Blogs and How-To Topics
Big Data Analytics with Azure and Power BI (DP-500)

Synapse Delta Lakehouse and Power BI Enterprise Big Data Worked Example. Part 1: Start With the End in Mind
Learn How to build an enterprise scale architecture with Synapse (Delta lakehouse) and Power BI working with 2.4 Billion rows of NYC Taxi Data! This is part 1 of the Blog Post Series.
Read MoreData Preparation

Combine or Select from multiple files
Power BI How-To: Combine data from Multiple Files One of the key benefits of using Power BI is that you can mash different data sources together. For example, you can bring in sales transactions and combine it with data on customers from your CRM system in order to analyse which customer segments are buying the… Continue reading Combine or Select from multiple files
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Work with queries in the query editor
Power BI How to: Use the query editor The query editor is the area to connect to data and shape/transform it before it is loaded into the data model. A query within the editor is a table of data, from source or created with code/ with reference to another query, with zero or more transformation… Continue reading Work with queries in the query editor
Read MoreData Modelling

Design a Data Model
Power BI How to build a star schema. This topic looks at how to understand what structure of data tables you need, and how to model them using a star schema When data is imported into Power BI, the resulting data model sits at its heart. It drives the kind of analysis that can be… Continue reading Design a Data Model
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Manage Table Relationships
Power BI How-to Manage Table Relationships Once we have created our fact and dimension tables in the query editor, we then define the table relationships in the relationships pane of Power BI, either by dragging a field in one table over the top of another one or by selecting ‘Manage Relationships’ in the modelling tab:… Continue reading Manage Table Relationships
Read MoreDAX

Write Filter-based Measures
Power BI How-to: DAX | Use CALCULATE and FILTER to write Filter-based Measures The easiest way to understand the role of DAX Measures in Power BI is to think of them as advanced pivot table formulas that work in a slightly different way compared to standard formulas in the Excel grid. Power BI How-to: DAX… Continue reading Write Filter-based Measures
Read MoreGeneral

Example Reports
Power BI Example Reports | Visual Best practice design This report was the winner of the Complex Data Preparation Challenge for the 2017 Data Insight Summit in Seattle. The challenge involved taking a number of disparate data sets from the Hawaii Tourism Authority (on visitor numbers to Hawaii) and turning them into a visualization which… Continue reading Example Reports
Read MoreLookups and Strings
Filters and Pivots
Ranges and Formatting

Format data and Align text effectively
Cell formatting is all about how your data in cells is displayed – in terms of the number format (e.g. currency, percentage), the font/background fill colour of cells and how the text in cells is aligned. This is crucial for ensuring that your workbooks are usable and intuitive in terms of how it should be used and is particularly important for complex workbooks which will be used by different people. Not every cell will contain the same type of data or is intended to be used in the same way, so every cell shouldn’t be formatted in the same way! Moreover, number formats are important for ensuring formulas work correctly – for example text values are ignored in a SUM function, so if some of the numbers in a range are formatted as text these won’t be included in a SUM function that is based on that range.
Read MoreLogic and Dates
Protection and Validation
Navigation and Optimisation
Getting Started
Pandas - Introduction
Pandas - Data Aggregation
Pandas - Data Cleaning

Pandas – Replacing Values
We have already seen that detecting missing values and filling them are important steps in the data cleaning process. Just as important is correcting certain data points by replacing them with correct values. With Pandas a user can use different techniques to replaces certain values. We will highlight a few of them in this section.… Continue reading Pandas – Replacing Values
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Announcing the new Learn Data Insights (LDI) Website
I am proud to announce today that we are launching the new version of the Learn Data Insights (LDI) website. LDI is an online learning platform for Data Analysts, Financial Analysts, Data Engineers and Data Scientists, with a focus on Microsoft technology. My business Partner and I first launched the site in 2020, predominately with a set of quizzes for helping people prepare for the Power BI certification. Fast forward 18 months and the site has had over 10,000 people sign up who have collectively completed over 80,000 quiz attempts. The new site has a revamped design, new quizzes (including for Power Platform and Azure) and some initial course modules for topics such as Power BI Governance and Financial Reporting with Power BI. The content is organised around the specific personas/roles which we hope will help guide learners towards a path of learning. LDI is very much a passion project for me. Apart from being a Power BI enthusiast, I am fascinated by the ed-tech industry – by the psychology of how people learn, and by the story of how businesses exist to understand and solve the problems that people are facing. Not coming from a particularly technical background, I’ve found my own learning journey with Power BI challenging at times and want to really help all those who are on their own path with data analytics and cloud technologies.
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