In this section, we show you how to connect Power BI to Excel Files and how to get data from Excel sheets. To demonstrate the Get Data from Excel, we will load records from an Excel file and generate a Donut chart.
How to Get Data from Excel to Power BI
Before we import data to Power BI, let us see the sales By Country Excel file data. From the screenshot below, you can see that the First row has the Column names.
If you haven’t started the Power BI Desktop yet, Double click on the desktop to open it. Once it is open, it looks like the screenshot below. Please click on the Get Data hyperlink.
If you are on the visualization page, click the Get Data option under the Home tab and select Excel, as shown below. Or select More options.
Get Data from Excel to Power BI
When you select the More option, the following window will show. You can use this window to select your desired Data source. Let me select the File -> Excel Option and click the Connect button.
Once you click the Connect button, a new window opens to select the Excel File from our file system. For now, we are selecting the SalesByCountry.xls file.
Expanding the Excel folder displays the list of available sheets. If you select the sheet or table, it shows the Data Preview, as you can see in the sheet preview. If you are satisfied with the Data and the data types, click the Load button. Otherwise, click the Edit button to make changes.
Currently, we don’t want to make any changes to the data. So, let me click on the Load button to get Data from Excel to Power BI.
Please wait until the load is complete.
Now, you can see all the columns imported from the Excel file under the Fields section.
Let me create a Donut chart using this data. I suggest you refer to the Donut Chart article to understand the steps involved in creating it.
