PQ #1 – Getting started with Power Query
POWER QUERY
Welcome to my first article in the Power Query category !
My goal is to share my insights, best practices, and tips about Power Query, either through my own content or by sharing existing resources (No need to reinvent the wheel 😊).
What is Power Query ?
As defined by Microsoft (1), “Power Query is a data transformation and data preparation engine”. It allows you to retrieve data from various sources, process and clean it, and then load it into another tool or platform.
If you have an accounting background like me, your first encounter with Power Query is most likely to be in Excel or Power BI.
Why should you learn Power Query ?
According to this PWC article (2), “more than half of an employee’s day can be spent on low-level data preparation tasks to convert data to a useable format”. By using Power Query, you can save significant time by standardizing and automating some data preparation steps for future analysis.
Furthermore, Power Query is very easy to learn and already integrated in Excel, which makes the learning curve smoother and more accessible for users who are already familiar with Excel.
How to learn Power Query ?
I recommend three sources to get started with Power Query.
Microsoft has a lot of training materials. I would recommend to browse their catalog of courses, and I would start with this one here.
Once you are comfortable with the basics of Power Query, make it to the next level by buying the book “Collect, Combine, and Transform Data Using Power Query in Excel and Power BI” by Gil Raviv.
Finally, when you entered the pass to Mastery, I would recommend the book “The Definitive Guide to Power Query (M)” by Gregory Deckler, Rick de Groot, and Melissa de Korte.
Sources & Definitions:
What is power query? - power query (no date) Power Query | Microsoft Learn. Available at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/power-query-what-is-power-query (Accessed: 01 June 2024).
Digital Intelligence: How to make your analytics functions more efficient and cost-effective (no date) PwC. Available at: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/financial-services/library/analytics-and-automation.html (Accessed: 01 June 2024).
