Will adding a column in an underlying table break an existing visual?

[imagautham]

Hello everyone,

I have been asked this question by my manager. We have a table visual which is built in power bi. The underlying data source is a SQL table. Now the visual is working fine. They are planning to include a column in the same SQL table. They asked me if that could break the table visual?

Below are my thoughts, you could correct me if I'm wrong or add on a few points

I felt that if the total number of records doesn't change before and after adding a new column then I don't think it will break the existing visual

Whereas because of that added column if the total number of records in the SQL table increases or decreases then the visual in power bi will be incorrect

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

@imagautham If this is an import mode dataset, the table visual will not break. If more or fewer rows are added, the table visual will just display more or fewer rows. What may break is your Power Query, although generally adding a column doesn't break that either. Removing a column or changing a column's name, that's a different story.

[imagautham]

@Greg_Deckler  Thanks for the response. In what cases power query might break? Is it because of data type mismatches in that added column?

[transform99 · Accepted solution]

Best thing to do is to load it into a PBIX before hand and test.

I don't believe it'll break from adding columns, but if you have Power Query code that removes columns and one of those columns is dropped before import it will cause code to break (because Power Query won't be able to find the column to drop to fulfil its instructions).

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

@imagautham If this is an import mode dataset, the table visual will not break. If more or fewer rows are added, the table visual will just display more or fewer rows. What may break is your Power Query, although generally adding a column doesn't break that either. Removing a column or changing a column's name, that's a different story.