Course Overview:

Power BI (including Power Query & Power Pivot) are the biggest Excel news items in the last 10 years. They give Excel users the power to draw information out of multiple sources, link it together then perform calculations on it that can then be sliced & diced any way you want.

This hands-on course is focused on real-world techniques utilising the amazing capabilities of Power Query.

This 1-day course covers the core elements needed to get an understanding of what Power Query can do. You will use Power Query to extract and shape data from a variety of sources and data layouts. You will learn to consolidate 50 csv files instantly, “un-pivot” data and replace VLOOKUPS with merged queries.

This focused course delves deeper into Power Query and how to get the most from this amazing tool. You will learn how to amend the “M”code generated by the Power Query interface, create reusable custom functions and set up dynamic parameters for your queries.

Target Audience:

• Excel users & analysts that spend time extracting, re-organizing and analyzing data
• Anyone interested in saving huge amounts of time in automating the work involved in creating recurring reports and dashboards

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how Power Query can save hours of manual effort in extracting and manipulating data
• Learn how to consolidate and merge data sets from multiple sources
• Understand best practice design to ensure robust and clear processes are adopted
• Provides an introduction to Power Query’s “M” language

Prerequisites:

This is an intermediate course and users should already be comfortable with Excel formulas to get the most from this course.

Participants should be familiar with functions & concepts such as VLOOKUP and SUMIFS.

The focus is on Excel 2016 and Power BI Desktop but the knowledge gained can be easily applied to Excel 2010 or Excel 2013

Course Materials:

Students will receive a course manual with presentation slides and reference materials.

Examination:

There is no exam for this course.

Technical Requirements:

For eBooks:

Internet for downloading the eBook

Laptop, tablet, Smartphone, eReader (No Kindle)

Adobe DRM supported software (e.g. Digital Editions, Bluefire Reader)

eBook download and activation instructions

Agenda:

Power Query Introduction

• Creating your first Query
• Understanding the Power Query Interface
• Splitting data columns
• Replacing values
• Cleaning out leading spaces
• Joining text together
• Removing unwanted rows and columns
• Understanding Data Types

In-depth Power Query

• Transforming more complex data sets
• Adding calculated columns
• Consolidate 50 CSV files instantly
• How to “un-pivot” data
• How to join multiple sources into one table
• How to replace VLOOKUPS with “Merge”
• Organising and documenting queries

Advanced Technique with Power Query and an Introduction to M language

• Creating a mapping check to ensure all your data is mapped correctly
• Using variables for query parameters
• Introduction to the Advanced Editor and M language
• Creating reusable custom functions
• Setting up a parameter table and a re-usable parameter function
• Calendar Creator
• Techniques for debugging M Code

Related Courses

Power BI for Excel (2 days)

Power BI Dashboard and Data Analysis (2 days)