Getting Data from a Text File

Getting data from a Text file

Using Power BI to import data from a text (or CSV) file

When to use

Use when you can’t connect directly to a database, but can download your source data to a text (or CSV) file

Instructions

The general process is:

• Go to Power BI Desktop
• Get Data > Text/CSV
• Locate the file and choose Edit when prompted
• Use Remove Rows > Remove Top Rows to remove any unnecessary rows from the top
• Click “Use First Row as Headers” to promote the first row to headers
• Right-click a column > Remove to remove unnecessary columns
• Click the icons at the top of a column to change data types
• Right-click a column > Remove Errors to remove all rows with errors
• Click the Filter arrow at the top of a column to filter out values and blank rows
• Rename columns by double-clicking them (or right-click and choose rename)
• Rename your table on the right side
• Click Close & Apply to complete the query

Hints & tips

• Select multiple columns by holding down the CTRL or SHFT key while clicking them
• To set data types on multiple columns, select them, right-click one and choose Change Type
• Always remove errors from a column before filtering!
• All steps are recorded on the right side so you can step through them
• Click the gear icon on any step to reconfigure it
• Click the X next to a step to remove it