Power BI — dataflows

The Power BI Service allows you to create ETL processes using dataflows with a well-known Power Query editor.

Here is a short example.

Go to a workspace, select NEW -> Dataflow.

Add a New Entity. You can find a lot of connectors here. We choose an Azure SQL database.

Enter your credentials and select tables.

As you can see, you can make transformations in the Power Query editor.

I’ve made a few changes, you can review details in the M editor.

Our data flow is ready.

You can configure an incremental refresh, a schedule refresh, etc.

You can build reports based on them….

…link tables from another dataflows or reference in datasets.

Using dataflows we are able to build more complex flows. A user can divide transformations by a type, a topic, a domain, etc.; simply by placing a particular group inside a separate entity. Team members don’t have to request every change and wait for a Data engineering team.

Nevertheless, if you work with a large amount of data and want to implement many transformations. Consider to use a dedicated tool like Databricks, a SQL engine or Azure Data Factory. Performance is better.