1. R in Power BI

2. Eric Bragas, Jr. DesignMind BI Consultant
Trainer for Power BI, Master Data Management, other BI topics
SQL Saturday
Power BI Dashboard In A Day
In-depth MDM
Passionate about learning, design, and data

3. Agenda What is R in Power BI? When to use R in Power BI?
How to use R in Power BI?
Setup
Data Source
Script Visual
Transformation
R-powered Custom Visuals
Other
External IDEs
Supported Packages in PBI Service

4. What is R?
“R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics”
Capabilities include
Statistical Analysis
Modeling and
Data Visualization
Wiki:

5. What is Power BI? Microsoft’s Self-Service BI application
Capabilities include
Connecting to a variety of data sources
Data transformation through PowerQuery
Data modeling
Data Analysis via DAX
Power BI:

6. What is R in Power BI An intersection of two tools
Power BI provides multiple touch points for R
Allows R scripts as data sources
Data transformations as part of Power Query steps
R visualizations
R-powered custom visualizations
Unlimited R script options when working locally
Limited support for reports published to Power BI Service
Does not include/require Microsoft R Server

7. When to use R in Power BI
No dedicated modeling capability (read: small R implementations)
Robust visualizations; beyond what Power BI can provide
Augment Power BI, don’t try to replace it
Data manipulation beyond DAX capabilities
Integrating R modeling capabilities into PowerQuery

8. How to Use R in PBI

9. Setup Install R - https://cran.r-project.org/ (optional) Install R IDE
R Studio
R Tools for Visual Studio (RTVS)
Install R Packages
Power BI settings
Options > R Scripting

10. R Script Data Source Reference all dependent packages
Only data frames are imported (not vectors)
All data frames available in navigator
NA is translated to NULL
30 minute time out
What other use cases do you have?

11. DEMO

12. R Script Visualization
Augment Power BI visualizations using R
base
ggplot2
ggmap
etc.
Rendered to default R device
Interactive and animated visuals not supported

13. DEMO

14. R Script Transformation
Allow you to manipulate data via Query Editor steps
Can be used to
clean data
generate additional values ie. model results
run any R script ie. write.csv()
Executes as part of the query, so only when the data set is refreshed

15. DEMO

16. Other Resources External IDEs
R Studio
R Tools for Visual Studio
Supported Packages in the Power BI Service
List of supported packages
Request additional packages
Additional Resources
Download R from CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network) or MRAN (Microsoft R Application Network)
Power BI visuals in R
Additional visualizations