Power BI - Excel Integration

---

---

In this chapter, you will learn how to integrate Excel with Power BI.

Using Excel Data

Using Power BI, you can also import Excel workbook files from the local drive into Power BI. To import data from the Excel sheet, you have to ensure that each column has a proper name. To import an Excel file in Power BI, navigate to Get Data → Files → Local Files.

Importing xls Files

In Power BI Service, navigate to My Workspace → File → Local File.

Also, note that your Excel file doesn't need to only be saved on the Local Drive. You can also import an Excel workbook from OneDrive or even from SharePoint.

Once the dataset is imported, you are ready to create the reports in Power BI. The Imported dataset is available under the "DATASETS" option in the Power BI menu.

Double-click Datasets. Then, navigate to the Explore tab. This will open a new Report Canvas. All the fields from your table and corresponding columns are available under the Fields option on the right side of the screen.

To create a report, select any visualization and add the fields from the table to the visualization.

For example − Select "My workspace" and then click on the "Upload" tile and choose "Browse".

Note that you can upload only .pbix or .rdl files to the workspace. Other extensions are not supported. Make sure that files should be saved in One Drive. Files from other locations in the local system cannot be uploaded to the Power BI service.

Select the specified file from the local system and click Open.

Whenever you upload the file, two types of the same file are generated in My workspace. The first file shows the Report type and the other type of Employee12 indicates the Semantic Model. Therefore, the specified file is uploaded to My Workspace.

Click on the three dots and select the Quick insights from the list.

Quick insights of the emplyee12 files is displayed.

Click on the "employee12" file and select "Analyze in Excel" from the "Export" tile.

Therefore, the Excel file is downloaded to your local system.

Another way to analyze the file in Excel is to click on the "employee12" Semantic model from the My Workspace.

Select Sheet1(2) and the table preview is displayed on the screen. You can export this table into Excel, PDF, CSV, XML, etc.

If you export this table into Excel, two options are available: "Download Excel file" and "Export with live connection". Click on "Download Excel File" to analyze the data.

The message " New Report.xlsx is ready for download" is prompted on the screen.

As you can observe the downloaded report is opened in Excel.