What happens to the original data that I edit in the Power BI Query Editor

[benjaminhoang]

Hello. My orginzation has my excel sheet we work off. I want to know with the power bi query editors what happens to those original excel sheet once I make changes in the query editors and user are adding new data to the excel sheet. Does this change the data in the excel sheet or when new data get upload or cells are added to the excel sheet does that mess up things in the power BI query editor?

[v-yulgu-msft]

Hi @benjaminhoang,

Making any changes in Query Editor won't affect the source data stored in excel sheet.

If you update the source data in excel sheet, you should click the refresh button manually so that the dataset loaded to desktop will be updated correspondingly.

Best regards,

Yuliana Gu

[benjaminhoang]

What happens to corresponding cells that are changed in query editor and then later on refreshed whiched does power bi take?

[RMDNA · Accepted solution]

As Yuliana said, Power BI loads your souce data (assuming you're using import), which you can edit in the query editor. When you refresh the data, it reloads the source file, pulling in any new changes, and then reruns all the edits you made. There is no way for Power BI to write back to the source file, so you're never at risk of screwing it up.