Part V: Understanding Power Pivot and Power Query
FIGURE 38.16
Power Query has the ability to connect to a wide array of text, database, and Internet data
sources.
In the rest of this chapter, you will explore the various connection types that can be lever-
aged to import external data.
Importing data from files
Organizational data is often kept in files such as text files, CSV files, and even other Excel
workbooks. It’s not uncommon to use these kinds of files as data sources for data analysis.
Power Query offers several connection types that enable the importing of data from exter-
nal files.
Keep in mind that the files you import don’t necessarily have to be on your own PC. You can import files on network
drives as well as cloud repositories such as Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
Getting data from Excel workbooks
You can import data from other Excel workbooks by going to the Excel Ribbon and selecting
Data ➪ Get Data ➪ From File ➪ From Workbook.
Note that you can import any kind of Excel file, including macro-enabled workbooks and
template workbooks. Power Query will not bring in charts, PivotTables, shapes, VBA code,
or any other objects that may exist within a workbook. It simply imports the data found in
the used cell ranges of the workbook.
