The Algebra Teacher Powers to B.I.

In last week’s blog, I wrote and did a video about how to remove duplicate records and keep the most recent entry as long as a date column was part of the data source.   I came across the scenario while giving training on Power BI with my company Pragmatic Works.   See the video below:     This week, while doing another two-day training I came across a different scenario from a follow-up conversation from day 1.   I had explained how to remove duplicate records and one of the students started working on a Power BI project she has for her company.   On day 2 the student informed me that her remove duplicates step was not working.   I said that is odd and I asked to see the data.   In one of her table visuals, I could see that it appeared that a few of the records had duplicates based on the name column.   After further investigation though, we figured out the culprit.     She had done all the steps correctly, but it was a...

  If you have geographical data in your data source, using a map visual at some point in your Power BI report is almost a given.   Sometimes, however, the map doesn’t produce the results you were looking for.   For example, Fort Wainwright, Alaska might show up in India or not show up at all.   If you have ever had trouble with your maps not displaying what you know is right let me give you a few tips and tricks.  1)        When you use a map you will have to change the category settings of your column in order for Power BI to know what kind of geography this column represents.   Is it a zip code, a city, a city and a state, etc.? 2)        If you use abbreviations for your states, countries, territories, etc. make sure Power BI doesn’t have to guess what part of the world is using that abbreviation.   To avoid confusion, you want to have in your data source the full name of your state, country, territory,...

  Who doesn’t want updates to technology? This guy.   I mean, I love them- they are great – I work for a tech company! Haha. But honestly, sometimes updates can induce a feeling of dread as often an “update” is just a euphemism for “something new to learn.”   And don’t these updates seem to come out JUST when you finally feel comfortable with the *last* version that came out?   That’s what happened a month ago with the July Power BI Desktop update.   The Power BI team put out a fantastic new visual Azure Maps visual.   I was excited to start using it but then realized very soon that my data set would not work.   Why?   I didn’t have the latitude and longitude coordinates for my geography table.   This was an easy fix though because I know I could do a merging of queries as long as I could find a good data source of latitude and longitude.   If you are looking for a free resource that has a numerous amount of US latitude and longit...

This time last year if someone had asked what " merging queries " was, I probably would have thought it described the point where my wife's questions all seemingly combined into one big, blurry quiz. Now I know it means something completely different! It's a way to shape and transform your data. This easy-to-understand multi-media lesson will answer such questions as: Why do you want to combine data? How does this skill save space and increase my productivity speed? Which "joins" best fit my goal? A preview of the effective visuals used in the lesson: So, here is my multimedia approach, including detailed notes,  to simplifying what could be a big blur (like it was at the beginning for me.)  Again, I hope this approach to learning BI is making something complicated, a bit easier to understand. Especially for those of you who are like me... learning to thrive in this new B.I. world. Please reach out with any questions or comment on th...