Siksha Sarovar

Siksha Sarovar (sikshasarovar.com) is a free educational web application that helps students in India learn programming and prepare for academic and competitive exams. The platform offers structured coding courses (C, C++, Python, Java, HTML, CSS, PHP, Power BI, AI, Machine Learning, Data Science), complete university curriculum notes for BCA/MCA students with previous year question papers, Class 10 and Class 12 CBSE/HBSE school notes, and dedicated preparation material for SSC, UPSC, Banking, Railway and other government exams. Browsing the site is completely free and requires no account. Users may optionally sign in with Google solely to save their learning progress, quiz scores and personal preferences across devices.

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Siksha Sarovar
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Siksha Sarovar is a free e-learning platform for coding courses, BCA university notes and competitive exam preparation. Optional Google sign-in saves your learning progress across devices.

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1.7 Importing Data from Various Sources

Lesson 7 of 62 in the free Power BI notes on Siksha Sarovar, written by Rohit Jangra.

Importing Data in Power BI

One of Power BI's greatest strengths is its ability to connect to a wide variety of data sources. You can pull data from files, databases, cloud services, and APIs.

Categories of Data Sources

CategoryExamples
FilesExcel (.xlsx), CSV, JSON, XML, PDF
DatabasesSQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle
Cloud ServicesAzure SQL, Google BigQuery, Snowflake
Online ServicesSharePoint, Dynamics 365, Salesforce, Google Analytics
WebREST APIs, Web pages, OData feeds
OtherR scripts, Python scripts, Dataverse

Importing from Excel & CSV

Steps to Import Excel:

  1. Open Power BI Desktop
  2. Click Home → Get Data → Excel Workbook
  3. Browse and select your Excel file
  4. In the Navigator window, check the tables/sheets you want
  5. Click Load (direct import) or Transform Data (opens Power Query Editor)

Steps to Import CSV:

  1. Click Home → Get Data → Text/CSV
  2. Select your CSV file
  3. Power BI auto-detects delimiter (comma, tab, etc.)
  4. Preview data and click Load or Transform Data

Importing from JSON & XML

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation):

  1. Get Data → JSON
  2. Select the .json file
  3. Power BI parses the JSON structure
  4. Expand nested records using the expand icon in Power Query

XML (Extensible Markup Language):

  1. Get Data → XML
  2. Select the .xml file
  3. Navigate the hierarchical structure in Power Query
  4. Expand nodes to flatten the data into tabular format

Importing from Databases

SQL Server:

  1. Get Data → SQL Server
  2. Enter Server name and Database name
  3. Choose authentication mode (Windows or Database credentials)
  4. Select tables or write a custom SQL query
  5. Click Load or Transform Data

MySQL:

  1. Install the MySQL Connector/NET driver
  2. Get Data → MySQL Database
  3. Enter server and database details
  4. Authenticate and select tables

PostgreSQL:

  1. Get Data → PostgreSQL Database
  2. Enter server and database information
  3. Select tables and load data

Importing from Cloud Sources

SharePoint:

  1. Get Data → SharePoint Online List or SharePoint Folder
  2. Enter the SharePoint site URL
  3. Authenticate with your Microsoft account
  4. Select lists or files to import

Azure SQL Database:

  1. Get Data → Azure SQL Database
  2. Enter server name and database
  3. Provide Azure AD or SQL credentials

Google BigQuery:

  1. Get Data → Google BigQuery
  2. Sign in with your Google account
  3. Select project and dataset
  4. Choose tables to import

Importing from Web APIs (REST APIs)

  1. Get Data → Web
  2. Enter the API endpoint URL
  3. Set authentication (Anonymous, API Key, OAuth)
  4. Power BI fetches the JSON/XML response
  5. Transform and load the data

Example API URL: https://api.example.com/data?format=json