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POWER BI
DATA
MODELING
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Data Modeling is one of the four pillars of Power BI report development and is central
to the design and purpose of every report. Improving your data modeling skills will
greatly enhance the effectiveness of your reports and the clarity and usefulness of
their outputs.

Layout

Setting up a data model starts with laying-out and organizing your tables. Two of the
approaches commonly used are Star Schema and Waterfall.

1. Star Schema Approach

The Star Schema approach gets its name as it resembles a star with the fact tables at
the center of the star and the dimension (or lookup) tables at the points ofthe star.
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In this example, you can see that the fact table (Sales) is at the center while the
dimension tables are positionedaround it, making the layout resemble a “star”.

Example:
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2. Snowflake Approach

Another layout for the tables in a Power BI data model that still uses a star schema is the
Snowflake approach. In this layout, lookup tables are placed at the top with the fact
tables below.

Benefits of this approach include:

Tables are arranged in rows (Dimension tables in the first row, Fact tables in
the second row)
Easy to visualize the dimensions “falling” to thefact table
Relationships are displayed making it easier to seeerrors

Recommended practices when using this approachinclude:

Delete any relationships autogenerated by Power BI Manually create all

relationships

With the layout, you’ll always see:

• Lookup tables at the top

• Fact tables in the middle

• Measure tables on the right

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Relationships

To fully understand how relationships work when it comes to data modelling in

Power BI, you need to knowthe following:

1. Use the Manage Relationships Dialog Box

The Manage Relationships dialog allows you to see the full list of relationships
between all tables and columns. Here you can easily spot and correct the keys
(columns) used to join tables. You’ll also see (and can change) the state (active,
inactive) of each relationship. To open this dialog box, click the Manage Relationships
icon in the relationships section of the main toolbar in the model view.
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2. Set the Key, Cardinality, And Direction

Power BI automatically chooses a common key between two tables and sets defaults
for cardinality and cross- filter direction according to your data. You can use the
Edit Relationship dialog to adjust the key, cardinality, and direction of each
relationship.

Note that each relationship will ideally have a one-to- many or many-to-one
cardinality and single direction.

Here we see the relationship between the Sales andChannels tables:

Power BI often selects “single” for the cross-filter direction, but in some cases, it will
choose the “both”
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option. If you see that Both has been chosen, confirm that the data has been loaded
and transformed as intended and change it to Single, if possible, in your particular
situation.

One-to-many relationships are denoted by a single arrowhead from the “one” table
to the “many” tables. Bi- directional relationships, which are denoted by double-
directional arrowheads, should be avoided, if possible, as they can lead to inconsistent
results and often require more complicated DAX code.
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3. Set the Active/Inactive State

There can only be one active relationship between two related tables, but there can
be many inactive relationships.

In the example below, the Sales (Invoice Date) ? Dates (Date) relationship has
been inactivated and the Sales (Order Date) ? Dates (Date) relationship has been
activated.

Note that you need to deactivate a relationship first before you can activate
another relationship.

You can enable an inactive relationship on-demand in DAX measures by using the
USERELATIONSHIP function.
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Measure Tables

Measure tables are added using the Enter Data icon in the Data section of the home
toolbar.

To add a measure, right-click the desired measure tableand click New Measure.

When there are many measure tables in your model, you can simplify identifying the
desired measure in the Fields pane by collapsing and expanding each measure table or
using the search box.
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Key Columns

Columns that will be used in relationships are often given the suffix **Key** for easy
identification. When doing your data loading and data transformation work, assign the
same name and data type to linking columns.

Link only columns that have the same name, such as Customer Key. Avoid columns
that end with an ID or codeas they may mean different things in different tables.

Another best practice is to use integers whenever possible as it leverages the storage
format used internally by Power BI and is often faster.
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Column Visibility

Setting the Column Visibility allows you to:

Hide all linking columns

Hide all columns that end-users don’t use in visuals, especially those in Fact
tables

This helps to reduce errors by preventing users from selecting “naked” columns and
instead selecting the measures that have been created in the model (e.g., those for all
SUMs and COUNTs, etc.). This is especially useful if you plan to publish a report or
data set for otherpeople to use.

Hidden columns will appear grayed-out in the Data pane (formerly the Fields pane), an
example of which is the Sales table below:
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To hide a column, click the table of the column you want to hide. Then, right-click on
that column and choose Hide.

To view a hidden column, right click on the Fields pane and click View Hidden.
You’ll then see the grayed-out column(s) among the list.
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Conclusion

These tips will help you to create more organized layouts which make it easier to
understand the relationships in your data set.

Once you’ve fully grasped how to set up data models, you can easily produce
outstanding reports for end users n
i your organization
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