Microsoft Power BI Cookbook: Convert raw data into business insights with updated techniques, use cases, and best practices

Very excellent study material for anyone interested in data analysis especially on the use of Power Business Intelliegence for data analysis and visualization. I strongly recommend this book.

This book is not just about creating reports—it challenges Power BI professionals to refine their development approaches. The There’s More… section is particularly insightful, covering sorting attributes in visuals, optimizing relational fact tables, diagnosing queries, extending the M library, and enhancing reports with DAX and hierarchies. The discussion on hybrid tables is another highlight, demonstrating how Power BI efficiently manages real-time and historical data. Some key takeaways: ✅ Optimizing Data Models – Covers best practices like star schemas and DirectQuery for improved performance. ✅ Dynamic User-Based Visibility – A must-read for those working with Row-Level Security (RLS). ✅ Advanced Analytics & Custom Visuals – Includes AI-driven insights, storytelling, and statistical analyses. ✅ Power BI + Microsoft Fabric – Explores Fabric’s data engineering capabilities and SQL endpoints. ✅ Deploying & Distributing Power BI Content – Covers Teams integration, governance, and content distribution. The book also introduces DENEB (which is gaining traction in the Power BI community) and explores integrations with Excel, PowerPoint, Dataverse, Dynamics 365, PowerApps, and Power Automate. While it doesn’t cover some Preview features like TMDL format and PBIP project files, the depth of content makes it an invaluable resource for both beginners and experienced Power BI professionals. If you’re looking to master Power BI beyond dashboards and reporting, this book is a great investment!

As a person who has been using #PowerBI for a while now, I had the privilege to read this book which is a powerhouse of advanced techniques, optimisation strategies, and enterprise-level best practices. I read the digital copy previously, but this time I wanted to focus on key chapters for advanced features: 🔹 📊 Chapter 3 – Building a Power BI Semantic Model Essential for scalability and performance tuning. Covers star schema design, aggregations, and metadata configuration. 🔹 📅 Chapter 6 – Mastering Time Intelligence Advanced DAX formulas for time-based calculations. Calculation groups for simplified logic. 🔹 🔐 Chapter 8 – Dynamic User-Based Security Implementing Row-Level Security (RLS) for data governance. Dynamic filtering for personalised user access. 🔹 📈 Chapter 9 – Advanced Analytics & AI Visuals Utilising AI-powered insights, clustering, and anomaly detection. Embedding R/Python visuals for predictive analytics. 🔹 🚀 Chapter 11 – Optimising Power BI Solutions Performance tuning with efficient DAX, incremental refresh, and query folding. Strategies for handling large datasets. 🔹 📤 Chapter 12 – Deployment & Governance Managing workspaces, automation, and data gateways. Seamless collaboration & distribution strategies. 🔹 🔗 Chapter 13 – Power BI Integration Embedding reports in PowerPoint, Teams, and Power Apps. Automating workflows with Power Automate. 💡 In my opinion, A must-have for Power BI experts who want to enhance performance, implement security, and integrate BI solutions at scale. This book is not just about dashboards—it’s about building powerful, efficient, and enterprise-ready solutions. 🚀 Would I recommend it? Absolutely! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Many thanks, Shruthi Shetty Vignesh Raju 💯🚀🎯📈 Packt

I paid £45~ for this book. Not happy with the quality of the print paper. Its made from cheap paper material and will not stand upright if it needs to. Im going to get a refund on it.. its put me off buying any paperback books from amazon.

This book is an excellent guide for enhancing your Power BI skills, offering a comprehensive collection of practical recipes to tackle real-world business intelligence challenges. The content is well-organized, taking you from the basics to advanced topics such as data modeling and DAX for complex data analysis. Each chapter focuses on specific functionalities or tasks, making it easy for readers to find relevant information and apply best practices. The cookbook-style instructions are straightforward and easy to follow, allowing users to apply the steps directly to their projects. The real-life examples provided illustrate how to effectively utilize Power BI features to simplify and improve your work. With the latest edition incorporating all new features and enhancements, this book provides valuable tips on how to excel at analysing any type of data using Power BI visuals and functions. Highly recommended for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of Power BI. And guess what? It’s in colour! So you won’t just learn a lot—you’ll have a colourful time doing it. 🌈

I'm largely self-taught on Power BI but this is a great book to really kick off right the way - all the way through from installing the software and other supporting tools like Report Builder, building a model and report and then improving and documenting it. Each chapter is very well laid out in a clear format - I like the structure with "Getting ready", "How it works" and "There's more" in nice bitesize chunks with each chapter closing out with a good Summary. There are links to GitHub so you can do the doing which works really well. There are some great modelling techniques in this book for both the beginner and more advanced user. Definitely another great addition to the bookshelf with nice colour screenshots, well laid out as with other Packt books I've read and does a great job of getting the technical aspects articulated clearly.

This by far is the most helpful Power Query book I've purchased thus far. ( I purchased, "Mastering Microsoft Power BI", "The Definitive Guide to Power Query (M)", "Microsoft Power BI Cookbook" and others). Daniil and Gil packed this book with excellent examples. Be sure to download the companion content files and distribute them on your system as instructed. I look forward to all future material written by the authors, Daniil Maslyuk and Gil Raviv. In my opinion you will benefit most if you have some prior Power Query experience; particularly with the "M" language. M is a functional language designed for data transformation and manipulation. For this prerequisite I suggest going through the book, "The Definitive Guide to Power Query (M)".

Great book! It is a practical guide for anyone looking to improve their Power BI skills. It offers step-by-step recipes to solve real-world data challenges, from basic visualizations to advanced modeling techniques. The updated content covers best practices and new features, making it a great resource for both beginners and experienced users. A must-have for turning raw data into valuable insights.

Not recommended for beginners... But it is a great book! Color Images are are a great complement!

I was eager to try this book to help augment my power bi training but since the book starts on page 139, maybe most of the more helpful information was on pages 1-138. I sent pictures to customer service to see if I could get a replacement and they told me the window for return closed. Very frustrating.

I bought this book expecting a solid learning resource, but it arrived with incomplete pages. Several sections are cut off and important content is missing, making it impossible to follow properly. This is not a minor issue—it directly affects the value of the book as a study tool. It’s unacceptable that such a defective copy is sold as new. Amazon should improve quality control for printing and distribution, because this was a very disappointing experience.