This blog post covers a brief overview of the topics covered and some common questions asked on Day 1 Live Interactive training on Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate [PL-300]
This post will help you learn how to retrieve data from various data sources and gives an Overview of Data Analysis to prepare you for the certification and get a better-paid job in the field of Data Analyst.
On our Day 1 Live Session, we covered Data Analysis, PowerBI, Roles of Data, tasks performed by Data Analyst, getting data from different sources, and also performed hands-on, where we learned about how to open Power BI Desktop, Microsoft data analytics, building with Power BI and many more.
1) Overview of Data Analysis
Data Analysis is a process that involves Obtaining raw data, Inspecting the data, Cleaning and Transforming it to discover useful insights and form conclusions useful for decision-making.
Data analysis is, and should be, a critical aspect of all organizations to help determine the impact on their business, including evaluating customer sentiment, performing market and product research, and identifying trends or other data insights.
Source: Microsoft
>Roles in data
The different roles in data and the specific responsibility in the overall spectrum of data discovery and understanding:
- Business analyst
- Data analyst
- Data Engineer
- Data scientist
- Database administrator
Source: Microsoft
Check Out: Our blog post on Power bi Gateway Configuration. Click here
>Data Analyst
A data analyst enables businesses to maximize the value of their data assets through reporting tools and visualization such as Microsoft Power BI. Data analysts are responsible for cleaning, profiling, and transforming data.
Tasks performed by Data Analyst:
1)Prepare:
- Data preparation is the process of cleaning, profiling, and transforming the data to get it ready to model and visualize
- It takes some raw data and turns it into useful information, ensuring data integrity, identifying missing data, and correcting inaccurate data.
2)Model:
- Once data is in a proper state, it is ready to be modeled. Data modeling is the process of determining how tables are related to each other.
- It is done by defining and creating the relationships between tables where the table is a combination of rows and columns.
3)Visualize:
- It is the graphical representation of information present in the data. Graphical representation can be in the form of charts, bar graphs, and figures in the Power BI Tool.
- The goal of the visualized task is to ultimately solve the business problems, and a well-designed report should tell a compelling and impactful story about the data enabling business decision-makers to quickly gain needed insights.
4)Analyze:
- Understanding and interpreting the information displayed in the report
5)Manage:
- Many components are available in Power BI, which includes workspaces, datasets, reports, dashboards, and more. The data analyst is responsible for maintaining these tools.
Source: Microsoft
Check Out: How to Use KPI Power bi. Click here
>Power BI Architecture
First, we connect with the data source, and we design and develop reports by using the Power BI desktop.
Once we publish them, they go to Power BI service, and Power BI service is a service platform used to share the reports with clients, groupmates, teammates, etc.
We definitely want the latest data all the time, so that’s where this Power BI gateway is used.
Power BI gateways are strategies or methodologies used to sink the data with the Power BI service. If there is any variation from the data side, it will even be reflected Power BI service, and from this Power BI service, we will be able to access the data in the form of dashboards and so on.
Source: Microsoft
FAQ asked in sessions are:
Q1: What is Microsoft data analytics?
Ans: Microsoft data analytics refers to the process of extracting insights and value from large sets of data using Microsoft tools and technologies. It involves collecting, organizing, analyzing, and visualizing data to uncover patterns, trends, and insights that can drive informed decision-making.
Q2: What is Power BI?
Ans: Power BI is a business analytics tool developed by Microsoft. It provides interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities with an interface that is easy to use for end-users. Power BI can connect to a wide range of data sources, transform and shape the data, and create interactive reports and dashboards.
Q3: How can I get started with Microsoft data analytics?
Ans: To get started with Microsoft data analytics, you can follow these steps:
- Familiarize yourself with the concepts of data analytics and its applications.
- Learn the fundamentals of SQL (Structured Query Language) as it is widely used for data manipulation and querying.
- Explore Microsoft Excel and its data analysis features.
- Get hands-on experience with Microsoft Power BI, which provides more advanced analytics and visualization capabilities.
- Consider learning programming languages such as Python or R, which are commonly used for data analytics tasks.
Q4: How can I get started building with Power BI?
Ans: To start building with Power BI, you can follow these steps:
- Download and install Power BI Desktop, which is the primary development tool for creating reports and dashboards.
