Connect to data

In the previous section, we covered the steps to create a new table. In this section, we will use an existing table from a database by connecting to it through DirectQuery mode in Power BI.

Detailed steps to create or import a new table are covered in this section.

Get Data

1. To load the required data into Power BI, select Get data on the Home tab. The procedure is the same as importing any data into Power BI. In this example, we'll choose 'Azure SQL database'.

Select database

2. In the SQL Server database dialog box, enter the Server and Database (optional) names, and make sure the Data Connectivity mode is set to DirectQuery.

Enter the server and database names

EDITable connects to data sources only through DirectQuery. This ensures the report always uses the current data.

Note: For any database connection, make sure to select DirectQuery mode. Please find below the image that appears when you select a Snowflake database.

DirectQuery mode

3. Select the required table in the Navigator to preview the data and click Load. No transformation is required for this data as it is already prepared.

Load data

4. You might get a warning pop-up depending on the connection you choose. Since you will be connecting to your trusted source, you can proceed by clicking OK to load the data.

You can now view the 'EmployeeDemo' table in the Data pane. Note that the connection is through DirectQuery.

Data loaded in the Data pane

Now that we have connected to the database, the next step is to assign the fields in the Visualizations pane.