How to show old data

Power BI
1

Hi guys!

Is it possible to make power bi not show the newest data and show the older version instead? I want it so that if there is an error in the fact table in power query data won’t load. Currently what’s happening is that if it is an error power bi just returns it as a blank.

Instead of the current version which has a blank, I want users to instead see the older version which doesn’t have any blanks. Any ideas?

2

Hi @kenyatta67 - You may want to try Error Handling in Power Query or if/else statement in Power Query.

Using Error Handling or if/else you can show the previous step that doesn’t have any errors.

For Error Handling, refer https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/error-handling

Thanks
Ankit J

3

HI @kenyatta67 I would create a table/matrix that would throw out the exceptions/errors that compromised the data quality. You can then check your source data, make amends and reload.

4

Yes, it is definitely possible. But the key to achieving it lies primarily in the setup at your data source and within your ETL process rather than in the report layer.

One approach is implementing a data versioning system within your data source. In this system, each version of your data is assigned a unique identifier, like an incremented integer or a timestamp. Here’s how it generally works:

  1. As part of your ETL pipeline, include a step to check for errors in newly processed data.
  2. If the new data are error-free, update the version identifier to reflect this new ‘valid’ version (e.g., from version 1.0 to 2.0). If an error is detected, do not update the version identifier thereby signaling that these new data should not be used.
  3. Use Power Query to connect to your data source. The query should be designed to fetch the data associated with the most recent ‘valid’ version identifier. This means your report will always load the latest, error-free version of the data.

So, for instance, if your data is currently at version 1.0 and the next update is processed without issues, the version identifier is updated to 2.0, and Power BI will load this version. However, if the subsequent batch has errors, the version identifier remains at 2.0 as this batch does not receive a new version identifier due to the errors. Thus, when Power BI refreshes, it continues to use the 2.0 data, recognizing it as the latest reliable version.

This ensures users always see the most recent, error-free data in their reports.

1 Like
5

Hi @HufferD ,

Is there a way for power bi to not load data if there is any error within the report? Thinking that instead of running v1 and v2 which might be very complicated query wise. This might be more practical.

Any ideas?