ArcGIS Shapefile in Power BI

[Anonymous]

Hi guys

I want to take part in the Maven Analytics Taxi Challenge, but I have a question. I am fairly new to Power BI and I haven't had the chance to work with ArcGIS just yet. How do I convert the shapefiles from the dataset (top one) into a functional map? I have tried to Google a solution, but I am pretty confused.

Thank you in advance

[v-kelly-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi  @Anonymous ,

You cannot input a Shapefile into ArcGIS Maps for PowerBI.

If your Shapefile has a Location attribute however, you could convert the .dbf component of the Shapefile into a .csv file which can be imported into ArcGIS Maps for PowerBI and display it using that Location attribute.

You can view the documentation here:

• Add data to the map
• Location types

I have done an example below, where my Shapefile had the address of the points split into a few different fields. I needed to create a new column with these attributes combined in order to display the location.

You can do that too by following this article - Create a separate Location column in your data

1. Open MS Excel
2. Open the .dbf file of your Shapefile. You might need to select "All Files" from the file explorer. You can then save the file as a .csv
3. Open PowerBI Desktop, then add the ArcGIS Maps for PowerBI Visualization and sign in with your account.
4. From the Get data tool, connect to Text/CSV then navigate to your new .csv file and load the data.
5. Drag your location column (or create your own) into the Location field

Your Shapefile data is now displayed in ArcGIS Maps for PowerBI. This method works well with point address data, or polygon data that is using locations such as zip codes, postcodes or administrative boundaries.

Best Regards,
Kelly

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[EdwinTerrell1]

I'm having trouble with this if it's a polygon.  It works for me when it's data points tho.  With the polygon, it's attributes are shape area and shape length and there's no buckets for those.  Any advice?