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By using Power BI Desktop, you can connect to the ever-expanding world of data. If you don't have Power BI Desktop, download and install it.
Power BI Desktop supports many data sources. The following image shows a small sample of all the data sources you can use when you select Get data.
Example of connecting to data
For this example, connect to a Web data source.
Imagine you’re retiring. You want to live where there’s lots of sunshine, preferable taxes, and good health care. Or perhaps you’re a data analyst, and you want that information to help your customers, as in, help your raincoat manufacturing client target sales where it rains a lot.
Either way, you find a Web resource that has interesting data about those topics, and more:
https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/happy-retirement/best-places-to-retire-in-the-us
Select Get data > Other > Web > Connect. In the From Web dialog, you can choose between two options:
- Basic: Enter a single URL to connect to a web page or file.
- Advanced: Build a URL from multiple parts, add HTTP request headers, or specify a command timeout.
For this example, select Basic and enter the address.
When you select OK, the Query functionality of Power BI Desktop goes to work. Power BI Desktop contacts the Web resource, and the Navigator window returns the results of what it found on that Web page. In this case, it found a table. You're interested in that table, so select it from the list. The Navigator window displays a preview.
You can use the Transform data feature to edit the query before loading the table, or just load the table.
Select Transform Data to load the table and launch Power Query Editor. The Query Settings pane is displayed. If it's not, select View from the ribbon, then choose Query Settings to display the Query Settings pane. Here’s what the editor looks like.
The final rank scores are text rather than numbers, and you need them to be numbers. No problem. First, clean the data so that there's no text in the column. Right-click the Rank column header, and select Replace values.... Enter (same as 2024) in the Value to find field, then select OK.
Next, change the data type. Right-click the Rank header again. Select Change Type > Whole Number to change them. To choose more than one column, first select a column then choose Shift, select other adjacent columns, and then right-click a column header to change all selected columns. Use Ctrl to choose columns that aren't adjacent.
In Query Settings, the APPLIED STEPS reflect any changes that you made. As you make more changes to the data, Power Query Editor records those changes in the APPLIED STEPS section, which you can adjust, revisit, rearrange, or delete as necessary.
You can make other changes to the table after it loads, but for now these changes are enough. When you're done, select Close & Apply from the Home ribbon, and Power BI Desktop applies the changes and closes Power Query Editor.
With the data model loaded, in Report view in Power BI Desktop, you can begin creating visualizations by dragging fields onto the canvas or selecting them from the Data pane.
This model is simple, with a single data connection. Most Power BI Desktop reports have connections to different data sources, shaped to meet your needs, with relationships that produce a rich data model.
Related content
You can do all sorts of things with Power BI Desktop. For more information on its capabilities, check out the following resources:
- What is Power BI Desktop?
- Query overview in Power BI Desktop
- Data sources in Power BI Desktop
- Shape and combine data in Power BI Desktop
- Perform common query tasks in Power BI Desktop
Want to give us feedback? Great! Use the Submit an Idea menu item in Power BI Desktop or visit Community Feedback. The Power BI team looks forward to hearing from you!
