Understanding the interactions between Excel and Power BI

[Simon_Lou]

When importing data from Excel (and refreshing), would Power BI ever break an Excel file?  Can it be said that the Excel file is only being 'looked at' by Power BI and the Excel file will be unaffected?  Also, if a number of Power BI Desktop files are looking ar the same excel data source, will there be any performance issues?

Many thanks,

Simon_Lou

[v-haibl-msft]

@Simon_Lou

Based on my test, the Excel file still can be edited when importing or refreshing. So the Excel file should only being looked at.

Best Regards,

Herbert

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

My understanding is that Power BI simply reads the excel file.  There shouldn't be a risk of breaking those files.  Once it has opened the excel file, it will make a local cache of the information.  So there should be no performance hit, apart from the initial grabbing of the data, or whenever you need to grab the data updates.

[Simon_Lou]

@Anonymous Thanks for clarifying this. Regarding the performance hit from the inital grabbing of the data and the refreshing. Is this performance hit only to Power BI and not the excel file?

[Anonymous]

Yes that should be correct.