The very first question arise in your mind that what is Power BI data flow? Let me explain you in a simple term. I could say that a Power BI data flow is a collection of tables that are created and managed in power BI service workspace. Now here I have used the term table. Now what do we mean by table? A table is nothing but a set of columns that are used to store the data. Same like a table in the database. I know it is still confusing for you, so let me explain you in a simpler term over here. You all know about power query. When you load your report to power BI desktop, behind the scene power query is used to transform and perform some ETL operation on your data. So, Data flow is something which is the advanced version of power query, meaning everything that you are doing at this moment in the Power BI desktop. All of those things you can achieve with the help of Power BI service, meaning it’s a power query online. We can run all power query processes or operation from the cloud in dependently. From the power BI desktop report. Now, what do we mean by all of these things? Let’s get more clarity on that. A Power BI data flow is somewhat which is different than power BI report. So, with the traditional development, what we’re doing, let me explain you. So as a part of traditional process, we are just load our data to overpower BI desktop report, build some visualisation and then we are publishing the report to power BI service and when we publish this report to power BI service. You can see this is one report file and this is one data set file, right? So, behind the scene when you publish your report it is divided into two parts. One is your visualisation means report file and one is your data set file. Now this data set file is something which is associated with this particular report. No. Data flow is something which is totally independent from this particular data set. And the refresh is also performed independently in the cloud. Actually, we stored the data in memory. So, whenever you are developing the report and you are loading the data in your Power BI desktop. So, what it will do is it is stored the data in memory of power by right and when you publish that it is going to the service. Now the question arises in your mind. Now where the data flow is storing the data so actually behind the scene it is using the process of Azure Data Lake storage. So let me explain that you with the help of simple example. So, consider that you have different data sources an you’re creating one data flow on top of that. So, what happened here is in Azure Data Lake store regeneration too. It is storing all those data over there and from there you can access that data flow to your Power BI report and dashboard or in data set to build some beautiful report. So, data is stored as entities. In Microsoft Common data model compliant folders right now, there are lots of questions in your mind at this moment right that you know the data flow is storing the data into Azure data look storage. So, do we need any Azure subscription or what kind of extra thing do we need here? So let me. Clarify that thing to you. So, to give your answer, you do not need any additional Azure licence. If your organisation already has the licence that’s good, but if you don’t then it’s totally fine. You can create data flow even with the pro licence. Also, you can develop that with the premium licence or premium per user licence as well, right? So, hope this is giving you more clarity over here. Right. Now the question arises in your mind that yes, throw in, we understand the difference between the regular power BI report development that we are doing and What is data flow? We also get some idea on the head, but now. When to use data flow, can you please explain us? So yes, let me talk about that thing. So, let’s say for an example you are developing one sales report for your organisation. An in the sales report there is one table called product, let’s say now product table. Something which is used in to your sales report. As well as it is used in to some other reports as well like let’s say if your Finance Report or let’s say for an example if you’re tracking report. If you are using the same product table then what happened here is if you load that to power BI desktop then you need to. Load that table every time from the source and consider one thing that on that product table you are performing some operation on your power query lights. Say for example based on the product you are just adding different colour codes or maybe you are just adding some calculated columns. In power query or let’s say for example you are performing some operation like sorting or let’s say you are replacing some products with some another thing. So, you need to do the similar operation onto all your power by file. So, let’s say you are building 3 power BI report with the same product table, then you need to perform all of those operation everywhere. Right now, the maintenance process is becoming so heavy with this kind of mechanism. Now data flow is something which will provide you the centralised location to your workspace. So, let’s say I am building one data flow with product table an perform all the ETL operation onto Power BI service itself and then I will call that data flow to my Power BI desktop from my workspace. Then what happened here is no matter. Like if you are creating four report fire reports are thousand reports. At the time also the maintenance work becomes so easy, you simply need to make the change to your data flow and everything becomes so easy for you, right? So, this is the beauty of data flow that you have centralise data warehouse where you can reuse your tables to multiple reports. Right, so this is the main use case and this is the case where you need to use this particular thing. A second most important thing like. Data flow is independent from your report refresh. So even with the data flow you can do eight refreshes in a day. So, what happened here is you can refresh specific tables with data flow. So, like let’s say in this particular table product table, let’s consider in product table let’s say. I have loaded one table called product an I need that table to be refreshed on every week so I can configure separate refresh for that thing. And for more transactional data I will load into some another data flow and I can perform refresh like in every one hour so that can become. One another advantage, right? So, Hope so far you just got an idea about what is data flow right and when to use the data flow.
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