- Connect to your data sources by importing data from Excel files, databases, cloud services, or other sources supported by Power BI.
- Transform and shape your data using Power Query, a built-in data preparation tool in Power BI Desktop.
- Create visualizations such as charts, tables, and maps using the drag-and-drop interface of Power BI Desktop.
- Design interactive reports and dashboards by adding filters, slicers, and drill-through actions to provide an immersive experience for your users.
- Publish your reports and dashboards to the Power BI service, where you can share them with others, collaborate, and schedule data refreshes.
Q5: Do data engineers do the transformation of data?
Ans: Yes, a typical data engineer profile requires the transformation of data into a format that is useful for analysis. They set up and maintain the data infrastructures that support business information systems and applications.
Q6: What are the Benefits of the Power BI App?
Ans: There are various Benefits:
- Drag & Drop Functionality
- Drill down functionality
- We can schedule data Refresh
- Minimal Upfront Costs
- Can view Power BI reports across multiple platforms and devices
Q7: Can you give other examples of Data Analysis Tools other than Power BI?
Ans: Here are Some of the Data Analysis Tools used other than Power BI:
- Datapine
- Qlik
- Tableau
- Google Data Studio
- SAS
Q8: What is the difference between descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics?
Ans: Descriptive analytics answers questions based on historical data. Predictive analytics answers what will happen in the future by analyzing historical data. Prescriptive analytics helps answer questions about which actions should be taken to achieve a target or goal using predictive analytics.
Q9: In SSRS, is there any max number of attributes that can be used?
Ans: In SSRS, there is no limit on attributes that can be used.
Q10: Is python necessary to become a data analyst?
Ans: If you’re passionate about the statistical calculation and data visualization portions of data analysis, R could be a good fit for you. If, on the other hand, you’re interested in becoming a data scientist and working with big data, artificial intelligence, and deep learning algorithms, Python would be the better fit.
Check Out: What Does Power bi Developer Do. Click here
2) Get Data in Power BI
- Before creating reports, you must first extract data from the various data sources.
- Interacting with SQL Server is different from Excel, so you should learn the nuances of both systems.
- After you’ve learned the particulars of each system, you can use Power Query (the query engine used by Power BI and Excel) to help you clean the data, such as renaming columns, replacing values, removing errors, and combining query results.
- After the data has been cleaned and organized, you are ready to build reports in Power BI. And you can publish it into the PowerBi service.
Source: Microsoft
>Flat File Location
The first step is to determine which file location you want to export and store your data.
- Local- You can import data from a local file into Power BI. The file isn’t moved into Power BI, and a link doesn’t remain to it. Instead, a new dataset is created in PowerBI, and data from the Excel file is loaded into it.
- OneDrive for Business- You can pull data from OneDrive for Business into Power BI. This method is effective in keeping an Excel file and your dataset, reports, and dashboards in Power BI synchronized.
- OneDrive – Personal- You can use data from files on a personal OneDrive account and get many of the same benefits that you would with OneDrive for Business.
- SharePoint – Team Sites- Saving your Power BI Desktop files to SharePoint Team Sites is similar to saving to OneDrive for Business. The main difference is how you connect to the file from PowerBI.
Source: Microsoft
Q11:What is a Flat File?
Ans: A Flat file is a type of file where every row of data is in the same structure and has only one data table. This type of file doesn’t contain hierarchies.
Check Out: Our blog post on SSRS Power bi. Click here
>Get Data from Relation Database
If an organization uses a relational database to record its sales transactions, you can use Power BI Desktop to establish a connection to your organization’s relational database rather than getting data from individual flat files.
Connecting Power BI to your database will help you monitor your business’s progress and identify trends, so you can forecast sales figures, plan budgets, and set performance indicators and targets.
Source: Microsoft
Q12: Do we need SQL in Power BI?
Ans: We do not write SQL queries in PowerBI. Instead, we embed them in a query that is usually unnecessary as we build queries in the query editor. Because PowerBI can connect to many other sources than SQL, it has its own language. When applicable, it will translate to SQL behind the scenes on its own.
Q13:What is a NoSQL database?
Ans: A NoSQL database(Non-SQL) is a flexible type of database that does not use tables to store data.
Check Out: How to Update Power bi App. Click here
>Get Data from Azure Analysis Services
Azure Analysis Services is an Azure product that allows you to ingest data from multiple data sources, build relationships between the data, and creates calculations on the data.
