Using Power Query, you can import, reshape, and cleanse any data from a simple interface, so you can mine that data for all of its hidden insights. Power Query is embedded in Excel, Power BI, and other Microsoft products, and leading Power Query expert Gil Raviv will help you make the most of it. Discover how to eliminate time-consuming manual data preparation, solve common problems, avoid pitfalls, and more. Then, walk through several complete analytics challenges, and integrate all your skills in a realistic chapter-length final project. By the time you’re finished, you’ll be ready to wrangle any data–and transform it into actionable knowledge.

Prepare and analyze your data the easy way, with Power Query

·         Quickly prepare data for analysis with Power Query in Excel (also known as Get & Transform) and in Power BI

·         Solve common data preparation problems with a few mouse clicks and simple formula edits

·         Combine data from multiple sources, multiple queries, and mismatched tables

·         Master basic and advanced techniques for unpivoting tables

·         Customize transformations and build flexible data mashups with the M formula language

·         Address collaboration challenges with Power Query

·         Gain crucial insights into text feeds

·         Streamline complex social network analytics so you can do it yourself

For all information workers, analysts, and any Excel user who wants to solve their own business intelligence problems.

Gil Raviv is a Microsoft MVP and a Power BI blogger at https://DataChant.com. As a Senior Program Manager on the Microsoft Excel Product team, Gil led the design and integration of Power Query as the next-generation Get Data and data-wrangling technology in Excel 2016, and he has been a devoted M practitioner ever since.

With 20 years of software development experience, and four U.S. patents in the fi elds of social networks, cyber security, and analytics, Gil has held a variety of innovative roles in cyber security and data analytics, and he has delivered a wide range of software products, from advanced threat detection enterprise systems to protection of kids on Facebook.

In his blog, DataChant.com, Gil has been chanting about Power BI and Power Query since he moved to his new home in the Chicago area in early 2016. As a Group Manager in Avanade’s Analytics Practice, Gil is helping Fortune 500 clients create modern self-service analytics capability and solutions by leveraging Power BI and Azure.

You can contact Gil at gilra@datachant.com.

Part I Transforming Data
Chapter 1: Introduction to Power Query
Chapter 2: Basic Data Challenges
Chapter 3: Combining Data from Multiple Sources
Chapter 4: Unpivoting and Transforming Data
Chapter 5: Pivoting & Handling Multiline Records

Section 2: Exploring Data
Chapter 6:  Ad-Hoc Analysis
Chapter 7: Using Query Editor to Further Explore Data

Section 3: Scaling Up Queries for Production or Larger Data Sets
Chapter 8: Introduction to the M Query Language
Chapter 9: Lightweight modification of M formulas to improve query robustness

Section 4: Real Life Challenges
Chapter 10: Solving Real-Life Data Challenges 
Chapter 11: Social Listening
Chapter 12: Text Analytics
Chapter 13: Concluding Exercise – Hawaii Tourism Data