When are tables actually loaded into Power BI ?

[ranjitsingh]

I'm a little confused about the point at which tables from an external source such as an sql server are loaded into Power Bi.

Its my understanding that its at the point where you hit Close & Apply from Power Query Editor (and that the Power Query editor itself is only for shaping queries, i.e. before any loading.)

However...

some posts suggest data is loaded when you specify the server/Database, select the Import mode and hit OK

Some other posts suggest data is actually loaded to Power BI at the point when you select tables into power query editor from the Navigation Window and hit OK

Whats the Truth ? 

@lbendlin @selimovd @amitchandak 

[MattAllington · Accepted solution]

All of these options are variations of Power Query. When you are in the editing window, power query loads a sample of data - up to 1000 rows per table by default, but this can be set to "all data" if you need to profile all the data. The sample data is not loaded to the PBI DB, but it is cached in  PQ.   The data is loaded after PQ is done. You can load without going into the editor window in some instances. 

[mahoneypat]

Your first one is correct.  The other would bring up the query editor in a preview mode so you can work out any needed data transformations with example data.  Once you hit Close & Apply, it will apply those steps to the full dataset.

Regards,

Pat