Azure Analysis Services is an Azure product that allows you to ingest data from multiple data sources, build relationships between the data, and creates calculations on the data.
Q14:What are the difference between Azure Analysis Services cube and SQL Server?
Ans: The difference between Azure Analysis Services cube and SQL Server are:
- Analysis Services cubes have calculations already in the cube, which will be discussed in more detail later.
- If you don’t need an entire table, you can query the data directly. Instead of using Transact-SQL (T-SQL) to query the data, as you would in SQL Server, you can use multi-dimensional expressions (MDX) or data analysis expressions (DAX).
Q15: How can we connect data to PowerBI from another SQL Server?
Ans: We can connect data from various sources rather than SQL Server like from NoSQL database, Files, Online Services, Azure Analytics Services
>Performance Issues
Organizations will need to address performance issues when running reports. Power BI provides the Performance Analyzer tool to help fix problems and streamline the process.
>Query Folding
Query folding is the process by which the transformations and edits that you make in Power Query Editor are simultaneously tracked as native queries, or simple Select SQL statements, while you are actively making transformations.
Q16:What are the Benefits of Query folding?
Ans: More efficiency in data refreshes and incremental refreshes. When you import data tables by using query folding, Power BI is better able to allocate resources and refresh the data faster because PowerBI does not have to run through each transformation locally.
Automatic compatibility with DirectQuery and Dual storage modes. All DirectQuery and Dual storage mode data sources must have the back-end server processing abilities to create a direct connection, which means that query folding is an automatic capability that you can use.
Q17:What are the Different Types of Storage Modes in PowerBI?
Ans: The three types of Storage modes are :
- Import mode: The Import mode allows you to create a local PowerBI copy of your datasets from your data source. You can use all Power BI service features with this storage mode, including Q&A and Quick Insights.
- DirectQuery mode: The DirectQuery option is useful when you do not want to save local copies of your data because your data will not be cached.
- Dual-mode: In Dual mode, you can identify some data to be directly imported and other data that must be queried. Any table that is brought into your report is a product of both Import and DirectQuery modes.
Q18:What are the errors that occur while importing the data in PowerBI?
Ans: While importing data into Power BI, you may encounter errors resulting from factors such as:
- Power BI imports from numerous data sources.
- Each data source might have dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of different error messages.
- Other components can cause errors, such as hard drives, networks, software services, and operating systems.
- Data can often not comply with any specific schema.
Q19. What are the data sources that connect and support Power BI?
Ans: The following data sources support DirectQuery in Power BI:
- Amazon Redshift
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure Data Explorer
- AtScale (Beta)
- Azure HDInsight Spark
- Google BigQuery
- Azure SQL Data Warehouse
- HDInsight Interactive Query
Q20.Can we have more than one active relationship between two tables in a Power Pivot data model?
Ans: No. There can be multiple inactive relationships but only one active relationship between two tables in a Power Pivot data model. Dotted lines represent inactive relationships, and continuous lines represent active relationships.
Q21. How is Power BI defined as an effective solution?
Ans: Power BI is a strong business analytical tool that creates useful insights and reports by collating data from unrelated sources. Power BI drives an extreme level of utility and purpose using interactive visualization and graphical interfaces. You can create reports using the Excel BI toolkit and share them on the cloud with your colleagues.
Set Of Questions Asked During Free Class
Q.1 How to learn DAX?
As you begin to learn Power BI, you will inevitably encounter the term “DAX.” It stands for “Data Analysis Expressions,” and is a collection of constants, functions, and operators developed by Microsoft. It is part of our training.
For more info about DAX, please see Introduction To Data Analysis Expression (DAX) In Power BI
Q.2 What are the main important DAX functions?
The main important DAX functions are:
- Aggregation functions: Aggregation functions return a scalar value applying an aggregation function to a column or to an expression evaluated by iterating a table expression.
- Date and Time functions: Date and time functions help create calculations based on dates and time. Many of the functions in DAX are similar to the Excel date and time functions.
- Filter functions: Filter functions manipulate table and filter contexts.
- Financial functions: Financial functions corresponding to Excel functions with the same name.
- Information functions: Information functions provide information about the data type or filter context of the argument provided.
