Connect Power BI to SQL Server

Let us see the step by step approach to connect Power BI to SQL Server Database. In addition to this, how to use Queries against the data present in Tables with an example.

Step by Step approach to Connect Power BI to SQL Server

If you haven’t started the Desktop yet, Double click on the desktop to open. Once it is open, it looks like the below screenshot. Please click on the Get Data hyperlink.

If you are on the visualization page, under the Home tab, click the Get Data option and select the SQL Server, as shown below. Or select More options.

We are selecting More options to show you the following window. Use this window to select your desired Data source. Here, we are discussing how to Connect Power BI to SQL Server. So, let me choose the SQL Server Database Option.

Connect Power BI to SQL Server

The following are the list of available fields to fill to connect Power BI to SQL Server Database

Server: Please provide the Instance name. If you installed SQL with the default instance, then the instance name is the computer name or localhost.
Database: This is optional. If you want to use a custom query then it is required.
Data Connectivity Mode: Please select whether you want to import or Direct query.

Clicking the Advanced option show you the advanced properties.

You can write your own query to extract data from the specified Database. To do this, write your query inside the SQL Statement box.

Custom Query that we used in the above screenshot is:

SELECT Geo.EnglishCountryRegionName AS Country, 
       Geo.StateProvinceName AS State, 
       SUM(Fact.SalesAmount) AS Sales, 
       SUM(Fact.TaxAmt) AS Tax, 
       COUNT(Fact.OrderQuantity) AS Orders
FROM FactResellerSales AS Fact
  INNER JOIN
     DimSalesTerritory ON 
        Fact.SalesTerritoryKey = DimSalesTerritory.SalesTerritoryKey 
  INNER JOIN
     DimGeography AS Geo ON 
        DimSalesTerritory.SalesTerritoryKey = Geo.SalesTerritoryKey
GROUP BY Geo.EnglishCountryRegionName, Geo.StateProvinceName
HAVING COUNT(Fact.OrderQuantity) > 60000

While Connecting Power BI to SQL Server, if you want to use this data, click Load. Let me click the cancel button because I want to select multiple tables.

NOTE: Don’t worry about the Query, Just understand the procedure. However, If you want to learn, please refer to our SQL Server Tutorial

Let me use the local instance, and click OK

For this Connect Power BI to SQL Server demo, we are using the current local windows credentials. If you don’t have the permission to access SQL Server, use another person’s windows credential by selecting Use alternative credentials.

Use current windows credentials to connect 7

In real-time, we only use Database credentials. For this, select the database and enter the username and password provided by the Admin person.

For now, I am using the current windows credentials.

Select the Database to Connect Power BI 8

Under the Display options, it lists out the Databases available for that Instance. In this example, We are selecting the AdventureWorksDW2017 database.

You can download this database from Microsoft official Download Center or GitHub for free.

Expanding the Database folder display the available Tables and Views. Selecting the table shows the Data Preview.

View and Select Tables inside that Database 10

From the below Connect Power BI to SQL Server screenshot, you can see that we are selecting the required tables. If you are confused about selecting tables, choose one Measure table (Orders or Sales) and click the Select Related Tables button.

Load: This will load data from selected tables to Power BI. As I know that the data is clean, let me click the Load button.
Edit: Click this button to alter the columns or to cleanse the data

Please wait until the load is complete

Now you can see the Tables that we selected from the database under the Fields section.

Expand any table to see the columns (fields) inside that table.

TIP: This is the Dataset that we are going to use in most of the Power BI tutorials.