshing the visual container updates the cached report visuals, within a report, once the data changes.
Personal Gateway:
- Import Only, Power BI Service Only, No central monitoring/managing.
- Can only be used by one person (personal); can’t allow others to use this gateway.
On-Premises Gateway:
- Import and Direct Query supported.
- Multiple users of the gateway for developing content.
- Central monitoring and control.
110. How is data security implemented in Power BI?
Power BI can apply Row Level Security roles to models.
- A DAX expression is applied on a table filtering its rows at query time.
- Dynamic security involves the use of USERNAME functions in security role definitions.
- Typically a table is created in the model that relates users to specific dimensions and a role.
111. What is the difference between Managed Enterprise BI and Self-service BI?
The limitations of Managed Enterprise BI led to the birth of Self-service BI. There are significant differences that separate them. Managed Enterprise BI Self-service BI in Managed Enterprise BI, data flowed in from a plethora of data sources and, for this reason, there was no order in which companies ingested and managed their data sources. Self-service BI enabled companies to ingest data from any data source, seamlessly. Companies could take in data from any source and in any format, as well. Companies were failing to conduct their business operations, effectively, as they were not able to report and analyse data, and collaborate for collecting valuable insights from it. With data ingestion falling into order, companies were able to process data and, consequently, conduct business operations with ease.
There were time constraints and lack of proper information when it came to analysing data. Analysing data became easy, and the Self-service BI software did that implicitly. Time constraints were hence alleviated. Third-party vendors were employed to help companies make the most out of their data sources. This was leading to budget problems and slow productivity. There was no need of third-party vendors anymore and, therefore, all associated constraints were eradicated. Complex programming skills were necessary for generating reports. Users could generate intuitive and actionable dashboards almost instantaneously without executing complex programming codes.
112. What exactly is Self-service BI?
Self-service BI or Self-service Business Intelligence (SSBI) is an approach to data analytics, reporting, and visualization that enables users to generate easy-to-understand, intuitive, and actionable dashboards, almost instantaneously. The most striking feature of SSBI is the fact that users are not required to be adept at technical expertise when it comes to data reporting. Using available filters and data manipulation options, they can influence data as per their business needs and further create reports. There are two parts to Microsoft SSBI:Excel BI toolkitPower BI
113. Why are you interested in Power BI? What makes you think that Power BI would be a great career option?
A cloud-based data reporting and visualization tool, Power BI makes it possible for users to generate reports online. Once reports are generated, users can share them with their colleagues in their workplace. This aspect of Power BI makes it quite popular among business users. And therefore, Power BI is both an interesting and promising career option.
114. Mention the important features of Power BI.
Features of Power BI are many. The most notable ones are: It allows users to transform data into visuals and share those visuals with colleagues. It allows users to explore and analyse data from all sources (in an all-in-one view).It allows users to scale across organizations with built-in governance and security. Once an output is generated, users can display the same in multiple devices that are compatible with the Power BI application. With Power BI natural language processing or Power BI Q&A, users can perform queries on reports using simple English words.
115. Is Power BI free to use?
Well, users can use Power BI for free. However, the best of Power BI can be availed with the Power BI Pro subscription account. This can be purchased from the Microsoft Store. The subscription account basically offers an enhanced version of several features that are available with the Power BI free account. Most business users use a subscribed account as it offers more data refreshes per day and other features as compared to the free version.
116. What are the versions of Power BI?
Power BI brings in a lot of flexibility when it comes to data reporting and visualization. For this reason, the complete Power BI package has been divided into three versions. These versions allow all kinds of users to leverage the functionalities of Power BI to the fullest. The versions are: Power BI Desktop: The on premise version for Windows 10Power BI Service: For publishing to the cloud Mobile Power BI: For mobile users
117. What are the major components of Power BI?
There are five different components of Power BI.Power Pivot: The data transformation engine that fetches and cleans data and loads on to Power Query Power Query: The data transformation engine that operates the loaded data Power Q&A: Makes it possible for users to interact with reports using simple English language Power View: A data visualization technology lets users create interactive charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals Power Map: Enables the processing of accurate geographic locations in data sets.
118. What is the purpose of the ‘Get Data’ icon in Power BI?
When users click on the Get Data icon in Power BI, a drop-down menu appears and it shows all data sources from which data can be ingested. Data can actually be directly ingested from any source including files in Excel, CSV, XML, JSON, PDF, and SharePoint folder formats and databases such as SQL, Access, SQL Server Analysis Services, Oracle, IBM, MySQL, and much more. Also, Power BI data sets and Power BI data flows are compatible. Data can also be taken in from Azure and other online sources.
119. How can we filter data in Power BI?
Data can be filtered using filters that are available in Power BI, implicitly. There are basically three types of filters, namely, Page-level filters, Drill through filters, and Report-level filters.Drillthrough Filters: With drill through in Power BI Desktop, users can create a page in their reports that focuses on specific entities such as suppliers, customers, or manufacturers. Page-level Filters: These are used to filter charts that are present in individual pages. Report-level Filters: They are used to simultaneously filter charts that are present in all pages of a report.
120. Where is data stored in Power BI?
When data is ingested into Power BI, it is basically stored in Fact and Dimension Tables. Fact Tables: The central table in a start schema of a data warehouse, fact table stores quantitative information for analysis and is not normalized in most cases. Dimension Tables: It is just another table in the star schema that is used to store attributes and dimensions that describe objects that are stored in a fact table.
