Applied steps processing

[Fatimah]

I wish to know how the applied steps are being processed when refreshing a report on the desktop? arethey being processed in parallel or the next one starts after the one before it finishes? if they are being processed in parallel, is there a way to make them processed one by one?

[d_gosbell]

It depends a bit on what steps are being processed, but as a general rule Power BI will attempt to "fold" as many steps as possible down to the data source.

So if you did the following against something like a SQL database:

Step 1- select columns

Step 2 - filter

Step 3 - sort

Then power query will generate a single SQL statement that does all 3 steps as a single query.

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@Fatimah wrote:

 if they are being processed in parallel, is there a way to make them processed one by one?

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The bigger question is why you would want to do this? It will make the whole process slower and less efficient. 

[Fatimah]

Thank you for your repley. Actually, thie thing is that I have a report with too many steps and I am unable to refresh it and I do belive that the reason is that because there is a step is takeing too lng to be processed so the Power BI goes to then next step and the next step needs an outcome from the step before so in this way the update fails. That is why I need the to process the steps one by one.

[v-binbinyu-msft]

Hi @Fatimah ,

For import type connection, when you refresh the report:

1. Power BI Desktop will get the latestd data from datasource with Power Query Connector

2. then will apply the steps in Power Query Pane that you do

4. when all the steps execute completely, the data will load into Power BI, and all the report visual will refresh

Best regards,
Community Support Team_ Binbin Yu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Fatimah]

Thank you for  your answer. 

I have one question regarding point number 2. are the steps in power query are being applied one by one or are thay being applies in parallel?

[d_gosbell]

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@Fatimah wrote:

Thank you for  your answer. 

I have one question regarding point number 2. are the steps in power query are being applied one by one or are thay being applies in parallel?

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it could be either. It depends on the steps and the connector that you are using. It will do as much in parallel as it can.

[Fatimah]

is there a way to force it to process step by step?

[d_gosbell]

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@Fatimah wrote:

is there a way to force it to process step by step?

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Why? You could possibly, manually insert Table.Buffer() calls into the code, but that will just make everything slower and consume way more resources than it should.