Goals of this Chapter

• Connect to an Excel file — load multiple sheets as separate tables.
• Connect to a CSV file. Understand delimiter settings.
• Connect to a SQL source.
• Connect to a Web Source.
• Understand Data Source Settings and how to change credentials.
• Refresh data manually.

The first step in the Power BI workflow is to load the data.

**Data → Transform → Model → Visualize → Share**

Now the question is how to load the data into Power BI?

What is data Connection in Power BI?

In Power BI we don’t just load the data into it rather we build a connection with a data source. What does that mean? In real world we don’t just have one excel file, rather we have a continuous flow of data, we build the connection so a data analyst doesn’t have to do the manual process everyday. Means we connect a data source with the Power BI, may be an excel file, we clean it, model it, create the report and share it. After some time, a week or a month later when the excel file has been updated with the new data, we just have to click on the refresh button to update the changes in our Power BI file, or we can schedule automatic refresh in Power BI service, that updates our file automatically.

How to connect to different data sources in Power BI?

Connecting to data is the first step in the Power BI workflow. Power BI supports around 150 file types and the number is growing continuously. The process is remarkably consistent regardless of the source: you click Get Data in the Home tab, select your source, and then decide whether to Load it directly or Transform Data (clean it) first.

Here is how the most common connections work in practice:

1. Excel Workbooks (.xlsx, .xlsb)

Excel is the most frequent data source.

• The Process: Select Excel workbook > Browse to your file.