Pros and Cons of a JSON With Power BI

[AnandNamburi]

Hi All,

I'm very new to Power BI and here I'm trying to understand what are the Pros and Cons of Power BI when we connected to JSON, instead ofa DB and an excel file.

Example:

Con:When we connect to JOSN file, need to do a liite bit of transformations according to complexity of data. 

[v-yingjl]

Hi @AnandNamburi 

If this issue has been solved, please kindly mark the suitable reply as a solution to help others find it more quickly. If not, please let us know to help you better. Thanks!

Best Regards,
Yingjie Li

[lbendlin · Accepted solution]

I don't think you have much of a choice.  When a data source presents its data in JSON format you have to accept it and try to convert it into something that is usable in your tool. 

If you are lucky the JSON has a simple structure and can be "flattened"  without loss of information. 

But there are cases where JSON is more complex, has multiple nested hierarchies, and does not translate well into a table.

What is your actual question?  Should you stay away from JSON data sources?  No, of course not - often you have no choice. But beware that it is not a "native"  format for tools like Power BI, Qlik or Tableau.  Even though these tools tout their associative models and extended table philosophies etc, they are still closer to (really powerful) traditional RDBMS than to XML databases, NoSQL or unstructured data stores .

[AnandNamburi]

Thanks for your help! 

Liked the content what you shared.