United States Canada 877 849 1850
International +1 678 648 3113
AccelebrateAccelebrate
Expand menu

How to Consolidate Multiple Connections Into One Connection In Power BI Desktop

See our list of Power BI
Training Courses 

for private training for 3 or more people at your site or online.

When you import multiple tables and/or worksheets from Excel into Power BI Desktop, you end up with one connection per table/worksheet. Thus, if you import twenty tables you will have twenty connections.

The same applies if you were to import multiple tables from a SQL Server database. The problem arises if the source data changes – for example, an Excel workbook may be moved to OneDrive, or you want to switch from your development to your production SQL Server, in readiness for publishing the Power BI Desktop model to PowerBI.com. You must find and update every single connection. Here is a way of having just the one connection, making life simpler and less error prone.
Steps:

  1. Select the Source query step in Power Query for any of the tables and copy the content of the formula bar.

    step 1


    step 1


  2. Create a new blank query by clicking New Source, Blank Query – by default it's called Query1. Paste into the formula bar, and rename Query1 to Connection. This query will only have the one step, Source. Optionally, you can disable loading this new query by right-clicking and disabling Enable load.

    step 2

    step 2


  3. For every other table apart from Connection, change the Source step to = Connection in the formula bar.

    step 3

    step 3


Now you only need change the connection for the Source step of the new Connection query instead of multiple times as the source data changes.

Learn faster

Our live, instructor-led lectures are far more effective than pre-recorded classes

Satisfaction guarantee

If your team is not 100% satisfied with your training, we do what's necessary to make it right

Learn online from anywhere

Whether you are at home or in the office, we make learning interactive and engaging

Multiple Payment Options

We accept check, ACH/EFT, major credit cards, and most purchase orders

Subscribe to our newsletter  

Recent Training Locations

Alabama

Birmingham

Huntsville

Montgomery

Alaska

Anchorage

Arizona

Phoenix

Tucson

Arkansas

Fayetteville

Little Rock

California

Los Angeles

Oakland

Orange County

Sacramento

San Diego

San Francisco

San Jose

Colorado

Boulder

Colorado Springs

Denver

Connecticut

Hartford

DC

Washington

Florida

Fort Lauderdale

Jacksonville

Miami

Orlando

Tampa

Georgia

Atlanta

Augusta

Savannah

Hawaii

Honolulu

Idaho

Boise

Illinois

Chicago

Indiana

Indianapolis

Iowa

Cedar Rapids

Des Moines

Kansas

Wichita

Kentucky

Lexington

Louisville

Louisiana

New Orleans

Maine

Portland

Maryland

Annapolis

Baltimore

Frederick

Hagerstown

Massachusetts

Boston

Cambridge

Springfield

Michigan

Ann Arbor

Detroit

Grand Rapids

Minnesota

Minneapolis

Saint Paul

Mississippi

Jackson

Missouri

Kansas City

St. Louis

Nebraska

Lincoln

Omaha

Nevada

Las Vegas

Reno

New Jersey

Princeton

New Mexico

Albuquerque

New York

Albany

Buffalo

New York City

White Plains

North Carolina

Charlotte

Durham

Raleigh

Ohio

Akron

Canton

Cincinnati

Cleveland

Columbus

Dayton

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City

Tulsa

Oregon

Portland

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Rhode Island

Providence

South Carolina

Charleston

Columbia

Greenville

Tennessee

Knoxville

Memphis

Nashville

Texas

Austin

Dallas

El Paso

Houston

San Antonio

Utah

Salt Lake City

Virginia

Alexandria

Arlington

Norfolk

Richmond

Washington

Seattle

Tacoma

West Virginia

Charleston

Wisconsin

Madison

Milwaukee

Alberta

Calgary

Edmonton

British Columbia

Vancouver

Manitoba

Winnipeg

Nova Scotia

Halifax

Ontario

Ottawa

Toronto

Quebec

Montreal

Puerto Rico

San Juan

Accelebrate
© 2013-2024 Accelebrate, LLC - All rights reserved. All trademarks are owned by their respective owners.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA. The collection of data and its use is described in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.