- Logical functions: Logical functions act upon an expression to return information about the values or sets in the expression.
- Math and Trig functions: The mathematical functions in DAX are very similar to the Excel mathematical and trigonometric functions.
- Other functions: These are special functions that cannot be classified into other categories.
- Parent-child functions: These functions help flatten a parent-child relationship in a regular one.
- Relationships management functions: These functions manage and manipulate relationships between tables.
- Statistical functions: Statistical aggregation functions.
- Table manipulation functions: These functions manipulate and return tables.
- Text functions: Text functions manipulate strings.
- Time Intelligence functions: Time intelligence functions support calculations to compare and aggregate data over time periods, supporting days, months, quarters, and years.
Q.3 What is the difference between a stacked bar chart and a stacked column chart
Stacked bar charts allow users to see changes in a series of data and where they occurred. For example, the increases or decreases of the value of investments in a stock portfolio over time are often represented as a stacked bar chart.
A stacked column chart is a basic Excel chart type to allow part-to-whole comparisons over time, or across categories. In a stacked column chart, data series are stacked one on top of the other in vertical columns.
Q.4 For what purpose we use the stacked bar and stacked column chart.
If you want to show sizes between individual categories, use a stacked column chart. If the goal is to show the total sizes of groups, use a regular stacked bar chart.
Q.5 What is the difference between table and matrix?
The key difference between tables and matrices is that tables can include only row groups, whereas matrices have row groups and column groups.
Q.6 What is the difference between line and area charts?
A line chart is a series of data points that are represented by dots and connected by straight lines. A line chart may have one or many lines. Line charts have an X and a Y-axis.
The Basic area chart (also known as the layered area chart.) is based on the line chart. The area between axis and line is filled with colors to indicate volume.
Q.7 What are bookmarks in Power BI?
Bookmark is a Power BI feature that enables you to capture the current state of your report page.
Q.8 What is Data Modelling?
Data Modeling is one of the features used to connect multiple data sources in the BI tools using a relationship. A relationship defines how data sources are connected with each other and you can create interesting data visualizations on multiple data sources
Q.9 What is the difference between Dashboard and Report?
Power BI Dashboard is the collection of visuals to tell the story graphically, like charts and graphs, along with features to interact with the end-user, whereas a report is generally a detailed summary of the large data set as per the criteria are given by the user.
Q.10 What is the difference between DATE ADD and PARALLEL PERIOD in DAX?
The PARALLELPERIOD function is similar to the DATEADD function except that PARALLELPERIOD always returns full periods at the given granularity level instead of the partial periods that DATEADD returns.
Q.11 What is the Difference between IF and IF.EAGER in Power BI DAX?
- IF function is strictly evaluated which computes TRUE or FALSE results only when the condition is met.
- IF.EAGER function is eager evaluated. Computes TRUE and FALSE results regardless the condition is met or not.
Q.12 What is the difference between cluster bar and cluster column chart?
Power BI Clustered Bar Chart is used to display horizontal bars of multiple data regions (Measures) against a single Metric. And Power BI Clustered Column Chart is used to display vertical bars of multiple data regions (Measures) against a single Metric.
Quiz Time (Sample Exam Questions)
With our Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate, we cover Over 100+ Sample questions to help you prepare for the Certification [PL-300]
Check out these Questions:
Ques: What is Power BI Embedded?
A. It is an Azure-based cloud Service that enabled Web developers to create and integrate PowerBI reports
B. It is an Azure-based cloud service that helps you to capture the configured view of a report page in a specific time
C. It is an Azure-based cloud service that helps you to provide actionable information which helps corporate, business managers, executives, and other users to take decisive business decisions.
Ques: Which of the following is a potential way to improve the performance while getting the data in Power BI?
Comment your answer in the comment box.
References
- Microsoft Certified Data Analyst Associate [PL-300]: Everything You Need To Know
- Microsoft Certified Data Analyst Associate [PL-300] Step By Step Activity Guides (Hands-On Labs)
- Data Analysis in Power BI for Beginners
Next Steps to begin with PL-300 Certification:
In our PL-300 Certification Training Program, we’ll cover 10+ Hands-On Labs. If you wish to start your journey toward becoming a Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate, try our
Joel says
What is Power BI Embedded?
C
Which of the following is a potential way to improve the performance while getting the data in Power BI?
D