This is a quick post to share something that I did just now and that worked. I tried to search for some sample but couldn't find. Maybe my search query was not that right...

Let's say you use an Excel workbook as your data source in Power BI. Than you collaborate with a team and as we know, not everyone has the same folder structure setup. This can cause a problem when trying to Refresh data in Power BI. How can we "overcome" this in a simple way?

Just create a Power BI parameter and pass it to the Power Query responsible for opening the Excel workbook.

In the following printscreen you see that I created a parameter called Excel workbook path. I set this path to where the workbook is located in my machine.

Then we can use this parameter in Power Query like this:

= Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(#"Excel workbook path"&"Contingency Drawdown.xlsx"), null, true)

I was having some difficulty trying to make the string concatenation work, that is, joining the parameter with the workbook name. Tried some variants and got it working with the string concatenation token &.

As you see the workbook name doesn't change (it's hardcoded) however the path is customizable by the parameter "Excel workbook path".

We just need to change this parameter value to point to our folder structure and we're done. Now we can make use of this parameter to open all Excel sheets (tables in Power BI) in a single shot.

Hope it helps.

References:

Power BI Introduction: Working with Parameters in Power BI Desktop —Part 4

This is the 3rd post of a series of posts about NPOI 2.0.

This time we’re going to see how easy it’s to copy cells, rows and even sheets. As a bonus you also get to see the process for workbook merging/combining.

There’s nothing much to say so we’re going directly distill some “codez” in front of you…

Copying Cells and Rows
Here’s what it gets to copy Cells and Rows:

using NPOI.HSSF.UserModel;
using NPOI.SS.UserModel;
using System.IO;

namespace CopyRowsAndCellsInXls
{
    class Program
    {
        static HSSFWorkbook hssfWorkbook;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            InitializeWorkbook();

            ISheet sheet = hssfWorkbook.GetSheetAt(0);

            ICell cell = sheet.GetRow(4).GetCell(1);
            cell.CopyCellTo(3); // Copy B5 to D5
            
            IRow row = sheet.GetRow(3);
            row.CopyCell(0, 1); // Copy A4 to B4

            sheet.CopyRow(0,1); // Copy row A to row B; row B will be moved to row C automatically

            WriteToFile();
        }

        static void WriteToFile()
        {
            //Write the workbook’s data stream to the root directory
            FileStream file = new FileStream(@"test.xls", FileMode.Create);

            hssfWorkbook.Write(file);

            file.Close();
        }

        static void InitializeWorkbook()
        {
            using (var fs = File.OpenRead(@"Data\test.xls"))
            { 
                hssfWorkbook = new HSSFWorkbook(fs);
            }
        }
    }
}

The code above was taken from CopyRowsAndCellsInXls sample project.

Copying Sheets
Here’s what it gets to copy Sheets:

using NPOI.HSSF.UserModel;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace CopySheet
{
    class Program
    {
        [STAThread]
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Excel worksheet merge/combine sample
            // You will be prompted to select two Excel files/workbooks. test.xls will be created that combines/merges the sheets from those two workbooks.
            // Note: This example does not check for duplicate sheet names. Your test files must have different sheet names.
            OpenFileDialog ofd = new OpenFileDialog();
            ofd.Filter = "Excel document (*.xls)|*.xlsx";
            ofd.Title = "Select first Excel document";

            if (ofd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
            {
                HSSFWorkbook book1 = new HSSFWorkbook(new FileStream(ofd.FileName, FileMode.Open));

                ofd.Title = "Select second Excel document";

                if (ofd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
                {
                    HSSFWorkbook book2 = new HSSFWorkbook(new FileStream(ofd.FileName, FileMode.Open));

                    HSSFWorkbook merged = new HSSFWorkbook();

                    for (int i = 0; i < book1.NumberOfSheets; i++)
                    {
                        HSSFSheet sheet1 = book1.GetSheetAt(i) as HSSFSheet;

                        sheet1.CopyTo(merged, sheet1.SheetName, true, true);
                    }
                    for (int j = 0; j < book2.NumberOfSheets; j++)
                    {
                        HSSFSheet sheet2 = book2.GetSheetAt(j) as HSSFSheet;

                        sheet2.CopyTo(merged, sheet2.SheetName, true, true);
                    }

                    merged.Write(new FileStream("merged.xls", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite));
                }                
            }
        }        
    }
}

The code above was taken from CopySheet sample project.

To go deeper and explore all the features available for Excel 2007 you can check a handful of sample projects here (as of now 24 sample projects showcasing many available features):
https://github.com/tonyqus/npoi/tree/master/examples/xssf

Open the file NPOI.XSSF.Examples.2010.sln to have all them show up in Visual Studio’s Solution Explorer.