Refining a data module

The initial data module that you create manually or using intent modeling might contain data that is not required for your reporting purposes. Your goal is to create a data module that contains only the data that meets your reporting requirements and that is properly formatted and presented.

For example, you can delete some tables from your initial data module, or add different tables. You can also apply different data formatting, filter and group the data, and change the metadata properties.

You can refine your data module by applying the following modifications:

  • Add or delete tables.
  • Edit or create new relationships between tables.
  • Change column properties.
  • Create basic and custom calculations.
  • Create navigation paths.
  • Define filters.
  • Group data.
  • Clean the text data.
  • Hide tables and columns.

You can initiate these actions from the Data module panel or from the diagram.

When working in a data module, you can use the undo Icon to undo an action and redo Icon to redo an action. actions in the application bar to revert or restore changes to the data module in the current editing session. You can undo or redo up to 20 times.

Source panel

The source panel shows the sources of data that were selected when the data module was created. The types of sources can include other data modules, data servers, uploaded files, data sets, and packages.

Except for packages, you can expand the specific source to view its tables and columns. Drag tables onto the data module panel or onto the diagram to add them to the data module.

Data module panel

The data module tree shows the tables and columns of data that is included in the data module. This is the primary space for editing the data module.

Click the context menu icon for the module, table, or column to view its modeling and editing context menu options. Here you can start joining tables, creating filters and calculations, or renaming and deleting items.

Click the intent modeling icon icon for intent modeling in the panel toolbar to add tables to your data module. Intent-driven modeling proposes tables to include in the module that are based on matches between the terms you supply and metadata in the underlying sources.

Diagram

The diagram is a graphical representation of table relationships in a data module. You can use the diagram to examine the relationships, edit the data module, and view the cardinality information for the relationships.

Right-click a table in the diagram to view the table context menu that can be your starting point for creating joins or filters, renaming the table, viewing the table properties, or removing it from the module.

Click any table join to see the join summary information that includes the matching keys. When you right-click the join line, the context menu appears with options for editing or deleting the join.

Select the Cardinality check box to show the cardinality of relationships between different tables in your data module. Move the Degrees of separation slider. Depending on the slider position, the diagram shows different distances of relationships between tables.

Data view

You can use the data view to examine the actual data in table columns and rows.

Select a table in the data module tree or in the diagram, and click the grid icon data try icon to open the data view.

Validation view

You can use the validation view to examine errors that are identified by the validation process.

The messages are displayed after you start the Validate operation anywhere in the modeling user interface, and the failed validation icon is displayed for tables, columns, expressions, or joins where errors are discovered.