Database Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Loading External
Data into Power Pivot
In This Chapter
Importing from relational databases
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Importing from flat files
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Loading data from other data sources
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Refreshing and managing external data connections
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In Chapter 3, you loaded the data already contained within the workbook in which you're working.
But as you discover in this chapter, you're not limited to using only the data that already exists in your
Excel workbook.
Power Pivot has the ability to reach outside the workbook and import data found in external data
sources. Indeed, what makes Power Pivot so powerful is its ability to consolidate data from disparate
data sources and build relationships among them. This means you can theoretically create a Power
Pivot Data Model that contains some data from an SQL Server table, some data from a Microsoft
Access database, and even data from a one-off text file.
In this chapter, we show you how to import external data into your Power Pivot Data Models.
Loading Data from Relational Databases
Relational databases are one of the more common data sources used by Excel analysts. It's not diffi-
cult to find an analyst who frequently uses data from Microsoft Access, SQL Server, or Oracle data-
bases. In this section, we walk through the steps for loading data from external database systems.
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