How To Import Data From A Folder Into Power BI

Introduction

Power BI has a powerful feature, it enables you to get data from a folder that contains multiple files. In this article, you will learn how to import data from multiple files located in the folder.

To do so, I have three Excel files in a folder with the same structure.

How To Import Data From Folder Into Power BI

See the structure of each file below.

Employee1

Employee2

Employee3

You can see the structure of the table is the same, but data is according to the different countries.

You can also create the same table as the above image and follow the below steps to import data from these files located in the same folder.

Step 1

To import data, go to the ‘Home’ tab click on ‘Get data’ select the ‘Folder’ source then click ‘OK’.

Paste the path of the folder and click OK.

Here you can see the metadata information of all three files also you can see the four options ‘Combine’, ‘Load’, ‘transform Data’ and ‘Cancel’.

Combine

Here, you can see the two options ‘Combine & Transform’ and ‘Combine & Load’. In combine & transform, you can merge two or more tables and transfer through power query. In Combine & load, you can merge the table and load directly.

Load

This is used to load the folder directly

Transform

This option is used to transform the data.

Cancel

If you paste the wrong path of the folder or if you want to go back to the home page or previous page, you just click on ‘Cancel’.

Here in this article, I am going to use ‘Combine & Load’.

Step 2

Once you click on ‘Combine & Load’ you get the option sample file, choose the file you want to load here.

Your file has loaded now you can see the file on the left side of the tool.

Step 3

Our third step is to create a report. In the first report, I am showing the department-wise salary. Here I am selecting table visualization and three columns i.e. ‘DPT_NAME’, ‘DPT_ID’ and ‘SALARY’.

I have changed the background color and filed a color using format.

To change the page background color click on the canvas and go to format

In the second report I am going to show you the number of employees in a country. To do this I am using ‘Donut Chart’ visualization and two columns i.e. ‘OFC_LOC’ and ‘EMP_ID’.

Select the count of EMP_ID’.

I am also using ‘Focus Mode’ here so that our report is showing big in size and clear.

Summary

Hope you enjoyed this article. Try the above steps and you will able to get data from the folder. Thanks for reading.