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sdeleener
Frequent Visitor

timestamping data to another table

Hi,

 

I would like to monitor an evolution of my data. Therefore i would need to copy my data from one table/query to another table/query on a daily base and add a timestamp (time & date)

 

In this way i can make a new visual on how my data has been evolving over time.

 

Previously i was using a VBA script in excel for this that refreshes my data on a daily base and copies the lines to a new table. this however not very solid. Is there an option by using some scripts in the query editor of PowerBI?

2 REPLIES 2


@sdeleener wrote:

Hi,

 

I would like to monitor an evolution of my data. Therefore i would need to copy my data from one table/query to another table/query on a daily base and add a timestamp (time & date)

 

In this way i can make a new visual on how my data has been evolving over time.

 

Previously i was using a VBA script in excel for this that refreshes my data on a daily base and copies the lines to a new table. this however not very solid. Is there an option by using some scripts in the query editor of PowerBI?


Power BI uses a "delete and reload" paradigm.  It sounds like your data can change each day and you want to keep a snapshot of your data from each day.  If you have an new extract each day, you can simply load each of the daily extracts into Power BI with a suitable time stamp coming from the extract file date.  You can read about this general technique here http://exceleratorbi.com.au/combine-excel-workbooks-power-query-method-1/



* Matt is an 8 times Microsoft MVP (Power BI) and author of the Power BI Book Supercharge Power BI.
Anonymous
Not applicable

@sdeleener,

Power BI doesn't do this well just now - it focuses on extraction, transformation, analysis and presentation of data than on data storage.  If you can do it in your data source, it may work better.  To help improve this area, vote for this idea and add any relevant comments: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/7288623-incremental-data-loads

 

For a workaround, see this post from Imke Feldmann: http://www.thebiccountant.com/2016/02/09/how-to-create-a-load-history-or-load-log-in-power-query-or-...  Note that you can now call R from Power Query, so you should no longer need the call to "plot" in the example shown there.  And there is a link to a newer non-R version towards the botom of that post.

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